Reverse electrodialysis (RED) with bipolar membranes, an energy storage system

Abstract

An experimental study is presented of reverse electrodialysis (RED) as a completely different kind of electrical energy storage. The use of RED fuel cells has the potential to overcome common self-discharging problems of the RED accumulator. The membranes used in RED are designed to meet requirements different from those for conventional electrodialysis (ED). This applies particularly to bipolar membranes. An essential criterion for the use of membranes in RED is permselectivity. An improvement in the permselectivity of the membranes was obtained by coating them with an appropriate polymer or cross-linking the membrane polymer.

The results were compared with a mathematical model and some former works in this field.