NAWI aims to advance desalination and treatment of nontraditional source waters for beneficial use in public water supplies by identifying research and development (R&D) opportunities that help overcome existing treatment challenges. As such, NAWI’s foundational roadmap and baseline publications play an important role in guiding NAWI’s R&D investments and disseminating information necessary to guiding desalination innovations. Read more on Google Scholar.
NAWI Master Roadmap
NAWI’s master roadmap synthesizes the highest priority research needs for state-of-the-art technologies, emerging technologies, and existing uses of desalination and advanced water technologies. The Master Roadmap guides NAWI investments that could have transformative impacts on desalination in five end-use sectors that are critical to the U.S. economy, collectively known as PRIMA: Power, Resource Extraction, Industry, Municipal, and Agriculture.
Title: National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI) Master Roadmap
DOE Publication Number: DOE/GO-102021-5617
Access the PRIMA Roadmaps
The PRIMA roadmaps, which focus specifically on the role of the five end-use sectors, provide an overview of each end-use sector, outline key technical challenges and associated knowledge gaps, and detail the research priorities and areas of interest that span early-stage research through deployment. These roadmaps aim to advance desalination and treatment of nontraditional source waters for beneficial use by identifying the most promising research and development opportunities that overcome treatment challenges.
Title: NAWI Technology Roadmap: Power Sector
DOE Publication Number: DOE/GO-102021-5566
Title: NAWI Technology Roadmap: Resource Extraction Sector
DOE Publication Number: DOE/GO-102021-5563
Title: NAWI Technology Roadmap: Industrial Sector
DOE Publication Number: DOE/GO-102021-5562
Title: NAWI Technology Roadmap: Municipal Sector
DOE Publication Number: DOE/GO-102021-5565
Title: NAWI Technology Roadmap: Agriculture Sector
DOE Publication Number: DOE/GO-102021-5564
Baseline Metrics
To build a circular water economy, the country must adopt advanced water treatment technologies and make use of alternative water resources. To facilitate the improvement and adoption of advanced water treatment technologies, it is essential to understand their current cost and performance capabilities across different water types and sectors. One of NAWI’s first activities was to develop baseline metrics and foundational case studies to represent standard water treatment plants that treat eight alternative water resources, including agricultural runoff, seawater, brackish groundwater, oil and gas produced water, municipal wastewater, industrial wastewater, mining wastewater, and power sector water. These baseline studies were a coordinated effort across universities, national laboratories, and industry partners.
Baseline Publications
Access the special issue of ACS ES&T Engineering to see all eight of the following articles.
Agriculture:
Opportunities for Treatment and Reuse of Agricultural Drainage in the United States, ACS ES&T Engineering (2021) – https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acsestengg.1c00277
Industrial:
Opportunities and Challenges for Industrial Water Treatment and Reuse, ACS ES&T Engineering (2021) – https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acsestengg.1c00282
Municipal:
Cost and Energy Metrics for Municipal Water Reuse, ACS ES&T Engineering (2021) – https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acsestengg.1c00351
Brackish Groundwater:
Analysis of Brackish Water Desalination for Municipal Uses: Case Studies on Challenges and Opportunities, ACS ES&T Engineering (2021) – https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsestengg.1c00326
Seawater:
Pipe Parity Analysis of Seawater Desalination in the United States: Exploring Costs, Energy, and Reliability via Case Studies and Scenarios of Emerging Technology, ACS ES&T Engineering (2021) – https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acsestengg.1c00270
Power:
Zero Liquid Discharge and Water Reuse in Recirculating Cooling Towers at Power Facilities: Review and Case Study Analysis, ACS ES&T Engineering (2021) – https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acsestengg.1c00377
Mining:
Mine Water Use, Treatment, and Reuse in the United States: A Look at Current Industry Practices and Select Case Studies, ACS ES&T Engineering (2021) – https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acsestengg.1c00244
Produced water from oil and gas:
Oil and Gas Produced Water Reuse: Opportunities, Treatment Needs, and Challenges, ACS ES&T Engineering (2021) – https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acsestengg.1c00248
Acknowledgements
This material is based on work supported by the National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI), funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Advanced Manufacturing Office, under Funding Opportunity Announcement Number DE-FOA-0001905. NAWI would like to thank former Department of Energy Technical Manager Melissa Klembara for guidance and support throughout the roadmapping process.
These roadmaps were developed under the guidance of the NAWI Desalination Hub executive team, cartographers, and technical staff, as well as the NAWI’s Research Advisory Council. Those from industry, academia, national laboratories, and government who made crucial contributions through participation in workshops, surveys, phone interviews, and roadmap reviews are identified in the appendices of these reports. Nexight Group supported the overall roadmapping process.
The NAWI Master Technology Roadmap was developed to guide NAWI now and into the future. As such, we welcome and encourage stakeholder feedback on any and all aspects of the master roadmap and associated PRIMA roadmaps. Please share your comments with us using the form below.