The US Department of Energy has announced the selection of the National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI) to lead its Energy-Water Desalination Hub, intended to tackle water security issues.
The Hub will focus on early-stage research and development for energy-efficient and cost-competitive desalination technologies including manufacturing challenges. This suite of technologies will treat “non-traditional” water sources for multiple end-use applications. Congress has appropriated a total of $40 million since Fiscal Year 2017 for the Hub and public and private stakeholders are expected to contribute $34 million.
The NAWI is a public-private partnership with more than 35 members and over 180 organizations within the alliance, which is led by DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in collaboration with National Energy Technology Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The NAWI team will develop technologies that treat seawater, brackish water, and produced waters, for use in municipal, industrial, agricultural, utility, oil and gas, and other water supply needs. These technology advancements will help domestic suppliers of water desalination systems to manufacture critical components and parts—including the design and manufacture of small-modular and large-scale systems. NAWI’s goal is to enable the manufacturing of energy-efficient desalination technologies in the United States at a lower cost with the same (or higher) quality and reduced environmental impact for 90% of non-traditional water sources within the next 10 years.