Abstract
A huge chemical potential difference exists between the acid mine drainage (AMD) and the alkaline neutralization solution, which is wasted in the traditional AMD neutralization process. This study reports, for the first time, the harvest of this chemical potential energy through a controlled neutralization of AMD using H+-conductive films. Polyamide films with controllable thickness achieved much higher H+ conductance than a commercially available cation exchange membrane (CEM). Meanwhile, the optimal polyamide film had an excellent H+/Ca2+ selectivity of 63.7, over two orders of magnitude higher than that of the CEM (0.3). The combined advantages of fast proton transport and high proton/ion selectivity greatly enhanced the power generation of the AMD battery. The power density was 3.1 W m–2, which is over one order of magnitude higher than that of the commercial CEM (0.2 W m–2). Our study provides a new sustainable solution to address the environmental issues of AMD while simultaneously enabling clean energy production. © 2024 Elsevier Ltd
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 121530 |
| Journal | Water Research |
| Volume | 255 |
| Online published | 28 Mar 2024 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 15 May 2024 |
Funding
This work was supported by grants from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region, China ( SRFS2021-7S04 ) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China ( 52200037 ) and the Seed Funding for Strategic Interdisciplinary Research Scheme at The University of Hong Kong ( 102010174 ). We appreciate the staff from the Electron Microscope Unit of The University of Hong Kong for SEM and TEM sample preparation and analysis.
Research Keywords
- Acid mine drainage neutralization
- Chemical potential energy harvesting
- Ion selectivity
- Polyamide film
- Proton conductance
