National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI)

Innovating for a water and energy secure future for the United States

Lauren Nicole Core

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Martina Jagielski, an undergraduate student in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department at the University of Connecticut, received second place in the Undergraduate Poster Competition at the North American Membrane Society Annual Meeting. Her work, supported by NAWI project 5.11, explores the use of alternative diamines for the formation of gutter layers for reverse osmosis and nanofiltration membranes. She previously received an award during the AIChE Annual Meeting in November 2023.

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Dr. Bilal Khan of California State University San Bernardino (CSUSB) was awarded the 2023-2024 Research and Creative Activity Mentor Award by the CSUSB Office of Student Research (OSR) based on his dedication to fostering students’ success in research, teaching, and professional development. Dr. Khan is a Co-PI on NAWI Project 5.10 which provided opportunities for CSU-SB students to engage in research on the application of machine learning to modeling the operation of membrane-based reverse osmosis desalination and water treatment systems.

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Journal of Membrane Science | 1 July 2024

This study explores the role of the polysulfone (PSU) support membrane skin-layer and whole-body pore morphology on the physical-chemical properties and separation performance of hand-cast polyamide-PSU (PA-PSU) composite seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) membranes. To read the academic journal article, visit this webpage.

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Crystal Clearwater Resources (CCR) has reported a significant advancement in desalination with their Spontaneous Evaporation and Condensation (SPEC) technology pilot in the Midland Basin. CCR’s SPEC technology is reportedly a low-pressure, thermal desalination process that is heat-source agnostic, tolerant of highly variable feed water and heat input, and can be remotely operated and monitored. To learn more, visit this link.

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ACS ES&T Engineering | 31 May 2024

This work focuses on real-time fault detection and showcases innovative methods for long-term monitoring of ultrafiltration membrane systems involving supervised and unsupervised machine learning. To read the academic journal article, visit this webpage.

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NAWI hosted a delegation from the Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) In late January, led by SWCC Governor H.E. Abdullah Al Abdulkariem. The SWCC is a Saudi governmental institution mandated and entrusted with seawater desalination and the delivery of desalinated water to various regions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and beyond. SWCC’s leadership visited the United States to forge new strategic alliances, bolster the supply chain, and promote the localization of manufacturing for both the KSA market and nearby regions like Egypt, Oman, and the UAE. Their objectives included identifying investment opportunities, establishing joint-venture partnerships, and enhancing research and development collaborations globally.

The SWCC team kicked off the week in Houston, Texas, engaging with industry leaders including Bechtel, Jacobs, Aris Water, Oxy, and Texas A&M University. They also toured Memstar’s RO membrane manufacturing plant in Conroe, Texas.

Next, they attended a one-day desalination technology innovation forum in Palo Alto, the “Birthplace of Silicon Valley.” Hosted by the National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI) and led by Dr. Peter Fiske, the event featured presentations from various technology startups. The SWCC delegation joined fifty invited participants in exploring cutting-edge advancements in desalination.

SWCC is moving to operate under the Petroleum Investment Fund (the sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) as part of a larger reorganization across the government. This move will allow SWCC to move beyond its traditional role of developing and operating the desalination plants in Saudi Arabia into a larger role — one in which SWCC may develop projects outside of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as well as make direct investments in emerging technologies in the water space.

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NAWI recently held its annual Spring Quarterly Review Meeting, an opportunity for NAWIers to share their research results, coordinate strategy, and share in the common mission to accelerate positive change in the water sector. For those of you who could not attend, you can always check out information on each of our active or completed projects here on the NAWI public-facing website.

NAWI is teamed up with the WateReuse Association to hold a first-ever Water Reuse Technology Showcase from March 11-14, 2024 at the Hilton Denver City Center. The exhibition featured cutting-edge and emerging technologies poised to bring about substantial advancements and transformations in water recycling field over the next ten to fifteen years. Learn more by clicking on this link.

The meeting was held in collaboration with the WateReuse Association’s 2024 Reuse Symposium, hosting Reuse attendees at NAWI’s evening reception and poster session. Twelve of NAWI’s innovative pilot projects were also presented during the Tech Showcase, a special session held during the Reuse Symposium. Despite threats of a major blizzard (which sent many attendees of the WateReuse meeting fleeing to the Denver airport to catch early departures), the Tech Showcase was a great success.

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WaterTAP is an open-source Python-based software package that supports the technoeconomic assessment of full water treatment trains. It includes a modular water treatment model library spanning a broad set of water treatment processes composed of unit, property, and costing models. The WaterTAP team is convened a large community of users and stakeholders for a two-day workshop/conference on process modeling from October 11 — 12, 2023 in the Washington, D.C. area.

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Research supported by NAWI looks into the design of hybrid membrane systems using a forward osmosis- reverse osmosis (FO-RO) hybrid system. The study demonstrates how some membrane systems can exhibit self-regulating behavior due to a tendency for systems like these to move toward thermodynamic equilibrium. The researchers show how some membrane systems can leverage thermodynamics, rather than expensive control systems, to achieve steady state operation. Read the paper.

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    Several members of the NAWI community were invited to participate in a strategic roadmapping process for the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Engineering Directorate. Over 100 experts from academia, industry, and national laboratories gathered during a two-day virtual workshop organized by the Engineering Research Visioning Alliance (ERVA) on Engineered Systems for Water Security. The workshop focused on identifying key engineering challenges and research needs related to securing water for our communities and industries in the 21st century.

    During the workshop, breakout groups discussed various aspects of a strategy for water security and teams came together to synthesize and distill the most resonant recommendations for engineering research investment. NAWI’s Master Cartographer David Sedlak provided a keynote for the event that, not surprisingly, drew upon many of the insights and strategic priorities that were identified during NAWI’s 2020 roadmapping process.

    One measure of the strength of NAWI’s research vision is whether the themes and priorities we identified are also identified in other visioning exercises in the water sector. When the Engineering Research Visioning Alliance (ERVA) released a new report titled Engineered Systems for Water Security that includes a number of engineering research priorities to address water security issues, many of the research themes and priorities identified by NAWI were included in the report. The aim of this report is to inspire researchers and sponsors (public, private, and nonprofit) to pursue these priorities. Such was the consensus of participants at a recent visioning workshop convened by the Engineering Research Visioning Alliance (ERVA) to identify roles for the engineering research community in achieving secure water systems for the future.

     

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    NAWI Deputy Topic Area Lead for Materials and Manufacturing Jeffrey McCutcheon has received the Permeance Prize for mid-career excellence from the North American Membrane Society (NAMS). As an inaugural winner of the award, Jeff has received this award for his contributions to NAMS and to the broader membrane community through his scholarly work. He gave an award lecture at the NAMS Annual Meeting in Santa Fe in May 2024 in honor of the award.

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    The National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI), which is led by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), has been extended for five more years with $75 million in funding from DOE. NAWI will continue its contributions to helping decarbonize the water and wastewater sectors through investments in technologies that enhance the efficient use of energy for water use, treatment, and distribution.  

    “Water and energy are interdependent—water is used to produce nearly every major energy source, and energy is critical to transporting and treating water,” said Jeff Marootian, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. “The deep connection between these two resources demands an integrated approach that considers the challenges and opportunities inherent to both sectors. The Department of Energy is proud to be leading the nation’s efforts to decarbonize the water economy, while ensuring a secure water future for communities nationwide.”

    Over the next five years, NAWI is shifting its focus to include regional water systems planning – and will partner with water planners at the state and regional level to develop and use new tools for water supply forecasting, water demand forecasting, and water portfolio optimization. NAWI will also spearhead water resilience pilot projects and implement regional water system workshops. These new directions will enable NAWI to continue to accelerate breakthroughs towards a circular water economy, where water is treated to fit-for-purpose standards and reused locally, rather than transporting freshwater long distances. 

    “Desalination and innovative water treatment technologies hold great promise for helping us meet our planet’s growing demand for one of our most precious resources: water,” says Mike Witherell, Director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. “The Department of Energy’s renewed support for NAWI enables the continuation of cutting-edge research and development which is needed to not only treat unconventional sources of water for re-use but to lower their cost and energy use.” 

    Over the past five years, NAWI has supported a robust research portfolio with 60 original and innovative research and development projects that span analysis for water-energy grid integration to the development of algorithms, models, and adaptive process controls for resilient operations. In addition, NAWI has supported the implementation of 11 pilot projects that have begun work demonstrating some of these innovative technologies in real-world environments. NAWI has also developed the NAWI Alliance with over 1,670 members, and partnered with over 420 leading industry, academic, and government stakeholders. NAWI has also developed a suite of knowledge products, including a master roadmap and series of industry-specific roadmaps to prioritize the highest impact technology options, and its 60 projects support those priorities. To date, NAWI researchers have published more than 100 articles in high-impact research journals. 

    “Our research program remains steadfast in its commitment to reducing the price, energy cost, and greenhouse gas emissions of new water technologies,” said Peter Fiske, Executive Director of NAWI. “Our work also bridges cutting-edge research with real people and places, such as producing secure, reliable, and affordable water for communities that are most in need.”

    Throughout the next five years, NAWI will remain committed to the principles of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accountability (IDEA). NAWI’s pilot projects will continue to treat unconventional water sources to provide usable water in real-world environments. Some of the pilot projects will partner directly with communities and groups that have historically been underserved by existing water supplies. Each project will also generate a range of data sets usable by other researchers seeking to advance the field of data analysis and automation, and fault detection in water treatment systems.

    NAWI’s plan for the next five years aligns well with the California’s Water Supply Strategy (WSS) – Adapting to a Hotter Drier Future, which outlines a strategy and priority actions to adapt and protect water supplies from the effects of rising temperatures and drier conditions due to climate change. The California Water Plan is the State’s strategic plan for sustainably and equitably managing and developing water resources for current and future generations. Key actions include enhancing water conservation efforts and accelerating innovation related to water treatment, reuse, and desalination.

    “Securing a more resilient water future for California means investing and building meaningful relationships with key partners like NAWI. This collaboration will help drive innovation for new, affordable water supplies for a more water resilient future for generations to come,” said California Department of Water Resources Director Karla Nemith.

    The next phase of NAWI also aligns with the California Water Plan Update 2023 (Update 2023), which champions climate resilience throughout various regions and water sectors by offering a comprehensive approach. This approach includes a statewide vision, well-defined goals, a watershed planning framework, a versatile toolkit, and a dashboard for tracking progress indicators.

    “Regional water systems planning is critical to addressing questions of where, when, and how non-traditional source waters are most effectively deployed for enhanced U.S. water security,” said Meagan Mauter, Research Director of NAWI. “Regional systems models also help to establish the value of desalination technology innovation, linking the R&D NAWI performs on new nanoscale materials or intensified processes to dollars saved and carbon saved. The balance of our program will continue to advance device and treatment research investments from the first 5 years of NAWI, including a focus on cost effective, energy efficient desalination technologies and advanced data, modeling, and control systems for complete treatment trains.”

    The NAWI program will significantly contribute to the implementation of the updated water plan, demonstrating novel methods for water reuse at the community and premise scale, along with further advancing key reuse technologies such as desalination and fit-for-purpose treatment. NAWI will support California and the nation to in their efforts to keep pace with the impacts of climate change, facilitating smarter and swifter updates to its water systems.

    “The next five years present an invaluable opportunity to deliver impact aligned with NAWI’s pipe parity metrics and further the country towards net-zero emissions by 2050,” said Fiske.

    NAWI will continue to be supported by the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy’s Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office. 

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    NAWI is a research program and public-private partnership supported by the United States Department of Energy in partnership with the California Department of Water Resources and the California State Water Resources Control Board. NAWI brings together a world-class team of industry and academic partners to examine the critical technical barriers and research needed to radically lower the cost and energy of desalination. NAWI is led by DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, National Energy Technology Laboratory, and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and funded by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office and Water Power Technologies Office.

    Additional information:

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    Utah Public Radio’s Matthew LaPlante interviewed NAWI’s David Sedlack for an episode of UnDisciplined. Sedlack talked about his new book, titled “Water for All: Global Solutions for a Changing Climate” and how desalination may play an increasing role in solving water-related crisis. Each week, UnDisciplined takes a fun, fascinating and accessible dive into the lives of researchers and explorers working across a wide variety of scientific fields. To listen to the podcast, visit this link.

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    Professor Xiao Su has recently been awarded the prestigious 2023 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Separations Division Fractionation Research, Inc./John G. Kunesh Award in recognition of his exceptional achievements. Professor Su specializes in the development of sustainable separations, employing a synergistic approach that combines molecular design and electrochemical engineering. Read more about Su in this article.

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    ACS ES&T Engineering (ES&TE) announced the winners of the 2022 ACS ES&T Engineering Best Paper Awards on November 10, 2023. An article titled Cost and Energy Metrics for Municipal Water Reuse received an award for Best Research Articles. Jennifer Stokes-Draut, Deputy Topic Area Lead for NAWI’s Data Modeling and Analysis Area, co-authored the paper with other researchers. NAWI’s Municipal Sector Technology Roadmap, a report released in May 2021, supported the development of this research article.

     

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    Ashok Gadgil was awarded with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, an honor granted by the President of the United States to innovators who have made significant contributions to the development of technology. His selection is for supporting innovative, inexpensive technologies to help communities around the world. Gadgil is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley and a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory retired Faculty Senior Scientist.

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    As the Earth’s climate continues to evolve, the global community confronts escalating temperatures and a surge in both the frequency and intensity of natural disasters worldwide — from intensified storms and floods to rampant wildfires and prolonged droughts. These catastrophic events have the potential to unleash havoc on critical systems essential for our survival, particularly the aging infrastructure responsible for our water supplies.

    In the face of natural disasters or man-made catastrophes, such as the recent train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, the discussion explored the potential of water desalination and purification technologies to mitigate the impact of contaminated water sources.

    How can we effectively mitigate the adverse effects of both natural and man-made disasters on our water supplies and delivery systems? Is it feasible to leverage advanced water treatment technologies in such challenging scenarios?

    NAWI Executive Director Dr. Peter Fiske recently spoke with Jeanne Destro with WAKR Radio for an episode of This Week in Tech to answer these questions. This Week in Tech is a radio show dedicated to exploring the latest advancements in technology designed to tackle the challenges facing the intersection of water, climate change, and pollution. Fiske discussed ways that NAWI is converting unconventional water sources into secure, desalinated water supplies at a cost equivalent to other available water sources. In so doing, NAWI’s research and development efforts are improving disaster risk reduction and response, socially inclusive environmental sustainability, and public safety and health. 

    Desalination is the process of removing salt from water. A substantial amount of chemical energy is required to effectively separate the salt molecules from their aquatic counterparts. Our desalination technologies are traditionally tailored for the task of purifying seawater, which has a high saline content. These desalination systems, often colossal structures strategically positioned along coastlines, draw in seawater, separate out the salt, and then release roughly fifty percent of the resulting liquid back into the ocean. This discharged liquid — called brine — carries twice the concentration of salt. If the desalination facility is located next to the ocean, bring can be safely integrated back into the seawater without harming marine life.

    “In the United States we have people living all over the country, including all across Ohio. And when we think about desalination in the United States, we can’t just think about ocean water, we have to think about other places within the United States where there is salty water which we could use — but we don’t have the right technologies for it,” said Fiske. “In the inland United States, including Texas, New Mexico, and inland California, we do a lot of desalination of what is called brackish groundwater. This is water that is not nearly as salty as seawater, it is naturally occuring, it is in the ground, but it is too salty to use.”

    Beyond the global challenge of water scarcity, Fiske spotlighted innovative solutions pursued by Fontus Blue, an Akron-based clean water technology company where he serves as a consultant. Amidst the escalating demand for water, Fontus Blue endeavors to explore unconventional avenues to source, treat, and reclaim water previously dismissed as undrinkable.

    For those keen on understanding the intersection of technology, water, and sustainability, the full podcast and interview with Dr. Peter Fiske are available for listening. This enlightening conversation transcends local water rate concerns, urging listeners to contemplate the broader implications of water access, climate change, and the imperative for innovative solutions in safeguarding this precious resource. Listen to the interview and podcast.

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    The first World Water Day was held on March 22, 1993, when the United Nations General Assembly decided to celebrate the importance of freshwater. This year’s theme is ‘groundwater, making the invisible visible’.
    Most people imagine the ocean when they think about desalination. However, the first reverse osmosis (RO) water treatment plant—built in Coalinga, California in 1965—was designed to desalinate brackish groundwater. There is a LOT of brackish groundwater across the United States, especially in locations that have limited freshwater supplies. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that total brackish groundwater resources in the U.S. are 800 times the total amount of fresh groundwater pumped from all other sources every year. In line with this, NAWI Research Consortium Member Massachusetts Institute of Technology published an excellent assessment of the potential of brackish groundwater desalination in the country. Ocean desalination plants around the world currently produce more than 10 billion gallons of freshwater daily. In contrast, the total water production from brackish groundwater desalination facilities around the world is 2.3 billion gallons per day. 

    Brackish groundwater desalination has a number of advantages over ocean desalination:

    • Brackish groundwater is often far less saline than ocean water, thus requiring less energy to remove the salt and enabling higher water recovery rates. 
    • It is geographically widespread and available as a resource for diverse communities (not just for those along the coast).

    However, brackish groundwater is a challenging non-traditional water source to treat. Water is the “universal solvent”, and water that has remained underground for a long time can become saturated not only with highly soluble constituents (like salts) but also sparingly soluble constituents (such as silica and gypsum) that can precipitate out during the desalination process, “scaling” the interior surfaces of pipes and membranes. And, far from the seacoast, there are few options for economically disposing of the brine waste from the desalination process. Read more below as NAWI’s Research Director Dr. Meagan Mauter discusses the detailed baseline study conducted by NAWI researchers to assess the current technology approaches to treating this vast but challenging water supply.

    NAWI has a number of research projects underway to tackle the many technical challenges that prevent wider use of brackish groundwater desalination. 

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    Orange County Water District and Orange County Sanitation District, a public sector partnership, was recognized with a 2-23 U.S. Water Prize in the category of Outstanding Public Sector Organization. The partnership created the Groundwater Replenishment System. The recently completed project expansion, which recycles 100% of reclaimable wastewater, produces 130 million gallons of water per day. Read more about the award in this news story.

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    Colorado State University (CSU) researchers are embarking on two groundbreaking projects with the aim of significantly reducing the energy costs associated with water desalination and purification. These initiatives, funded through grants from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI), align with the program’s overarching goal of revolutionizing the cost and energy landscape of desalination over the next five years, addressing the growing global need for drinkable saltwater.

    The most effective method for desalination currently involves reverse osmosis filtration systems, which exert substantial pressure over extended periods to force saltwater through tiny membrane passages. However, the energy intensity of this process, especially on a large scale, remains a significant challenge.
    Led by Steven Conrad, associate professor of systems engineering, the first project aims to enhance energy grid efficiency by identifying opportunities for energy conservation and management between filtration desalination plants and their connected power grids. The team, in collaboration with partners such as the Electric Power Research Institute, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, The Salt River Project (AZ), and the Water Replenishment District (CA), will model and select optimal ways to integrate existing water treatment plants with modern electric grids. The objective is to leverage new technology and sustainable energy processes to reduce overall system costs, with a total project value of approximately $900,000.

    Co-led by Tiezheng Tong, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, and Jason Quinn, professor of mechanical engineering, the second project focuses on lowering the cost and energy requirements for achieving zero-liquid discharge in desalination. Addressing the energy-intensive brine crystallization step, the team, in collaboration with Washington University in St. Louis, Clarkson University, Argonne National Laboratory, and OLI Systems, Inc., will explore sustainable approaches to improve efficiency and reduce carbon intensity. This project carries a total award of $1.3 million, with CSU receiving $295,000.

    Both projects, set to commence in December 2023 and lasting at least two years, anticipate contributing to the development of better desalination technology. By lowering energy costs, these initiatives aim to mitigate the environmental impact of traditional water transportation and make clean drinking water more accessible, particularly in regions like the U.S. Pacific Southwest. With a commitment to creating water treatment systems with minimal negative impacts, CSU endeavors to provide a valuable tool for meeting global water needs.

    The projects also underscore CSU’s dedication to advancing water technology and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration to address societal challenges at a profound level. As these endeavors unfold, they are expected to not only benefit graduate students involved in the research but also offer broader value to the global community.

    Read about this research.