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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

The Design, Fabrication, and Test Program for NREL's Wave-Powered Desalination System: Preprint

Starting in 2018, the U.S. Department of Energy's Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO), initiated the development of a prize competition as a foundational investment of Powering the Blue Economy, The prize encouraged the development of small, modular, cost-competitive wave-powered desalination systems. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) was tasked with managing the prize, known as the Waves to Water Prize (W2W), and providing technical input based on prior desalination research performed at the lab. NREL partnered with the Coastal Studies Institute (CSI) and Jennette's Pier in North Carolina for their expertise in deploying research articles at the Jennette's Pier research facility. The prize consisted of five stages that included high-level concept proposals, numerical modelling, site- specific design, subsystem prototyping, and a final ocean demonstration. Due to the logistical risks of installing numerous prototypes in the ocean at the same time, NREL was tasked with designing and building a test article to de- risk the final event. The test article design needed to represent the technologies expected in the final stage of the prize. This meant that the design was expected to follow the same rules as the competitors, providing CSI with an opportunity to practice installations and develop a final logistics plan prior to the final event. After concluding the W2W event in April 2022, the NREL test article was redeployed in August 2022 to better understand the challenges of anchoring wave energy converters (WECs) in shallow water conditions with breaking waves. For the Spanish version of this report, see NREL/CP-5700-88482 (https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy24osti/88482.pdf).

deployment↗
DOE OSTI2024

The Design, Fabrication, and Test Program for NREL's Wave-Powered Desalination System

Starting in 2018, the U.S. Department of Energy's Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO), initiated the development of a prize competition as a foundational investment of Powering the Blue Economy, the prize encouraged the development of small, modular, cost-competitive wave-powered desalination systems. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) was tasked with managing the prize, known as the Waves to Water Prize (W2W), and providing technical input based on prior desalination research performed at the lab. NREL partnered with the Coastal Studies Institute (CSI) and Jennette's Pier in North Carolina for their expertise in deploying research articles at the Jennette's Pier research facility. The prize consisted of five stages that included high-level concept proposals, numerical modelling, site-specific design, subsystem prototyping, and a final ocean demonstration. Due to the logistical risks of installing numerous prototypes in the ocean at the same time, NREL was tasked with designing and building a test article to de-risk the final event. The test article design needed to represent the technologies expected in the final stage of the prize. This meant that the design was expected to follow the same rules as the competitors, providing CSI with an opportunity to practice installations and develop a final logistics plan prior to the final event. After concluding the W2W event in April 2022, the NREL test article was redeployed in August 2022 to better understand the challenges of anchoring wave energy converters (WECs) in shallow water conditions with breaking waves.

desalination↗
DOE OSTI2024

Distributed water desalination and purification systems: perspective and future directions

Distributed water treatment and desalination (DWTD) systems are critical for the development of a diverse water portfolio of the desired quality and intended use at the target location. Widespread adoption of DWTD has been hampered given the need for round-the-clock monitoring and the lack of local technical expertise for system management. However, self-adaptive operation, real-time remote monitoring, supervisory control, and asset management of DWTD systems are now feasible with the implementation of advanced local system control, cyberinfrastructure that facilitates real-time cloud-based analytics, data management, and artificial intelligence–powered decision support. Such an approach will introduce transformative virtual networks of DWTD systems to provide needed water to locations that are not served by centralized and satellite water treatment and desalination systems.

Cohen, Yoram [University of California, Los Angele↗
DOE OSTI2025

Supercritical water desalination and oxidation (SCWDO): Effectiveness on complex solutions, technoeconomic, and CO 2 impact for produced water treatment

The modern energy-economy is increasingly causing the production of highly saline brines, including from produced water. Supercritical water desalination can concentrate and extract minerals from these brines, but the effects of mixed salt interactions, organic degradation with additives, and the technology's economics are not well understood at supercritical condition. The present study evaluated and experimentally studied an integrated supercritical water desalination and oxidation (SCWDO) process for treating real-produced water samples from oil/natural gas field. The complex interactions between the various anions and cations in produced water were extensively evaluated. Most of the divalent and trivalent ions were extracted below 250 °C while the majority of the monovalent salt were removed between 380 to 410 °C. The treated real produced water was of drinking water quality, with <500 mg/l of total dissolved solid (TDS) and with 100% organics removal. Furthermore, the heat liberated during the organic oxidation could be utilized internally and for electricity generation for enhanced the energy efficiency and lower cost of produced water treatment. With system optimization, the proposed SCWDO process can essentially be made a net zero energy process. A novel process flow diagram for the commercial scale self-powered hybrid SCWDO technology was proposed as a cost-effective produced water treatment to mitigate the environmental crises. Techno-economic analysis showed that produced water treatment cost with SCWDO can be reduced to 2–3 $/m 3 and can be up to 60 % cheaper to traditional deep well reinjection. Additionally, the proposed SCWDO process could achieve net negative CO 2 emission.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2024

Flexible operation of nuclear hybrid energy systems for load following and water desalination

Nuclear hybrid energy systems (NHES) have the potential to provide dependable and emission-free electricity to the grid while also increasing the flexibility and reliability of the electrical grid. Molten salt reactor (MSR) technology can provide consistent, carbon-free electricity while also increasing efficiency, security, and sustainability and reducing nuclear waste. This study investigates the integration of Molten Salt Reactors (MSR) and conventional Pressurized Water Reactors (PWR) with desalination technologies: Direct Contact Membrane Distillation (DCMD), Multi-Stage Flash Distillation (MSFD), and Reverse Osmosis (RO). Dynamic first-principles models were developed and tested using real grid data from the New York Independent System Operator. The results demonstrate that nuclear power is capable of flexibly responding to changing grid demand while simultaneously producing clean water, particularly during periods of low electricity demand. The MSR-RO system was found to be the most efficient in electricity generation and water production, and all hybrid systems reduced CO2 emissions by 356,000 to 682,000 tons annually. Economic analysis reveals that nuclear desalination technologies are cost-competitive with conventional systems, especially when paired with RO. Finally, these findings confirm the technical feasibility and environmental benefits of nuclear hybrid systems for sustainable electricity and water production.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Electrocoagulation Combined with Ultrafiltration Membranes as Pretreatment for RO Desalination of Synthetic Cooling Tower Blowdown Water

Electrocoagulation (EC), an electrochemical water treatment process, is commonly used to remove particulate and colloidal matter from water. Here, in this study, we demonstrate that EC, when coupled with membrane filtration, is also capable of removing dissolved species, such as Ca + , Mg 2+ , and SiO x . The removal of such species is important for downstream membrane-based desalination treatment of the water that can suffer from reduced performance due to membrane scaling. Here, we describe how EC can be combined with a low-pressure membrane (LPM) system to offer efficient (and potentially universal) pretreatment for downstream membrane desalination. Synthetic water, simulating cooling tower blowdown (CTBD) with elevated concentrations of hardness and silicates (Ca: 418 ppm, Mg: 63 ppm, SiO 2 : 50 ppm) is treated using EC coupled to ultrafiltration (UF) to remove Mg up to 30 ± 1%, Ca up to 29 ± 1%, and silica up to 99 ± 1%. We evaluated the effectiveness of the EC-UF pretreatment system in reducing downstream RO scaling using thermodynamic modeling to predict the saturation index (SI) at the RO membrane/water interface. An SI value below zero (SI < 0) indicates under-saturated conditions (with respect to a particular mineral) where mineral scaling does not take place, which correlates with improved water recovery. Our findings suggest that the EC-UF pretreatment system was able to increase water recovery by up to 30%, compared to 0% recovery without pretreatment, under optimal conditions (feed solution pH of 7 and an EC charge loading of 1800 C/L). Finally, we conducted an economic analysis showing that implementing an EC-UF system for CTBD water could yield a cost benefit of up to $\$$14.13 per m 3 compared to direct brine disposal.

cooling tower blowdown↗
DOE OSTI2026

Resilient high-temperature reverse osmosis desalination membranes

Conventional thin-film composite (TFC) reverse osmosis (RO) membranes experience irreversible performance loss at high temperatures, restricting their use in industries with high-temperature streams, including oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, electronics, power generation, food production, and hybrid desalination plants. However, the mechanisms driving the performance decline of TFC membranes at high temperatures remain poorly understood. Herein, we combine controlled experiments, molecular dynamics simulations, and micromechanical modeling to elucidate TFC failure mechanisms and to evaluate thermally resilient thin-film cross-linked (TFX) composite membrane. Upon exposure to elevated temperatures (>60°C), salt rejection of TFC dropped from ~99 to <90%, with irreversible structural damage in the polysulfone layer, confirmed by scanning electron microscopy. In contrast, the TFX membrane maintained ~99% salt rejection and showed no signs of physical degradation up to 80°C. Our combined analyses revealed that TFC membrane failure arises from irreversible pore expansion in the thermoplastic polysulfone support, leading to polyamide film rupture and delamination. TFX membranes resist thermal deformation, enabling ultrahigh-temperature RO desalination and water reuse.

Wu, Jishan [Rice Univ., Houston, TX (United States↗
DOE OSTI2025

Abbr. Final report: Self-assembled molecular containers as artificial water channels: towards biomimetic desalination membranes

Global water scarcity demands advances in desalination technologies that can deliver more fresh water with less energy. Current reverse osmosis membranes are fundamentally limited by a trade-off between how much water they can pass and how well they block salts. To address this challenge, we developed a bottom-up strategy to design and test artificial water channels that mimic the efficiency of biological proteins but are built from robust synthetic molecules. Over two years, we synthesized and evaluated more than twenty molecular channel candidates, including supramolecular macrocycles and nanographene pores with atomically precise structures. We showed that small chemical modifications allow direct control over pore size and chemistry, which in turn govern water permeability and salt rejection. In collaboration with university partners, we reported the first experimental demonstration of water transport through a nanographene pore, bridging a long-standing gap between simulation and experiment. Several of the artificial channels we developed achieved water–salt selectivity beyond conventional polymer membranes, highlighting their potential for next-generation desalination and precision separations.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Scalable Graphene Oxide Hollow Fiber Membranes for Dye Desalination Enabled by Multi‐Purpose Polyamine Functionalization

2D nanosheets such as graphene oxide (GO) can be stacked to construct membranes with fine-tuned nanochannels to achieve molecular sieving ability. These membranes are often thin to achieve high water permeance, but their fabrication with consistent nanostructures on a large scale presents an enormous challenge. Herein, GO-based hollow fiber membranes (HFMs) are developed for dye desalination by synergistically combining chemical etching to form in-plane nanopores (10–30 nm) to increase water permeance and polyamine functionalization to improve underwater stability and enable facile large-scale production using existing membrane manufacturing processes. HFM modules with areas of 88 cm 2 and GO layer thicknesses of ≈500 nm are fabricated, and they exhibited a stable dye water permeance of 75 L m −2 h −1 bar −1 , rejection of >99.5% for Direct red and Congo red, and Na 2 SO 4 /dye separation factor of 300–500, superior to state-of-the-art commercial membranes. Furthermore, the versatility of this approach is also demonstrated using different short polyamines and porous substrates. This study reveals a scalable way of designing 2D materials into high-performance robust membranes for practical applications.

amine functionalization↗
DOE OSTI2026

Stable yet hydrophilic graphene oxide nanomembranes by zwitterionic reduction for dye desalination

Holey graphene oxide (HGO) nanosheets have emerged as a promising membrane platform for dye desalination, and they must be reduced to enhance hydrophobicity and stability for long-term underwater operation, which usually decreases water and salt permeance. Herein, we develop a facile method to stabilize HGO nanosheets while retaining their hydrophilicity by reducing them with sulfobetaine amine (SBAm, a superhydrophilic zwitterion), achieving high water and salt permeance and a high salt/dye separation factor. Specifically, HGO nanosheets react with SBAm via an amine-epoxide reaction, rendering reduced HGO nanosheets containing superhydrophilic zwitterions. The effects of in-plane pores, zwitterion content, and layer thickness on the membrane chemistry, structure, and salt/dye separation properties of the SBAm-reduced HGOs (SHGOs) are thoroughly examined. The membrane achieves a Na 2 SO 4 /Direct red separation factor of up to 850, surpassing the state-of-the-art GO membranes. Moreover, hollow fiber membrane modules based on SHGOs are fabricated and exhibit stable performance in multi-cycle tests over 100 h of operation with mixed dye-salt solutions, demonstrating the scalability of our approach and its potential for practical applications.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2025

Nonlinear programming optimization of a single-stack electrodialysis desalination system for cost efficiency

Electrodialysis (ED) presents a competitive method for desalinating brackish waters. In this work, we perform cost optimization of a single-stack ED system across a range of feed salinities and water recoveries while optimizing operating voltage, number of cell pairs, and cell length. The results of our optimization show that the levelized cost of water (LCOW) increases with an increase in feed salinity. The outcomes of our optimization show that cost-optimal design generally increases cell length while decreasing cell pair number and operating voltage with an increase in salinity. These trends are nonlinear, with the number of cell pairs and applied voltage exhibiting local maxima when operating at low salinity and high recovery. We discuss the underlying mechanism for cell length becoming a leveraging design parameter by inspecting the length-dependent profiles of key electrochemical properties of the ED cell. Finally, we present how increasing performance metrics and decreasing costs impact LCOW, demonstrating that innovations that decrease counter-current diffusion have resulted in the highest decrease of LCOW.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Modeling of multi-component precipitation and crystallization for zero-liquid-discharge desalination

This study proposes novel ZLD treatment trains that integrate multi-component chemical precipitation and multi-effect evaporative crystallization for efficient brine management. The methodology emphasizes sustainability by integrating CO₂ for chemical precipitation and reducing environmental impact, exemplified with two case studies: produced water that includes industrial waste heat utilization by adopting the emerging vacuum air-gapped membrane distillation (VAGMD) technology, and brackish groundwater that is abundant in sulphate which undergoes treatment by low-salt-rejection reverse osmosis (LSRRO) with interstage chemical precipitation. Here, this study is the first of its kind to simultaneously account for reducing risk of mineral scaling and effective recovery of valuable solids when incorporating VAGMD and LSRRO in ZLD treatment trains. Using Reaktoro and WaterTAP, both Python-based, open-source platforms, we model the recovery of high-purity magnesium, calcium, and sodium salts while optimizing energy consumption and operational efficiency in proposed ZLD pathways for case studies of produced water and brackish desalination brine management. Validation with experimental and reference data confirms the reliability of the models used. In both case studies, the optimized ZLD process achieves recovery rates of 97%, 99%, and 90% for Mg, Ca, and Na, with purities exceeding 99%, and brine volume reduced to less than 4% of the initial feed flow.

3D CT scans↗
DOE OSTI2025

Stimulated Raman Scattering Microscopy: Real-Time In-Situ Physical and Chemical Characterization of Reverse Osmosis Desalination Membrane Scaling

We introduce a stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) methodology designed for rapid, real-time, and in situ monitoring of RO membrane scaling adapted for bench-scale desalination flow cells. The methodology can provide new insights into membrane scaling dynamics by offering time-resolved reflection imaging of inorganic crystal growth, coupled with chemical identification from Raman spectral data. These capabilities allow for direct local measurement of the membrane surface area covered by different scalants as well as an approximation of the scalant volume using three-dimensional, integrated Raman intensity. The 2D and 3D SRS results obtained from CaSO 4 scaling experiments are compared to and are in reasonable agreement with those provided by confocal microscopy. The real-time physical and chemical characterization capabilities presented here could be extended to study combinations of inorganic, organic, and biological fouling. Overall, the SRS methodology represents an advancement in real-time sensing of membrane fouling that offers the potential for improved operation, lower cost, and more resilient RO membrane systems for sustainable water management.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2025

WEC-SIM Support for an Innovative Zero Discharge Supercritical Water Based Wave Energy Desalination System (CRADA Final Report)

NREL will assist East Carolina University in its development of the foundational knowledge and proof of concept that are needed for future process scale up and commercialization of a sustainable wave-to-water (direct pressurization) desalination unit powered by a wave energy converter. NREL will provide guidance and support to East Carolina University on its: use of the NREL developed WEC-Sim based wave to water system, exploring the WEC-Sim/ASPEN Plus data exchange communication, and using experimental data to hopefully provide validation of analytical models.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗
DOE OSTI2026

Superstructure Optimization for Brine Valorization from Brackish Water Desalination

This poster presents preliminary results from a superstructure optimization framework developed to identify cost-optimal brine valorization configurations for brackish water desalination plants across diverse U.S. regional feed chemistries. The study uses brackish groundwater compositions from Arizona, California, Florida, New Mexico, and Texas. Using Pyomo Generalized Disjunctive Programming (GDP) within the WaterTAP modeling environment, the optimization framework simultaneously evaluates thousands of candidate treatment configurations, spanning nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, and chemical precipitation, to minimize the levelized cost of water (LCOW) while meeting water recovery targets and product recovery constraints. Results across eight representative feed clusters demonstrate water recovery rates of 57–87% and net LCOW values ranging from -$0.032/m³ (net revenue-positive) to $0.80/m. Notably, no single process configuration was optimal across all feed types, underscoring the necessity of feed-specific optimization. Products targeted include calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) at $0.01/kg and sodium chloride (NaCl) at $0.10/kg, both at 95% purity, with product revenues offsetting treatment costs in several scenarios. The work advances NAWI's process systems engineering capabilities for multi-configuration screening.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Insights into Probing the Effect of Molecular Weight of Poly(carboxybetaine methacrylate) on the Performance of Forward Osmosis Desalination

Zwitterionic polymers have proven to be a promising nonfouling material that can be applied in the design of selective layers of thin film composite (TFC) membranes. Extending the permeability and usage of TFC membranes have attracted increasing interest in membrane-based desalination processes since water-flux reduction associated with biofouling nowadays persists as a common challenge. By virtue of its strong hydration, this polymer category is very useful to counteract biofouling in marine and biomedical systems, but the benefits from their application in membrane technology are still emerging. The efficacy of the nonfouling property as a function of the polymer’s molecular weight remains unknown. In pursuit of that vision, this study fosters new scientific insights via probing different molecular weights of poly(carboxybetain methacrylate) (PCBMA) coated on the surface as a selective layer for the prepared TFC membranes. The coated zwitterionic membranes (zM) exhibited excellent performance in preventing water flux decay in a bench-scale forward osmosis system. The prepared zM membranes revealed enhanced hydrophilic properties and retained their operational water flux when compared to the control. Our results suggest that using an intermediate-size molecular weight (PCBMA M n 50,000) will result in the best operational performance. The intermediate size resulted in the lowest flux decline rate (R t ) of 0.01 ± 0.001 (zM-50) when compared to the unmodified control membrane 0.56 ± 0.071 (M0) after using a model BSA foulant solution. Furthermore, all coated membranes exhibited similar trends in the observed reverse salt flux profiles, as well. In conclusion, the constructed zM membranes will serve as a model to develop further selective layers in the construction of TFC membranes.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Evaluating Property Model Accuracy for Cost Optimization of Desalination Technologies

Conference presentation conveying work conducted on property modeling and implications on cost optimization of seawater desalination technology. The authors assess the accuracy of four different property modeling approaches to represent thermodynamic properties of seawater. These properties are used with process flowsheets that include either reverse osmosis or mechanical vapor compression. The accuracy of property estimation is related to deviations in process design and levelized cost.

Sakhai, Savannah↗
DOE OSTI2023

A Comparison of Power Take-Off Architectures for Wave-Powered Reverse Osmosis Desalination of Seawater with Co-Production of Electricity

Several power take-off (PTO) architectures for wave-powered reverse osmosis (RO) desalination of seawater are introduced and compared based on the annual average freshwater production and the size of the components, which strongly relate to the costs of the system. The set of architectures compared includes a novel series-type PTO architecture not previously considered. These seawater hydraulic PTO architectures are composed of a WEC-driven pump, an RO module, an intake charge pump driven by an electric motor, and a hydraulic motor driving an electric generator for electric power production. This study is performed using an efficient two-way coupled steady-state model for the average performance of the system in a given sea state, including freshwater permeate production, electric power production, and electric power consumption. A multi-objective design problem is formulated for the purposes of this comparative study, with the objectives of maximizing annual freshwater production, minimizing the displacement of the WEC-driven pump, and minimizing the installed RO membrane area. This establishes a framework for comparison in the absence of a mature techno-economic model. The requirement that the system produces enough electric power to meet its consumption is applied as a constraint on the operation of the system. The oscillating wave surge converter Oyster 1 is assumed as the WEC. Weights on performance of the system in a given sea state are based on historical data from Humboldt Bay, CA. This study finds that (1) architectures in a series configuration allow for a reduction in the WEC-driven pump size of 59–92% compared to prior work, (2) varying the displacement of the WEC-driven pump between sea conditions does not provide any significant advantage in performance, and (3) varying the active RO membrane area between sea condition offers improvements between 7% and 41% in each design objective.

Energy & Fuels↗