US DOE announces funding for desalination projects

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI) announced U.S. $5 million funding to  support early-stage applied research on desalination technologies that will help bring freshwater supplies to US' communities.

“These water innovation projects allow for incredible development to improve energy efficiency in desalination processes,” said Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Kelly Speakes-Backman in a statement.

“By building a circular economy of water that is more energy efficient and powered by renewable electricity, we’re not only staying on our path towards continuous industry decarbonization, we’re also pushing our water and wastewater infrastructure one step further in the future, and carving out a cleaner, greener energy economy for generations to come,” Backman added.

Water sources contain high levels of salt and contaminants, which has been a challenging problem growing in the U.S.