Bureau of Reclamation Awards $3.6 Million for desalination and water purification research

Bureau of Reclamation Acting Commissioner Alan Mikkelsen announced today that Reclamation will provide $3.62 million to conduct laboratory and pilot-scale desalination and water purification research in 13 states.

Sixteen laboratory projects, four new pilot-scale projects and one continuing pilot-scale project were selected. The $3.62 million in federal funding is being matched by $3.52 million in non-federal funds.

"Desalination and water treatment provide a potential new source of water for communities throughout the West," Mikkelsen said. "The research funding provided today will enable new technologies to be studied to see if they can help improve the treatment of water."

The Desalination and Water Purification Research Program is helping Reclamation and its partners confront widening imbalances between supply and demand in basins throughout the Western United States through testing and development of new advanced water treatment technologies.

The DWPR Program focuses on three main goals: (1) augment the supply of usable water in the United States; (2) understand the environmental impacts of desalination and develop approaches to minimize these impacts relative to other water supply alternatives; (3) develop approaches to lower the financial costs of desalination so that it is an attractive option relative to other alternatives in locations where traditional sources of water are inadequate.

The laboratory projects in the following list are bench-scale studies that are completed within one year. Pilot-scale studies are bigger and are completed within two years. For more complete descriptions of the projects, see https://www.usbr.gov/research/dwpr/.

Laboratory-Scale Projects

• California
  Orange County Water District; Reclamation Funding: $149,894, non-federal Funding: $539,747
• Connecticut
  Yale University; Reclamation Funding: $150,000, non-federal Funding: $39,236

  University of Connecticut; Reclamation Funding: $149,965, non-federal Funding: $16,560

• Florida
  University of South Florida; Reclamation Funding: $150,000, non-federal Funding: $0
• Kansas
  University of Kansas Center for Research, Inc.; Reclamation Funding: $54,802, non-federal Funding: $54,802
• Massachusetts
  Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Reclamation Funding: $150,000, non-federal Funding: $0

  Northeastern University; Reclamation Funding: $150,000, non-federal Funding: $5,000

• Nebraska
  University of Nebraska, Lincoln; Reclamation Funding: $147,217, non-federal Funding: $0
• New Mexico
  New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology; Reclamation Funding: $148,704, non-federal Funding: $73,242
• New York
  Research Foundation for the State University of New York; Reclamation Funding: $150,000, non-federal Funding: $37,503
• North Carolina
  University of North Carolina; Reclamation Funding: $144,438, non-federal Funding: $0
• Oklahoma
  University of Tulsa; Reclamation Funding: $144,396, non-federal Funding: $0
• Pennsylvania
  Saint Francis University; Reclamation Funding: $133,519, non-federal Funding: $0

  GreenBlu, LLC; Reclamation Funding: $149,994, non-federal Funding: $149,998

• Texas
  Texas Tech University; Reclamation Funding: $144,696, non-federal Funding: $0
• Wyoming
  University of Wyoming; Reclamation Funding: $148,880, non-federal Funding: $0

Pilot-Scale Testing

• California
  Orange County Water District; Reclamation Funding: $249,966, non-federal Funding: $766,682

  Regents of the University of California, Los Angeles; Reclamation Funding: $299,062, non-federal Funding: $300,000

• Massachusetts
  Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Reclamation Funding: $199,000; non-federal Funding: $200,000
• New Mexico
  Regents of New Mexico State University; Reclamation Funding: $399,292; non-federal Funding: $399,292

Second- Year Continuing Pilot Scale Project from fiscal year 2016

• California
  Eastern Municipal Water District; Reclamation Funding: $200,000; non-federal funding: $1,876,688

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Original Source

https://www.usbr.gov/newsroom/newsrelease/detail.cfm?RecordID=60449