Abstract
The osmotic heat engine（OHE）is a closed-loop pressure-retarded osmosis（PRO）process with a thermally regenerable draw solution（DS）. To obtain the high power density of OHE, high water permeable semi-permeable membranes and DS with high osmotic pressure are necessary. In this study, we investigated the performance of ultrafiltration（UF）membranes as a semi-permeable membrane for an OHE system using polyelectrolyte solution as DS. The osmotic-driven water flux of UF membranes was evaluated using several membranes with different molecular weight cut-off（MWCO）and several polyelectrolytes with different molecular weights（MW）as model DS. High potential of UF membranes as semi-permeable membranes for OHE was shown in the combination with solute of sufficiently larger MW than MWCO of UF membranes.
