Desalination and Water Purification Research Program Pitch to Pilot for Fiscal Year 2020

Reclamation is interested in research where the benefits are widespread but where private-sector entities are not able to make the full investment and assume all the risks. Reclamation is also interested in research that has a national significance—where the issues are of large-scale concern and the benefits accrue to a large sector of the public. The goal of the Desalination and Water Purification Research (DWPR) program is to address the need to reduce the costs, energy requirements, and environmental impacts of treating impaired and unusable water. DWPR program activities further support multiple Administration initiatives, including the 2018 Presidential Memorandum Promoting the Reliable Supply and Delivery of Water in the West as well as the 2020 National Water Reuse Action Plan.

Eligible projects are pilot-scale technologies or processes that incorporate or are innovative and disruptive technologies involving flow rates above one gallon per minute and that need to be tested using natural water sources rather than synthetic or laboratory-made feed water. These projects are typically used to determine the technical, practical, and/or economic feasibility of a process. Preliminary costs can be developed for capital and operation and maintenance costs. The description of the technology or process should identify the uniqueness and the disruptive nature of the technology or process itself and/or the testing of it.

The objectives of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) are to develop innovative and disruptive new technologies or processes:

• To treat brackish groundwater in a less energy-intensive way than current processes and technologies
• Manage reverse osmosis/nanofiltration concentrate by reducing cost, energy, and/or environmental impacts
• Improve efficiency of water treatment processes—either by improvements to pre-treatment, post-treatment, monitoring, sensors, or other innovative process/technology
• To address costs, energy usage, and/or environmental impacts of seawater desalination, including intakes and/or outfalls
• To reduce the costs, energy requirements, and/or environmental impacts of treating impaired and unusable water to standards necessary for an identified beneficial use

See the Related Documents Tab above for the Full Funding Opportunity Announcement Document

Government

• State governments
• City or township governments
• County governments
• Federally recognized Native American tribal governments
• Special district governments

Education

• Public and state institutions of higher education
• Private institutions of higher education

Nonprofit

• Other Native American tribal organizations
• Nonprofits non-higher education without 501(c)(3)
• Nonprofits non-higher education with 501(c)(3)

Business

• Small businesses
• For-profit organizations other than small businesses

Miscellaneous

• Individuals