Three more desalination research projects have been added to the program being undertaken at the Brackish Groundwater National Desalination Research Facility (BGNDRF ) in Alamogordo, New Mexico, USA.
According to the latest newsletter from the BGNDRF, the latest projects are:
· Forward Osmosis Pilot Testing (Oasys Water)
· Advanced Hydro’s Automated Flexible Ultrafiltration/Reverse Osmosis (US Bureau of Reclamation)
· Irrigation of Halophytes with Reverse Osmosis Concentrate (University of Arizona)
The BGNDRF will also host the semi-finals of the Desal Prize – a global initiative to promote innovation in brackish water desalination launched recently by the US Agency for International Development, the Swedish International Development Agency and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
After the Request For Information period (22 March-14 April 2014), applications for participating in the competition will be accepted from May to July 2014. Ten to twelve semi-finalists will be selected in September 2014.
Each semi-finalist will be given US$ 5,000 to build a prototype or further develop their device, which will be tested at BGNDRF in Spring 2015. Finalists will be selected at BGNDRF and receive an additional US$ 5,000 in order to continue optimization of their device for field testing.
A panel of judges will announce the awardee(s) of the US$ 500,000 grand prize during World Water Week in September 2015.