Osmotic Flows and Their Application to Energy Conversion
Energy can be converted into a useful form by letting miscible
fluids of different compositions mix with each other. A major
natural source for such a process is the earth s river and ocean
water resources. For example, mixing 1 m3/s of river water and 1
m3/s of ocean water could theoretically supply 1.6 MW of power.
This process of mixing river and ocean water would provide
renewable, permanent, and practically waste-free power production.
An alternative source is provided by concentrated industrial
brines. Despite the great potential, energy conversion from mixing
species is not yet an economically viable energy conversion method.
This book consists of theoretical and experimental studies on
osmotic flows and their future application for energy conversion.
Dr. Ari Seppälä is a senior researcher at Helsinki University of Technology. His work covers thermodynamics, heat- and mass transfer phenomena and supercoolong properties of liquids.
