Abstracts - peq / coppe / ufrj

IntroductionSimulating Pressure Retarded Osmosis Using UniSim DesignGuillermina Gentile, Paula Llano, María Fidalgo de Cortalezzi*Dep. of Chemical Engineering, Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires*mfidalgo@itba.edu.arPressure retarded osmosis can be used to produce electricity, based on two different solutions: oneof high osmotic pressure (draw) and the other of low osmotic pressure (feed); which are separatedby a semi permeable membrane [1]. Water will permeate from the feed solution (FS) to the drawsolution (DS) which was previously pressurised. Afterwards, a part of the DS is depressurized througha hydroturbine to obtain electricity [1].The objective of this study is to simulate PRO, to predict net power density and to assess thepossibility of installing a PRO plant taking into account natural water qualities and equipmentneeded.MethodologyThe software employed was UniSim Design R390 and the fluid package was OLI Electrolyte. PROsimulation included a membrane module, DS high pressure, FS low pressure and recycle for part ofthe diluted DS (DDS) pumps, pressure exchanger and hydroturbine (Figure 1).Figure 1: UniSim layout of simulationWe considered a situation for the Río Negro (Province of Río Negro, Argentina). The averageminimum daily flow was 75 m 3 /s during 1997-2010 [2]; 10% of which was taken as FS, due toeconomic and environmental reasons. FS and DS were completely defined. Temperature andconcentrations are possible ones for the Río Negro and Atlantic Ocean. We assumed pressures andcomposition of certain streams, permeate, recycle of DDS, pressure increase at pumps, and efficiencyof pumps, pressure exchanger and hydroturbine