JUAN MARTÍNEZ PEÑALVER Student of the Master´s degree in Chemical Engineering University of Cantabria Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Av. de los Castros s/n 39005 Santander Cantabria España Telephone: +34 942 201593 Email: [email protected] RESEARCH Títle: Reverse electrodialysis for power generation with natural salinity gradients Description: Reverse electrodialysis (RED) can harness the Gibbs free energy of mixing when fresh river water flows into the sea for sustainable power generation. In a RED stack, composed by alternately-arranged cation and anion exchange membranes, stacked between two electrodes, the chemical energy associated with salinity gradients can be directly converted into electrical energy. RED is the power generation analogue of electrodialysis (ED) separation, Whereas energy is consumed in ED to carry out separation of ions, RED produces energy through controlled mixing of the solutions utilizing the permeation of counter-ions across ion exchange membranes (IEMs) to generate a Nernst potential between two solutions of different concentration, while a redox couple at the end electrodes converts the ion flux into a n electric current. Keywords: Reverse electrodialysis (RED), salinity gradient energy, ion exchange membranes renewable energy R&D Projects: Title: NUEVOS PROCESOS DE SEPARACIÓN CON CONTROL CINÉTICO BASADOS EN LA UTILIZACIÓN DE MATERIALES FUNCIONALIZADOS (CTQ2012-3139) Partners: Universidad de Cantabria, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad Duration, since 01/01/2013 to 01/01/2016. Main researcher: Inmaculada Ortiz Uribe Number of participants: 11