The US Bureau of Reclamation has made grants worth US$ 650,000 to the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) College of Engineering under its Desalination & Water Purification Program.
Bureau commissioner Michael L Connor announced in September that US$ 1.3 million would be allocated to five research and laboratory study facilities, one pilot test and one demonstration project. UTEP received US$ 500,000 to conduct the demonstration project and US$ 150,000 for a research project.
UTEP’s Center for Inland Desalination Systems (CIDS) will conduct a demonstration of zero-discharge desalination at the Brackish Groundwater National Desalination Research Facility in Alamagordo, New Mexico.
“What we hope to accomplish is to boost the amount of available drinking water from brackish water, at the same time minimizing waste stream for maximum efficiency,” said Malynda Cappelle, senior engineering project manager for CIDS. According to Cappelle, the research will open new doors to expand the availability of drinkable water in the desert region.
Additionally, Dr Anthony Tarquin, UTEP professor in environmental engineering, will use US$ 150,000 to research high-water volume recovery for silica-saturated reverse-osmosis (RO) concentrate using a batch-treatment seawater RO system.
“Innovative solutions will be needed to address the growing water and energy needs in the West,” Connor said. “These grants will help Reclamation find new technologies to treat water more efficiently and with less energy to meet those future demands.”