Ten new desalination research projects will share in $2.7 million from the Australian Government funded National Centre of Excellence in Desalination Australia (NCEDA).
Australia now has 44 desalination research projects and many of the fourth round projects address social, economic and environmental issues surrounding desalination.
These projects align with the Centre’s mission to optimise desalination technology for use in Australia’s unique circumstances; to develop suitable technology for use in rural and regional areas and to reduce desalination’s carbon footprint.
There has been a focus on renewable energy solutions, with one of the projects proposing to use geothermally-heated groundwater to power desalination.
Projects funded in previous rounds have included solar-powered desalination and innovative use of waste heat generated from large-scale minerals processing.
"Further reduction of the energy consumption of desal plants and fast-tracking new green technologies will continue to reduce the carbon footprint of the Australian water and desalination industry and make us more competitive internationally,” said CEO Neil Palmer.
A further $4.9 million of in-kind contributions and $535,000 in additional funding from participating organisations and research participants will bring $8.1 million of new investment into Australian desalination research. The Australian Government via its Water for the FutureInitiative has allocated $12.3 million for the Centre’s four funding rounds.
On top of this, total in-kind and industry contributions generated by NCEDA and its scientists of $28.8 million more than doubles the Australian Government’s initial investment to create a total value of $41 million in Australian desal research activity this year.
Two projects already funded through the Centre’s first and second funding round have also been approved for additional investment following review of their commercial potential.
Led by Centre-funded scientists at the University of South Australia and the University of Technology Sydney, these projects will now be able to investigate the feasibility of scale-up and manufacture of pilot scale units and field trials to progress research already undertaken.
The newly funded projects span all of the Centre’s five research theme areas: pre-treatment; reverse osmosis desalting; novel desalting; concentrate management; and social, economic and environmental issues.
Many will address social, economic and environmental issues surrounding desalination and all are aligned to the Centre’s mission to optimise and adapt desalination technology for use in Australia’s unique circumstances; to develop suitable desalination technology for use in rural and regional areas; and to efficiently and affordably reduce the carbon footprint of desalination facilities and technologies.
The Round Four Projects are:
- Resilient Desalination Pre-Treatment Of Saline Secondary Effluent By Ceramic Membranes – Victoria University
- Web-Based Public Interface Tool For Climate-Resilient Water Sources (Crews) – CSIRO
- Optimal Water Supply Sources For Resilient Urban And Remote Communities : A Review Of Current Australian And International Governance Arrangements And Suggestions For Law Reforms To Promote Resilience In Australian Arrangements – University of South Australia
- Optimising Swro Concentrate Discharge During “Hot Standby” Operation – University of Queensland
- Opportunities For Desalination In Australian Agriculture – CSIRO
- Pre-Feasibility Investigation Of Water And Energy Options Utilising Geothermal Energy, Multi-Effect Distillation And Reverse Osmosis – The University of Western Australia
- Extraction Of Water And Minerals From Coal Seam Gas Produced Water For Beneficial Use – University of Wollongong
- Brine Management Using Ecube Accelerated Evaporation – Victoria University
- Desalination Within Supply Networks: Exploring And Communicating The Bigger Picture For Water, Technology And Economic Development – Deakin University
- Forward Osmosis As A Low Energy And High Efficient Pre-Treatment Process For Ro Desalination – University of South Australia