Seawater-based Voltaic Cells as a Renewable Energy Source for Small-scale Applications

Abstract

With the electronic revolution that the world has nowadays, there is a necessity to look for alternative energy sources to meet the increasing electricity demand. One of the innovative alternatives to fossil-fuel-dependent energy sources is electricity from saltwater. This study utilized different salt solutions as electrolytes for voltaic cells that used the pairings of Cu, Mg, and Zn as electrodes. Seawater samples collected comprise approximately 94% of sodium chloride (NaCl) in the total salinity of the seawater solution. Results showed that seawater recorded the highest voltage among all salt solutions in a voltaic cell that used Mg-Cu as electrodes with an average output voltage of 1.35 V. Moreover, with the use of a buck-boost regulator module, a maximum of 8 V was recorded when six voltaic cells were assembled into a battery. Thus, the seawater-based battery with Mg-Cu electrode pairing has the potential for small-scale applications such as charging mobile devices.