Determination of salinity gradient power potential in Québec, Canada.

Electrical energy can be produced from the chemical potential difference of two liquids with dissimilar salinities. This source of energy is known as salinity gradient power. In this paper, the theory, the technologies used to exploit the power, the major challenges, and their development trends are first presented. Then a modeling of fluxes across semi permeable membranes is proposed and validated. Next, an energy balance study is done in order to estimate the power potential for a given salinity gradient system. By applying this study to several rivers in Quebec, the salinity power gradient potential is estimated to 45 TWh/yr based on the minimal flow rate of each river. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]