PLANT

Power consumption has been increased enormously across the world so the
power generation should be increased. There are many ways of power
generation.
Some of them leads to environmental pollution. So, non conventional power
plants must be encouraged.
 SOLAR

HYDRO
SOME TYPES OF NON-CONVENTIONAL POWER PLANTS

GEOTHERMAL WIND
All power plants shown above are effected by the climatic conditions
Cannot be operated through out year
a new type of power plant which is non conventional and can be operated 24/7 is

OSMOTIC POWER PLANT

 Osmotic power stands as one of the most promising and yet unexploited new,
renewable energy sources for the near future.
Osmotic power plant is literally WORLD CHANGING TECHNOLOGY.
The power plants are both noise and pollutant free.
 Osmotic power is a relatively new energy conversion concept even though osmosis,
a spontaneous process which takes place in all living organisms, has been known for
several hundred years.
 Technology development for the utilization of osmotic pressure in power
generation goes back only 30 – 35 years when scientists proposed methods for
osmotic energy conversion.
 Inventor & Researchers Of Osmotic Power Plant

Sidney Loeb Thor Thorsen Torleif Holt

The late US professor Sidney Loeb had the idea to use membranes for desalination in the
Early 1970s when he discovered that a similar process could be used to generate power. Back
then,power prices were low that no one was interested in investing to develop this technology.

Later on, the researchers Dr. Thor Thorsen and Dr. Torleif Holt at SINTEF began to
research osmotic power in 1996.
OSMOSIS:

Osmosis means passage of water from a region of high water concentration (often freshwater)
through a semi permeable membrane to a region of low water concentration (often NaCl).

The membrane only lets water molecules pass. Salt molecules, sand, silt and other contaminants
are prevented to do so.
When placing a semi -permeable membrane (i.e. a membrane that retains the salt ions but allows
water through) between reservoirs containing fresh water and sea water respectively, a net flow of
water towards the salt water side will be observed because of osmosis. If the saltwater compartment
has a fixed volume the pressure will increase towards a theoretical maximum of 26 bars.
This pressure is equivalent to 270 meters high water column.
FIRST OSMOTIC POWER PLANT PROTOTYPE BUILT IN
NORWAY
This is built by the company Statkraft, opened in November 2009.
SYSTEM ANALYSIS:
The flexibility and adaptability of the power plant has been of major interest.
There is a variety of different designs of a plant, and a selection of these has been modeled to
compare the efficiency and energy production. Below three alternatives are discussed and
the results from the simulations are given.

SUB SEA PRO PLANT

SEA LEVEL OSMOTIC POWER PLANT PRO PLANT BELOW THE SEA LEVEL
IMPORTANT PARTS IN OSMOTIC POWER PLANT:
The membrane is the heart of the technology.
Turbine is needed to generate electricity.
Pumps and pipes to transport water throughout the plant.
Water cleaning unit (to prevent clogged/damaged membranes).
Cleaning unit for the membranes (which must be washed regularly)
MEMBRANE DEVELOPMENT:
Membrane producing at least 4 W/m2 to produce power at a competitive price level
At starting of this concept, the modest efficiency of less than 0.1 W/m2.
The best prototype membranes are equivalent to 4 W/m2, although this has to be verified
in PRO operation.
PLANT CAPACITY:
To achieve an output of 1 MW, one cubic meter of freshwater (per second) must be mixed
with two cubic meters of seawater at 12 bar.
 As the technology is based on modules, the power plant can be scaled up or down according
to the available resources.

POWER GENERATION POTENTIAL:

Osmotic power has a global potential of 1600-1700 TWh annually.
Equivalent to 50 per cent of current power production in the EU.

Efficiency Of The Plant:

Plant Sea level Below sea level Sub-sea plant
location: (-5 meters) (-125 meters)
Energy 70% 81% 79%
efficiency

SITE SELECTION FOR PLANT CONSTURCTION:

Anywhere where clean freshwater runs into the sea.
Preferably close to consumers/the grid, along the coast, where the water in the rivers is often
very clean.
ADVANTAGES OF OSMOTIC POWER PLANT:

 It is renewable.
There is no risk of running out of salt because of osmotic power produced.
This process of creating energy does not consume salt, it only utilizes force of water to move.
Osmotic-produced energy has a minimal environmental impact.

It is a very "clean" process.

 The amount of heat that occurs in this process would raise the temperature to less than half a
degree celsius, which is not harmful to the marine organisms.
DISADVANTAGES:
Osmotic energy is extremely expensive.
 About 36 times as expensive as a conventional power plant.
Protection of the marine organisms from the turbine and other machinery.
Engineering and design problems.

CONCLUSION:
This paper has given a broad introduction to the concept of osmotic power and
the latest development on the way to Commercialization.

Statkraft will continue the effort in developing osmotic power into an available source of
new, renewable and environmental friendly energy source for the near future.
 ?
Any Questions
Thank You