• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.31-39
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• 2023

Salinity gradient energy can be generated from a mixture of water streams with different salt concentrations by using reverse electrodialysis (RED). In this study, we evaluated the effect of stack size and number of cell pairs on the energy efficiency and specific energy of the RED process. Additionally, we studied the prementioned parameters to maximize the power density of RED. The performance of the RED stack which used a patterned ion exchange membrane, was evaluated as a function of stack size and feed flow rate. Moreover, it was noted that an increase in stack size increased the ion movement through the ion exchange membrane. Furthermore, an increase in feed flow rate led to a reduction in the concentration variation, resulting in an increase in OCV and power density. The energy efficiency and specific energy for 100 cells in the 10 × 10 cm² stack were the highest at 12% and 0.05 kWh/m³, respectively, while the power density from 0.33 cm/s to 5 × 5 cm² stack was the highest at 0.53 W/m². The study showed that the RED performance can be improved by altering the size of the stack and the number of cell pairs, thereby positively affecting energy efficiency and specific energy.