Self-archived version of the article published in Energy: F. Giacalone, C. Olkis, G. Santori, A. Cipollina, S. Brandani, G. Micale, Novel solutions for closed-loop Reverse Electrodialysis: thermodynamic characterisation and perspective analysis, Energy, 2018 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2018.10.049 Novel solutions for closed-loop Reverse Electrodialysis: thermodynamic characterisation and perspective analysis F. Giacalonea,b, C. Olkisa, G. Santoria, A. Cipollinab,**, S. Brandania,* G. Micaleb aThe University of Edinburgh, School of Engineering, Institute for Materials and Processes, Sanderson Building, The King's Buildings, Mayfield Road, EH9 3JL Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. *
[email protected] bDipartimento dell’Innovazione Industriale e Digitale (DIID), Ingegneria Chimica, Gestionale, Informatica e Meccanica, Università degli Studi di Palermo (UNIPA)- viale delle Scienze Ed.6, 90128 Palermo, Italy. **
[email protected] Abstract Closed-loop Reverse Electrodialysis is a novel technology to directly convert low-grade heat into electricity. It consists of a reverse electrodialysis (RED) unit where electricity is produced exploiting the salinity gradient between two salt-water solutions, coupled with a regeneration unit where waste-heat is used to treat the solutions exiting from the RED unit and restore their initial composition. One of the most important advantages of closed-loop systems compared to the open systems is the possibility to select ad-hoc salt solutions to achieve high efficiencies. Therefore, the properties of the salt solutions are essential to assess the performance of the energy generation and solution regeneration processes. The aim of this study is to analyse the influence of thermodynamic properties of non-conventional salt solutions (i.e.