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The article unfortunately does not use the more common term for the "blue energy" principle: "osmotic power." The Wikipedia article on osmotic power explains t
by aazaa 7y ago
The article unfortunately does not use the more common term for the "blue energy" principle: "osmotic power."
The Wikipedia article on osmotic power explains the physical principles better:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmotic_power https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmotic_power
The Science article didn't explain very well why an estuary is required. The idea is apparently to have two bodies of water - with differing salinities - in close proximity. This happens near estuaries. The ocean provides water with high salt content. The outbound river provides water with low salt content. Those two sources of water in close proximity can either be used where they are or pumped into even closer proximity.
Place a membrane (like the carbon boron nanotube devices discussed in the article) between the two pools of water with different salt content. They may be housed inside a power plant or outside. Then capture the energy released from the movement of ions through the membrane. There appear to be different approaches for that last part.
In other words, the saltwater and freshwater sides of an estuary provide the two charge compartments of a very large battery.
The breakthrough here is a way to manufacture the high-performance membranes needed provide a path for the ions through this system.
- asdfman123 7y agoDo you need an estuary? Can't you just divert river water, put it next to salt water, and then you can produce power? In fact, the only place "estuary" is used in the article is in the image caption, and I assume they used it because it's tangentially related and it's a pretty picture. Really you just need a pool of salt water and a pool of freshwater, and those two things are easy to get where rivers flow to the sea.
- aaronblohowiak 7y ago> those two things are easy to get where rivers flow to the sea. Isn’t that an estuary?
- asdfman123 7y ago"An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea" I think of an estuary as that partially enclosed area, which is neither the river or the sea. But really all you need are those two things: the freshwater river, and the saltwater sea.
- riffraff 7y agoI think where "estuary" was used the correct term might have been "mouth", i.e. a river gets to the sea through a delta or estuary mouth. I am not confident enough with English to be sure though.
- ChuckMcM 7y agoAny river would work. An interesting application for LA or the Bay area