Paper No 1014 – Leveraging MultiSource Heat Pump Technology to Produce Electricity and/or Hydrogen Through Enhanced Reverse Electrodialysis Process – 14th IEA Heat Pump Conference, Chicago, USA
Reverse electrodialysis (RED) technology provides a way to harness clean and sustainable energy from salinity gradients. First introduced in 1954 [4], this technology has not been widely applied due to limitations requiring direct access to fresh and seawater. The novel approach of introducing a MultiSource heat pump technology into a RED-based system allows users to take full control of the salinity gradient by dissolving and regenerating the salt in a closed-loop system. The heat pump exploits otherwise wasted low-grade heat energy to simultaneously heat and cool salt solutions to produce electricity and/or hydrogen by reverse electrodialysis process. The untapped potential of excess heat as a source of energy is substantial, with Europe and The United States alone boasting an estimated 5791 TWh of accessible waste heat per year [13, 21, 22]. This innovative approach unleashes the full potential of salinity gradient energy, thus offering a solution to the current bottleneck of the seaside water source dependency. Approximately one-third of the global electricity is consumed by residential buildings [8,9]. The unique combination of the reverse electrodialysis process and MultiSource heat pump technology paves the way to significantly reduce energy consumption as well as greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions on a global scale. In this work, we will explore some of the theoretical aspects in more detail.