Abstract
Today, global energy consumption heavily relies on fossil fuels, such as oil, coal and natural gas, in 2015, Australia relied 86% of the electricity generation on traditional non-renewable energy sources (73% coal, 13% natural gas).1 The burning of these fossil fuels has been very closely associated with carbon and greenhouse gas emission, resulting changes in the climate such as global warming and extreme weathers. The CO2 emissions had increased from estimated 198 megatons in 1850 to an astonishing 32274 megatons in 2011. The CO2 emission increased 160 times in just the last 160 years.2 As such, the exploration of new, clean renewable energy sources becomes increasing important. To meet the ever increasing demand for energy,
…show more content…
Furthermore, osmotic power plants can be installed at any place where rivers meet the seas, this makes it less restricted by the physical location, it also has a minimum influence to the environment since it is only mixing the fresh water and the sea water that are going to meet eventually even if we did not build the power plant.
• Method
Pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO) is a type of SGE that could potentially relieve the energy stress. In PRO, water is transported through a semi-permeable membrane from the feed to pressurise the water on the draw side, then the pressurised water flow pushes the turbine to generate electricity. Even though the theory of harnessing power by mixing high-saline water and low-saline water was first brought up in the 1950s, and the mechanism was first proposed by Leob in 1970s. PRO was not widely accepted due its low performance. And the use of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes was found to reduce the performance due to severe concentration polarisation. However, with the technological advancement in membrane technologies, PRO seems
According to the World Future Society, people in Europe are trying to turn osmosis into a source of renewable energy. “Osmotic power, as it is called, creates electricity when quantities of salt water are
With the increasing Australia’s population the demand for reliable energy to support our power needs now and into the future is escalating, with majority of the Australia’s energy depending solely on coal power with concerns arising on whether this is the best option for Australia’s future or focus more on harnessing green renewable energy. This essay will argue that green energy is the best option over coal power, for the world and Australia’s future, such as solar and wind. The biggest challenge though will be finding a way in being able to harness the resources nature provides to support the growing demand.
Seawater desalination plays a vital role in supplying sustainable source of potable water in different distinct and populated areas
Unfortunately, the burning of fossil fuels is directly linked to global warming, which is rapidly becoming a vast problem. Australia’s other main energy source is hydro-electricity; however, it only generates
Base on the assessment of all the five factors, the seawater desalination plant is necessarily built in Point Lowly to sever the Olympic Dam Mine. Even if there are still some risks of the seawater desalination plant construction as below:
Due to the industrial revolution and the increasing in the world population, which leads to water scarcity of potable water and water for industrial applications. To cover the increasing demand of water we have to treat the polluted or saline water using the separation techniques to produce the potable and industrial water. This process it’s called, Water Desalination. Water Desalination is the process that treats the raw water by removing the suspended solids from the water. Sustain or the feed water sources may incorporate briny water or brackish water, seawater, ground water from wells, surface water (rivers and streams), wastewater, industrial feed and process waters. Desalination of seawater has the ability to produce enough amount of
Over the past several years, scientists have researched the impact fossil fuels currently have on our world today. These sources of energy have an irreversible and devastating consequence on our environment. Fossil fuels are disliked due to being non-renewable and unsustainable. As more technological advancements have occurred, more efforts have arisen related to replacing fossil fuels with renewable sources of energy. Due to the integration of existing technology the public has become reluctant to adopt new energy technologies. Renewable energy brings many desirable health, environmental, and economic benefits. These renewable methods may ultimately provide a brighter future for generations to come.
Our rivers are running dry faster than we expected. As we look for a solution to the scarcity of water, we are relying on the most abundant resource that is available on Earth — the ocean. To make the salty sea waters usable, scientists have developed desalination plants; a method that uses reverse osmosis and is already being implemented in places like California. However, as with any possible solution, the desalination process has its downfalls. Critics of the desalination project argue that it is more expensive than other potential methods and that the amount of energy required will only aid climate change. Those who support this method would argue that although it is currently expensive, new, cheaper filters will be developed in the
The modern techniques in water desalination include nuclear cleaning, change of state distillation, and reverse osmosis. This paper focuses on the most energy efficient technology available for each method, as this diminishes cost.
Desalination of sea and brackish water is a common technique to alleviate the increasing shortage of fresh water in many areas of the world today. Nonetheless, desalination processes require large quantities of energy. In addition, the cost of the different desalination techniques is very closely linked to the costs of energy. Therefore, in a context of continuously rising energy costs and with the impending exhaustion of the conventional energy resources, the development of energy- efficient desalination technologies is a very attractive and promising prospect to solve these problems.
It creates no emissions, thus not pollution; it doesn’t matter what the weather is, it will work; it doesn’t need any initializing energy like a fossil fuel does; it runs consistently without ever stopping, unlike solar power which requires sunlight, and sunlight is not always present; it doesn’t require costly fossil fuels to start up; and it is quite simply renewable. Aside from all of these benefits it has to the environment, it has some downsides. When water has gone through the energy making process, it is released back into the water as brackish water, which is water with high spikes in salinity. Brackish water makes wherever it goes a difficult place for marine life to live in, which leads to ecosystem decay around the osmotic power plant. Osmotic power plants are also very costly, and costly means that they cost 36 times what a regular coal-powered power plant costs. Lastly osmotic power plants are inefficient, they produce less than 1 watt per square meter, but scientists in Lyon, France have been working on more efficient Boron-Nitride membrane tubes that are nearly 100 times as efficient as the ones used today, and are a possibility in the future. Aside from these new, expensive, far off Boron Nitride tubes, Statkraft, the Norwegian company that started the first osmotic power plant, plans to have their plan running at 5 watts per square meter in the near future.
Currently, the most common source of energy is made from the combustion of coal. However, Australians are the most polluting people in the world. Greenhouse gas emissions from coal generation in Australia are growing rapidly. ABARE predicts our energy emissions will be more than 60 percent higher over the next 25 years if we continue with “business as usual”. (The age) A carbon tax has been introduced for greenhouse gas reduction and for investment and development in zero and low-emission technologies.
When you think of fossil fuels what comes to mind? Perhaps you think of the massive oil rigs set up around the world or maybe your mind wonders to how fossil fuels formed in the Earth millions of years ago. Truthfully the full extent of our usage of fossil fuels around the world is widely not realized. Around the Christmas season as you decorate your Christmas trees consider this: if your Christmas tree is artificial then it is likely manufactured with fossil fuels. The lights, ornaments, and other various decorations are made using fossil fuels as well. Even something as simple as getting ready in the morning likely involves at least three items whose manufacturing required the usage of fossil fuels. Fossil fuel is being used at an alarming rate across the world and doesn’t show any signs of slowing. Despite this, our great dependence is rarely addressed. This discussion is meant to highlight the world’s dependence on fossil fuels, the impact on the world if we were to run out of fossil fuels, and how we can wean ourselves away from this dependence on a resource that is nonrenewable and disappearing quickly.
Desalination plant – The desalination plant convert seawater into drinkable fresh water using osmosis. By the water industry using this technology they are trying to diversify its dependence on rain-fed water sources. These plants are capital and energy intensive to operate when being used. During times of droughts the industry’s water supply will be extra secure.
Currently, the energy industry is controlled and dominated by the consumption of fossil fuels. As energy companies are constantly burning these fossil fuels, this leaves the public questioning how much supply we have left after this period of usage. Despite this, the search for alternative energy sources to lower the cost of living for families around Australia has been going for years, where some have found what works for them and their price range while others have not.