H51O-1626
Harnessing Potential Evaporation as a Renewable Energy Resource With Water-Saving Benefits
Friday, 18 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Ahmet-Hamdi Cavusoglu1, Xi Chen2, Pierre Gentine3 and Ozgur Sahin2,4, (1)Columbia University of New York, Chemical Engineering, Palisades, NY, United States, (2)Columbia University of New York, Biological Sciences, New York, NY, United States, (3)Columbia University of New York, Palisades, NY, United States, (4)Columbia University of New York, Physics, New York, NY, United States
Abstract:
Water’s large latent heat of vaporization makes evaporation a critical component of the energy balance at the Earth’s surface. An immense amount of energy drives the hydrological cycle and is an important component of various weather and climate patterns. However, the potential of harnessing evaporation has received little attention as a renewable energy resource compared to wind and solar energy. Here, we investigate the potential of harvesting energy from naturally evaporating water. Using weather data across the contiguous United States and a modified model of potential evaporation, we estimate the power availability, intermittency, and the changes in evaporation rates imposed by energy conversion. Our results indicate that natural evaporation can deliver power densities similar to existing renewable energy platforms and require little to no energy storage to match the varying power demands of urban areas. This model also predicts additional, and substantial, water savings by reducing evaporative losses. These findings suggest that evaporative energy harvesting can address significant challenges with water/energy interactions that could be of interest to the hydrology community.
