The Department of Energy plans to award a five-year, $100M contract to fund the establishment of a research and development center that will focus on developing systems designed to remove salts from water.
DOE said Thursday its Energy-Water Desalination Hub will conduct early-stage studies to determine manufacturing challenges and approaches to treat non-traditional water sources.
“Technological achievements generated through the Hub will help us achieve several strategic goals established through the Water Security Grand Challenge announced earlier this year,†said Energy Secretary Rick Perry.
“By focusing R&D efforts on advancing transformational technologies that promote cost-effective desalination, we are working towards meeting the national and global need for secure, affordable water.”
The hub is intended to address the technical areas of materials, new processes, modeling and simulation and integrated data and analysis.
DOE aims intends for researchers to identify “low-cost” alternatives to treat seawater, brackish water, produced waters and other “non-traditional” water sources.