The Bureau of Reclamation will give $1.69 million to nine projects to conduct pilot testing on proposed water treatment technologies that will make unusable water usable.
The projects were selected through a two-stage process for the Desalination and Water Purification Research Program, with the first stage that included submission of a research idea and the second step involving select projects ideas being pitched before a panel of experts, a Dec. 5 news release said.
“Reclamation has been supporting utilizing new and novel technologies for water resource development for 120 years," Chief Engineer David Raff said in the release. “Water treatment technology is evolving rapidly, and these projects can improve and expand the accessibility to previously unusable water, especially for communities with some of the most urgent water needs.”
According to the release, the selected projects are Carollo Engineers Inc. for pilot testing of a novel energy efficient configuration for carbon diversion and CEC removal at $200,000 and an innovative ion exchange-based advanced treatment approach for direct and indirect potable reuse at $199,989; Enspired Solutions LLC for reductive defluorination PFAS destruction field-scale pilot test at $200,000; and Hazen and Sawyer for improving RO recovery through optimization of flux and pump usage with real-time sensor connectivity, data-driven modeling and automation at $197,294 and a pilot scale PFAS destruction in membrane concentrate via electrochemical oxidation, $196,916.
Additional projects, according to the release, are Orange County Water District for in-situ gravity-driven removal of PFAS during groundwater recharge to protect drinking water at $199,430; South Platte Renew for retrofitting existing infrastructure for sidestream biological phosphorus treatment to reduce coagulant costs and discharged salts associated with chemical phosphorus removal at $100,000; Southern Nevada Water Authority for assessment of innovative dissolved air flotation approaches for conventional water treatment at $200,000; the Research Foundation for the State University of New York - Stony Brook University for enhancing the removal of hydrophilic PFAs by granular activated carbon using hydrophobic ion-pairing as pre-treatment at $199,601.
The Bureau of Reclamation previously announced up to $2 million was available through the Desalination and Water Purification Research Program for entities who were to submit proposals for “research projects to increase water supplies by reducing the cost, energy consumption and environmental impacts of treating impaired or otherwise unusable waters,” a September news release said.
Up to $250,000 in funding spanning two years was available for laboratory-scale projects, and up to $800,000 in funding over three years was available for pilot-scale projects, the September release reported.
“A laboratory-scale project typically uses small flow rates to determine the viability of new processes, new materials or process modifications,” the September release said. “A pilot-scale project uses larger flow rates to assess the practicality of implementing the technology at a larger scale and includes generating data to estimate operational and cost requirements.”
The mission of the Desalination and Water Purification Research Program is to develop “innovative, cost-effective and technologically efficient ways to desalinate water,” its website said.
