Development of a Four-Partitioned Permeator for Salinity Power Generation

Abstract

For the net power generation by the salinity concentration difference between sea and river waterusing the PRO system, the optimum feed ratio was obtained for the pressurized sea water type.The hollow fiber permeator was partitioned to get the minimum surface velocity for realizing thesalinity power generation. The relations among partition number, shell size, and bulk velocity ofsea water were introduced by using both the osmotic transport equations considering the internalpolarization in the membrane and equations for shell size, structure, and pressure loss.
Cylindrical 5130-type permeator of hollow fibers, of which the sea water passage is partitionedinto four, is selected for tests in laboratory. Experiments of sham power generation test show thatthe maximum power was obtained at the feed ratio near the designed point. This is due to theeffectiveness of the partition and the small pressure drop in the permeator.
In future it is important to develop the system of a large feed ratio and to develop the membrane of small internal polarization for a larger permeator.