A freshwater-saltwater battery.

[Guillermo]

I have just received this information and wanted to share it and receive feedback.
Does anyone have more information about this? Opinions?


Jun 6, 2011
A saltwater–freshwater battery
http://cerncourier.com/cws/article/cern/46048

A new type of battery based on the entropy difference between fresh and salty water could be the basis for a vast new source of renewable energy. Yi Cui of Stanford University and colleagues built their battery with one electrode made of sodium manganese oxide nanorods that selectively take up and release sodium ions, and a silver electrode that does the same for chloride ions. The electrodes can be put in fresh water and the battery charged, then moved to sea water where electrical energy can be extracted.

The cyclical process can be repeated indefinitely with a net gain in energy each cycle from the mixing of saltwater and freshwater, with efficiencies as high as 74%. Such batteries could produce as much as 13% of the current world energy consumption from places where fresh and salt water mix naturally.


Further reading

Fabio La Mantia et al. 2011 Nano Letters
doi:10.1021/nl200500s.

[Landlubber]

......good one, ta. It is going to be interesting very soon just how many other way will appear.....batteries and super capacitors are what is going to change our old oil habits.

[hoytedow]

Very interesting.