Department of Energy, National Alliance for Water Innovation tap Auburn team for $1.5M advance reverse osmosis brine management project

The Department of Energy, or DOE, and National Alliance for Water Innovation, or NAWI, recently tapped Auburn University to spearhead a $1.5 million investigation into the reuse of wastewater and brackish water as a possible means of meeting mounting freshwater demands in inland cities.

Titled “Development of a Flow-through Intensified ELectroDialysis system to manage inland reverse osmosis concentrate,” the project is led by Shiqiang (Nick) Zou, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

“Unfortunately, no cost-effective treatment systems exist to eliminate these contaminants, leaving deep well injection the only option for inland RO brine,” Zou said. “This project will tackle the above critical problem to promote RO-based inland desalination and a circular water economy. Specifically, we will develop a Flow-through Intensified ELectroDialysis system system to eliminate contaminants from inland RO brine, produce a clean brine safe for environmental disposal and harvest freshwater and other valuable resources for beneficial reuse.”

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