Desalination roadmap seeks technological solutions to increase the nation’s water supply

Desalination roadmap seeks technological solutions to increase the nation’s water supply 07.06.2006

After one last meeting in San Antonio in April, Sandia National Laboratories researchers Pat Brady and Tom Hinkebein are putting the final touches on the updated Desalination and Water Purification Roadmap -- "Roadmap 2" -- that should result in more fresh water in parts of the world where potable water is scarce.

The updated roadmap is the result of three previous meetings -- two in San Diego and one in Tampa -- and the last held in April where many government agency, national laboratory, university and private partners gathered to map out the future of desalination in the U.S. The first roadmap identified overall goals and areas of desalination research and was submitted to Congress in 2003.

Brady expects the second roadmap to be completed shortly, and the Joint Water Reuse and Desalination Task Force will then submit it to Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., chairman of the Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, Congress and eventually the water user and research communities. The task force consists of the Bureau of Reclamation, the WaterReuse Foundation, the American Water Works Association Research Foundation and Sandia.

The roadmap will recommend specific areas of potential water desalination research and development that may lead to technological solutions to water shortage problems.

"Population growth in the U.S. is expected to increase 13.6 percent per decade [over the next two decades]," says Hinkebein, manager of Sandia’s Geochemistry Department and head of Sandia’s Advanced Concepts Desalination Group. "There will be 29 percent more of us in 20 years. Put that together with an unequal distribution of people -- more moving to Texas, California, Arizona and New Mexico where fresh water is limited -- and it is easy to see we are facing a challenging water future."

Only 0.5 percent of Earth’s water is directly suitable for human consumption. The rest is composed of saltwater or locked up in glaciers and icecaps. As the world’s population grows, the increased water demand will have to come from someplace. Brackish water seems to be a natural source, Hinkebein says.

Roadmap 2 will outline the specific research needed in high-impact areas to create more fresh water from currently undrinkable brackish water, from seawater, and from wastewater. It will ensure that different organizations are not duplicating research.

Water desalination is not a new concept. In the U.S., the largest plants are in El Paso and Tampa. It is also commonplace in other parts of the world. Except for the Middle East, most desalination is done through reverse osmosis.

Brady says 43 research areas have been tentatively identified and some projects are already under way, jump started with $2 million made available for the preliminary research through a matching grant from the California Department of Water Resources. California provided $1 million and members of the Joint Water Reuse and Desalination Task Force each contributed $250,000.

Another $4 million in fiscal years 2004, 2005 and 2006 through federal Energy and Water Development Appropriations bills secured by Domenici has also funded desalination research at Sandia.

"The task force will decide which of the 43 projects get to the top of the research pile," Brady says. "As more money is made available, universities, research groups, national laboratories and private companies will bid on projects."

* Membrane technologies (mainly reverse osmosis) that desalinate and purify water by pushing it through a semipermeable membrane that removes contaminants. * Alternative technologies that take advantage of nontraditional methods. * Concentrate management technologies that consider the disposal and/or beneficial use of desalination waste streams. * Reuse/recycling technologies that look at ways membrane and alternative technologies can be used to more efficiently recycle water.

Much of the research could be conducted at the soon-to-be-completed Tularosa Basin National Desalination Research Facility in Alamogordo.

The deep question with regards to Mexico is how do you make Mexico a first class country. This is something that Vincente Fox brought up frequently in May and June.

The trouble is that no one quite sees that the very best thing we could do for Mexico is to send their now well trained citizens home.

Suddenly Mexico would have a skilled workforce who knew something about how a world class country worked.

Think these folk would propel a great leap forward for Mexico?

I do.

Basically the ruling class in Mexico is preditory to its own detriment and will not change of its own volition--even if those changes were in its own interest. But it can be forced to change.

The Mexicans in the USA have had the picture of what a well run country looks like tatooed on the back of their eyeballs. And they'll have an idea of how to get there. Send them back to Mexico and they'll get a revolution in Mexico that'll do that country some good.

The shock troops for that would be the 12 million repatriated Mexican citizens. Having seen what a well run country looks like they would not want to be stuffed back in the old wineskin.

Also, Mexico will need a stronger dose of of the Peruvian Hernando Desoto ideas. Basically DeSoto asked the question why are some countries poor and some countries rich. The basic answers is that in poor countries most of their economy is informal or off the books and their property--ie--land is not formally recognized. (Therefor these countries have no borrowing power and property has no value that can be transferred or liquidated.)De Soto's solutions are being implimented successfully in countries around the world. http://www.ild.org.pe/home.htm

Hernando de Soto's organization was invited to Mexico and did some work on the question. He says that only 6 percent of Mexican enterprises are legal, the rest are informal or off the books. So how do you reverse that so that only 6% of the economy is informal -- as is the case the USA. De Soto would provide the ideas around which the 12 million american trained Mexican returnees could rally.

There's something more.

I follow water desalination research pretty closely. While water desalination costs have dropped to about a third of what they were 15 years ago--the rate at which prices will drop over the next seven years will accelerate considerably. imo in even the next five years we will see desalination costs drop to 1/10th of today's costs. Or even faster than the fall the 3/4 fall that the LLNL researchers suggest. http://www.physorg.com/news67262683.html Basically, the foundations are being laid today to make it economically feasable to to turn all the world's deserts green. (The proper way to look at this is to recall that cars, tv's and computers were at first rich men's toys but when prices came down they changed the world. Desalinised water is still relatively speaking -- a rich man's toy. But when the price drops sufficiently--desalinised water will change the world--because most deserts are right beside the ocean. Pumping the water 1000 miles inland will require that the scientists collapse the cost cracking out hydrogen from water. I think that this nut will be cracked sooner than desalination.)

imho cheap desalinised water will do for the republicans (if they can get this on their agenda or even the democrats if the pubbies drop the ball) what the great dam building projects & the tva of the 1930's & 40's did for democrats because 1/3 of the US is deserts. We would increase the habitable size of the USA by 1/3.

Dirt cheap desalinised water will also do things like make it possible to double the habitable size of Mexico. Cheap water is no magic bullet but it will give the Mexican Nationalists a way to dream while the Mexican people do the real work.

A first generation crop that might be appropriate would be one that India has chosen for ist biofuels program. The crop is Jatropha Curcas - a bush. This shrub produces a seed containing oil. This oil works well for biodiesel production ( see http://www.d1plc.com ).

Jatropha Curcas is native to Mexico and Central America (probably originated there). This shrub can be grown in large plantations on marginal soil - assuming some reasonable amount of, say, desalinated water).

Think Jatropha Curas could take up the slack from current oil production? I do.

But years before the USA collapsed the cost of desalinised water--the USA could change the future by announcing that the goal of American research is to kill the cost of water desalination and transport so that it becomes economically possible to turn the world's deserts green. Reagan changed the future by announcing star wars. Bush could change the future by announcing the plan for the greening of the world's deserts.

And desalinated water in tandem with repatriation of now skilled Mexican citizens would propel Mexico into being a world class country.

There is a winner here. The winner is Mexico.

The US profits too by having a prosperous politically stable country with a broad middle class to the south as we do to the north.

Don't let anyone get away with the inane alternative reality that "we are running out of water". There is plenty of water, indeed the oceans are just as full as they ever were. People in various places could certainly be short of inexpensive water, but if they were low on water, it could be delivered by the pallet load by UPS for a few hundred dollars.

Indeed, one of the fastest selling brands of bottled water comes from Fiji. I can put a liter of water from Fiji in the hands of anyone served by Fedex, anywhere in the world, overnight for less than $100.

Seriously, desalination units are a wonderful new technology that is not very expensive. Israel is just finishing a unit that produces about 29 billion gallons per year at the cost of 1/5 of a cent per gallon. (That is about 1/3 of what I am paying for my residential water.)

see:
http://www.water-technology.net/projects/israel/specs.html

I see that several jurisdictions in Kali have approved desal plants. That is great. I once stayed in a hotel within sight of the ocean in Southern Kali that had signs asking to guests to save water. What a morooonish request- within sight of the ocean and short of water!

(In truth, the water utility was just trying to avoid spending the money necessary to have sufficient capacity. With desal, they no longer have any excuse.)

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