Ryan Kingsbury’s paper entitled “Osmotic ballasts enhance faradaic efficiency in closed-loop, membrane-based energy systems” is accepted for publication in Environmental Science & Technology. We tested whether the energy efficiency in a closed-loop concentration battery based on reverse electrodialysis (RED) could be increased through addition of neutral, non-permeating solutes (i.e., “osmotic ballasts”) to the dilute compartment. Experimental results comparing two proof-of-concept ballast molecules showed that ballasts mitigate osmosis, causing faradaic and round-trip energy efficiency to more than double, from 18% to 50%, and 7% to 15%, respectively, in this non-optimized system. Our results suggest that balancing osmotic pressure using non-charged solutes is a promising approach for significantly reducing faradaic energy losses in closed-loop RED systems. This paper can be accessed at http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6b03720)
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