Seeking: New Approaches for Concentrate Management from Inland Desalination and Municipal Wastewater Reuse Systems

 

Overview:

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is seeking a landscape of new and emerging methods for managing concentrate from inland desalination and municipal wastewater reuse systems. The goal is to incentivize further development of novel solutions deemed most likely to overcome existing economic and technical barriers to concentrate management.  

 

Background:

Clean water is an increasingly scarce and essential resource. While conservation extends existing surface and groundwater supplies, it cannot fully meet growing demand. As populations rise, municipalities are turning to inland brackish groundwater desalination and potable wastewater reuse.

However, these water treatment methods produce concentrate (a.k.a brine, reject water stream), consisting of dissolved salts and minerals and other contaminants. Managing this concentrate is one of the significant challenges facing treatment facilities. Common methods—such as evaporation ponds, deep well injection, and surface discharge—are constrained by geography, geology, regulation, and cost.

The objective of this project is to discover emerging approaches and solutions that could potentially (1) reduce the quantity, cost and environmental burden of concentrate disposal or (2) valorize components of the concentrate.

 

Evaluated criteria:

• Technology readiness: Commercial readiness preferred, lower TRL (prototype or pilot testing) considered if clear pathway to scale
• Cost-effectiveness and ROI metrics (e.g., treatment cost per gallon)
• Energy intensity of the treatment
• Operator labor, chemical use, and maintenance complexity
• Applicability to different water chemistries (brackish groundwater, brine streams, wastewater)
• Environmental impact
  • Reduction of brine volume
  • Improved/new disposal pathway for concentrate
  • Lower chemical input requirements
• Valorization of minerals and metals in brine
• Geographic requirements

 

Possible Solution Areas:

Topics to investigate include, but are not limited to

Treatment and disposal technologies:

• Minimal liquid discharge (MLD)/zero liquid discharge (ZLD)
• Low energy membrane brine concentration technologies
• Low energy membrane crystallization technologies
• Disposal options
• Solutions suitable for small communities

 Resource Recovery:

• Advanced technologies for extraction of valuable constituents from brine

 

Desired outcome of the solution:

Identify, evaluate and align promising technologies and solutions with financial opportunities such as prize competitions, government programs, and private funding.

 

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