Abstract Salinity gradient energy (SGE) capture by reverse electrodialysis (RED) is an emerging technology to advance the phaseout of conventional water-intensive energy sources in desalination industry. This paper assesses SGE recovery potential of an up-scaled RED system in seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plants. Using a detailed RED system's model (i) we conducted a parametric evaluation of feed's concentration, feed's flow rate, and temperature to identify the optimal working conditions of an industrial-scale RED unit; (ii) we estimated SGE recovery of a RED plant in SWRO plants distributed worldwide, adopting a single-stage arrangement of the RED units; (iii) finally, to enhance energy yield, we examined different RED plant's layouts in a specific SWRO plant. The results underline the merits of this modelling tool to assist SGE-RED implementation in the utmost scenarios. Regarding RED plant's layout, findings reveal that the series-parallel arrangement of the RED units improves the power output and energy yield of the system but requires more RED units. Hence, a systematic evaluation through optimization of the hybrid process's configuration both at plant's scale and at RED unit's scale is needed to properly determine RED's SGE recovery potential from waste streams in SWRO plants.

中文翻译：

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反电渗析回收海水淡化厂盐度梯度能量

摘要 通过反电渗析（RED）捕获盐度梯度能量（SGE）是一种新兴技术，可促进海水淡化行业淘汰传统耗水能源。本文评估了海水反渗透 (SWRO) 海水淡化厂中大型 RED 系统的 SGE 回收潜力。使用详细的 RED 系统模型 (i)，我们对进料浓度、进料流速和温度进行了参数评估，以确定工业规模 RED 装置的最佳工作条件；(ii) 我们估计了分布在世界各地的 SWRO 工厂中的 RED 工厂的 SGE 回收率，采用了 RED 装置的单级布置；(iii) 最后，为了提高能源产量，我们检查了特定 SWRO 工厂中不同的 RED 工厂布局。结果强调了此建模工具的优点，可帮助在最极端的情况下实施 SGE-RED。关于RED工厂的布局，研究结果表明，RED机组的串并联布置提高了系统的功率输出和能源产量，但需要更多的RED机组。因此，需要通过优化工厂规模和 RED 装置规模的混合工艺配置进行系统评估，以正确确定 RED 从 SWRO 工厂废物流中回收 SGE 的潜力。