Energy Production by Reverse Electrodialysis Fed with treated Wastewater by Advanced Biological Process

Abstract

The present study investigated the reverse electrodialysis (RED) energy extraction potential with municipal wastewater treated by advanced biological process collected from the Atakoy wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and discharged at the Marmara Sea. The RED process resulted in a 24 hours average power density equivalent to 0.51 W.m(-2) using the wastewater as a diluted solution together with the Marmara Sea. For the same operation time, a synthetic solution mimicking both the wastewater and the Marmara Sea presented a power density of 0.59 W.m(-2). Due to the high quality of the treated wastewater, the power density did not decrease sharply within 24 hours of RED operation, and the SEM results showed a little deposition of pollutants on the ion exchange membranes (IEMs) surface but no structural damage was observed. This result projects a gross power of 800 kW as the power expected to be generated at Atakoy WWTP with an installation of an RED plant, which can cover part of the energy demand for the running of the Atakoy WWTP plant.