The question of "how to fuel the future" is a growing challenge. Identifying reliable energy resources that promote a clean energy economy is essential to offsetting the demand of non-renewable energy resources. For example, salinity gradients and low-grade heat are two largely untapped sources of potential energy. Advanced membrane-based processes such as pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) and reverse electrodialysis (RED) can convert the salinity gradient between two streams to useful energy/work. Membrane distillation (MD) is a thermally driven membrane process that can use low-grade heat (from power generation or industrial processes) to simultaneously concentrate a saline feed stream and produce distilled water. The current study aims to develop and test these three membrane-based processes (MD, PRO, and RED) that when hybridized in a closed-loop system, can utilize low-grade heat to produce useful work.
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