The United States Department of the Interior (Department), Bureau of Reclamation’s (Reclamation) Desalination and Water Purification Research Program (DWPR) works with Reclamation researchers and partners to develop innovative, cost-effective, and technologically efficient ways to desalinate and treat water.
DWPR funding plays a critical role in iterating an idea from the lab to a real-world demonstration, yielding products that serve the water treatment community and attract commercialization interest. 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.
This NOFO’s objective are to develop innovative and disruptive new technologies or processes to:
• Reduce the costs, energy requirements, and/or environmental impacts of treating impaired and unusable water to standards necessary for an identified beneficial use.
• Improve efficiency of water treatment processes—either by improvements to pretreatment, post-treatment, monitoring, sensors, or other innovative process/technology.
• Increase effectiveness of reverse osmosis/nanofiltration concentrate management by reducing cost, energy, and/or environmental impacts.
• Treat brackish groundwater in a less energy-intensive way than current processes and technologies.
• Address costs, energy usage, and/or environmental impacts of seawater desalination, including intakes and/or outfalls
• Improve the detection, characterization, monitoring, separation, or destruction of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and other contaminants of concern.
The funds provided through this NOFO will be available for selected recipients to design, construct, install, and test a pilot-scale process at an already known location using a real water source. Reclamation’s Brackish Groundwater National Desalination Research Facility (BGNDRF) in Alamogordo, New Mexico, and Water Quality Improvement Center (WQIC) in Yuma, Arizona, may be available if a location for testing is needed.
Deadline for Phase I Technical Proposal: June 20, 2023, at 4:00 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time
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 pretreatment, 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.
Applicants eligible to receive financial assistance to fund activities under this NOFO include: state governments, county governments, city or township governments, special district governments, Native American tribal governments, institutions of higher education, nonprofits, individuals, and for profit organizations.
Eligible projects are innovative pilot-scale technologies or processes tested at flow rates above one gallon per minute using natural water sources (rather than synthetic or laboratory-made feed water). Innovative is defined herein as an approach, process, and/or technology that is not being implemented at full scale in the United States but shows promise for scaled-up implementation in the field of water treatment. This pilot testing is typically used to determine the technical, practical, and/or economic feasibility of a process or technology
Approximately $2,000,000 is available for this NOFO, with per-project limits as described in Section B.2. Expected Award Amount. Reclamation will determine the final amount of Federal funding available for award under this NOFO once final fiscal year (FY) 2024 appropriations have been made. This NOFO may be canceled if appropriations are insufficient to support new awards. Applications submitted under this NOFO may also be considered if other Federal funding becomes available in or after FY 2024.
Maximum Award: $300,000
Minimum Award: No minimum award amount
