Hydropower Plant on a Chip: Frictionless Nanochannel Systems for Hydroelectric Power Generation

芯片上的水力发电厂：用于水力发电的无摩擦纳米通道系统

• 批准号: 1462499
• 负责人: Chang-Hwan Choi
• 金额: $ 20万
• 依托单位: Stevens Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-06-01 至 2019-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1462499&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Hydropower; Plant; Chip; Frictionless; Nanochannel

Water flow through nanoscale channels can create electric power called streaming current. However, such nanoscale hydrodynamic flows have not yet been intensively investigated for practical energy manufacturing systems, particularly due to their low energy conversion efficiency resulting from significant frictional energy loss at the channel walls. This award supports fundamental research on such nanoscale hydrodynamic flows to lay the technical foundation for the development of nanofluidic energy manufacturing systems with high hydroelectric energy conversion efficiency and output power that are meaningful for real applications. Working as a "hydropower plant on a chip" with virtually little energy loss, the frictionless nanofluidic energy manufacturing systems can power small autonomous sensors, their networks, and mobile/wearable devices without batteries. Scaled-up systems (e.g., arrays of such chips) can further serve as reliable power stations for large systems with amplified power output. Scavenging energy from water, a sustainable/renewable resource, will enable such systems to be functional with little influence by ambient conditions. The integrated educational/outreach activities with research will help to prepare the next generation of technology leaders, a necessity for the U.S. to maintain its leadership role in energy manufacturing in a global economy. The objective of this research is to verify the theoretical prediction that a superhydrophobic surface reducing viscous wall friction with significant slip can increase ionic streaming current in nanoscale channel flow and consequently the electrokinetic energy conversion efficiency, potentially close to 100%, and also the output power up to a level two orders of magnitude higher than the current state of the art. To achieve this objective, a parametric study will be performed numerically for the electrostatically and hydrodynamically heterogeneous boundary conditions configurable on various types of superhydrophobic surfaces. The resulting streaming current and flow properties will be computed by coupling the Poisson-Boltzmann and the Navier-Stokes equations and employing the fluidic circuitry based on Onsager reciprocal relations. The theoretical results will then be verified with nanofluidic experiments by testing superhydrophobic nanochannels of regulated sizes for varying electrolytes and flow conditions. The combined theoretical and experimental approaches will reveal the new knowledge of the correlations between the electro-hydrodynamic and -kinetic variables critical for the electrokinetic power generation in nanochannel systems with heterogeneous boundary conditions.

流经纳米级渠道的水流可以产生称为流动电流的电能。然而，这种纳米尺度的流体动力流动在实际能源制造系统中还没有得到深入的研究，特别是因为它们的能量转换效率很低，因为通道壁上的巨大摩擦能量损失导致了它们的低能量转换效率。该奖项支持对这种纳米级流体动力流动的基础研究，为开发具有高水力发电能量转换效率和输出功率的纳米流体能源制造系统奠定技术基础，这些系统对实际应用具有重要意义。这种无摩擦的纳米流体能源制造系统作为一种“芯片上的水电站”工作，几乎没有能量损失，可以为小型自主传感器、它们的网络以及没有电池的移动/可穿戴设备提供动力。放大的系统(例如，这种芯片的阵列)可以进一步用作具有放大功率输出的大型系统的可靠发电站。水是一种可持续/可再生的资源，从水中收集能源将使这种系统能够在不受环境条件影响的情况下发挥作用。与研究相结合的教育/推广活动将有助于培养下一代技术领导者，这对美国在全球经济中保持其在能源制造方面的领导地位是必要的。这项研究的目的是验证理论预测，即超疏水表面减少粘性壁面摩擦和显著滑移可以增加纳米尺度沟道流动中的离子流动电流，从而增加动能转换效率，潜在接近100%，并且输出功率最高可达到比当前技术水平高两个数量级的水平。为了实现这一目标，将对可在各种类型的超疏水表面上配置的静电和流体动力学非均匀边界条件进行参数研究。通过耦合Poisson-Boltzmann方程和Navier-Stokes方程，并采用基于Onsager互易关系的流体回路，可以计算得到的流动电流和流动特性。然后，通过测试不同电解液和流动条件下调节尺寸的超疏水纳米通道，用纳米流体实验来验证理论结果。理论和实验相结合的方法将揭示对具有非均匀边界条件的纳米通道系统中电动发电至关重要的电流体变量和动力学变量之间的关系的新知识。