Energy-Water Desalination Hub
LBNL will lead an early-stage applied research program to develop innovative new technologies to lower the cost of desalination and associated water treatment, focusing on enabling distributed desalination and localized water reuse.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Recipient
Berkeley, CA
Recipient Location
9th
Senate District
14th
Assembly District
$3,000,000
Amount Spent
Active
Project Status
Project Update
The National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI) Program completed its first 5 years of operation and has received a no-cost extension from the U.S. Department of Energy until December 31, 2026. NAWI selected 65 projects for funding across 8 funding opportunities with more than 900 applicants in total. DOE has renewed NAWI for a second 5-year term, with an additional $75M in funding. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) has invoiced for the full amount of the agreement. The project scale goes beyond the funding period. Updates such as publications and roadmaps may be found on NAWI's website. Link: https://www.nawihub.org/roadmaps. Many NAWI projects in California will continue to execute their work through 2025.
The Issue
Current desalination technologies cannot produce clean water from most inland brackish water aquifers, industrial and municipal wastewater, produced water from oil and gas extraction, or agricultural wastewaters at a cost and energy usage comparable to existing fresh water supplies. Enabling cost-competitive access to non-traditional water sources will help address California's water and drought resiliency.
Project Innovation
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) is the technical and administrative lead of the Department of Energy's Energy-Water Desalination Hub, a 5-year, $100 million contract. LBNL will lead early-stage applied research program to develop innovative new technologies to lower the cost of desalination and associated water treatment, focusing on enabling distributed desalination and localized water reuse. The program will be organized into 4 Topic Areas: Materials and Manufacturing Research and Development (R&D), Process Innovation and Intensification R&D, Modeling and Simulation R&D and Integrated Data and Analysis.
Project Benefits
The water desalination hub will conduct research that will help develop new water sources and specific activities pertinent to California include:
1)Conduct applied research on new technologies and methods to lower the cost and energy of desalination on 'non-traditional' waters such as inland brackish groundwater, oil and gas produced water and wastewater from power plants.
2)Develop and release a new database (Water-DAMS) that enable users to find current energy and cost data for water treatment in a wide variety of settings and industries
3)Develop and release a computer modeling program (PROTEUS) that enables water treatment engineers and researchers to simulate treatment operations for the purpose of energy and cost optimization
4)Conduct research into the causes and solutions for reducing mineral scaling in RO systems - a leading cause of energy loss in desalination.
Affordability
The recipient conducts an integrated research program focusing on new technologies and methods to lower the cost and energy use for desalination on “non-traditional” water sources. Uncovering new technologies that lower the energy and operating costs of desalination will enable use of these water sources and possibly forego the need to purchase and transport potable water to communities.
Environmental Sustainability
The recipient conducts an integrated program that could result in new technologies and methods to lower the energy use associated with desalination on “non-traditional” waters such as inland brackish groundwater, oil and gas produced water, and wastewater from power plants. The recipient will focus on treating produced water, which may otherwise go untreated.
Key Project Members
