Project Grant 20203361031578

This $15,000,000 Cooperative Agreement awarded by the Bureau of Reclamation under the SECURE Water Act - Research Agreements (CFDA 15.560) program supports a 5-year pilot project to assess the viability of installing solar panels over canals. The primary objectives are to reduce water evaporation, generate renewable energy, and build resilience to climate change by reducing carbon emissions associated with electricity generation. Key benefits may include increased water conservation during...

This $500,000 Project Grant award from the Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) under CFDA 81.135 will support the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) in developing a highly energy-efficient desalination system using solar thermal energy and multi-stage distillation. The key innovation is a phase change process at the liquid-solid-vapor interface to efficiently transport and utilize energy, which aims to significantly reduce energy consumption compared to industrial...

This $250,000 National Science Foundation project grant, funded under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041), supports the development of a solar evaporator-based, high-efficiency water desalination system. Northeastern University will work to optimize an all-in-one solar evaporator using a novel design of a planar, interconnected open-pore copper-copper oxide foam structure. This is intended to provide a cost-effective (4.5 kg/sqm/hr) desalination solution driven directly by solar irradiation. A...

This Cooperative Agreement award from the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation, under the Water Desalination Research and Development Program (CFDA 15.506), aims to demonstrate a continuous pilot photobioreactor operation using sunlight to remove scaling compounds from reverse osmosis concentrate. The project team at Texas State University has developed a new photobiological process that utilizes brackish diatoms and natural sunlight to remove scalants such as silica, phosphate,...

This collaborative research project, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) with $405,713 obligated, develops solar-driven zero liquid discharge (ZLD) technologies to enable brackish water desalination (BWD) with effective brine management. The research integrates fundamental interfacial processes and thermal transport to create cost- and energy-efficient brine treatment solutions that support decarbonized inland freshwater production. The project...

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation awarded a $391,660.68 Cooperative Agreement to the Regents of the University of California, Riverside (UC Riverside) under the Water Desalination Research and Development program (CFDA 15.506). The goal of this 2-year project is to test a novel vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) light-driven photochemical process for treating nitrate and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from inland desalination brine. The project will develop an innovative VUV system to overcome...

The U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation, under its Desalination and Water Purification Research (DWPR) program (CFDA 15.506), awarded a $610,056 Cooperative Agreement to Pacifica Water Solutions LLC on Sep 21, 2023. The project aims to conduct extended field testing of innovative electrically conducting desalination membranes against commercial membranes over two consecutive 3-month trials. The testing will demonstrate the performance of this technology in two applications:...

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Project Grant award under CFDA 47.041 Engineering program provides $1,235,696 to Arizona State University (ASU) to develop cost- and energy-efficient brine treatment technologies that enable decarbonized brackish water desalination (BWD) for climate-adaptive water supply. The 4-year project aims to: 1) create a novel nanofiltration and reverse osmosis process to reduce brine volume; 2) design an innovative interface-enhanced crystallizer for...

The U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation awarded a $351,572.23 Cooperative Agreement to William Marsh Rice University under the Water Desalination Research and Development program (CFDA 15.506). The goal of this 21-month project, with a completion date of September 30, 2025, is to develop ion exchange membranes with tunable ion permeability and permselectivity to enhance water recovery while ensuring product water quality in electrodialysis desalination processes. This...

This National Science Foundation project grant of $310,344 awarded on October 1, 2022 will fund research to develop a self-sustainable interconnected food-energy-water system for saline coastal regions. Under the NSF Engineering program (CFDA 47.041), researchers from the University of Michigan and partners in China will create an ocean wave-powered desalination process to reclaim salt-affected soils for agriculture. They will integrate wave energy-based seawater desalination, sustainable land...