Pretreatment of fresh water for an osmotic power plant is to be studied by Canada’s Hydro-Quebec as part of a three-year agreement with Norway’s Statkraft to speed up the development of osmotic power.
The aim is to identify and validate the most cost-efficient pretreatment technologies for use in an osmotic power plant, including membrane life expectancy, maintenance costs and impact on the environment. The development of more efficient pretreatment will contribute to making the technology competitive with other new renewable energy sources.
Statkraft has been developing osmotic power for a decade and opened the world’s first prototype facility for osmotic power in Norway in 2009. Hydro-Québec has been continuing to research the operation, potential and applications of osmotic energy, as part of its active monitoring of new renewables.
Statkraft will provide research and development results in this field from its prototype, as well as testing pretreatment as an integrated part of a complete osmotic power plant.