(493f) Results From the Industrial Water Use Efficiency and Desalination Workshop

Water and energy supplies in the United States and the world are under intense pressure as population growth and industrial expansion drive an increasing demand for water and energy for agricultural, industrial, and domestic uses. The nexus between energy and water is well recognized. Power generation requires vast amounts of water, while industrial treatment, circulation, and distribution of water are energy intensive operations. This interdependency makes industrial water usage, treatment, and supply essential considerations for achieving energy sustainability.

This paper highlights the results from a workshop that was conducted by the Industrial Technologies Program (ITP) of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) in Tampa, FL on the future of industrial water use and desalination operations in the United States.

The workshop brought together a diverse group of experts from industry, academia, and government to discuss the role of research in enabling the technical innovations that can be widely deployed to improve the use and/or treatment of water for industrial operations. The results of this workshop will lay the groundwork for understanding on how manufacturers can reduce energy intensity, water intensity, and operational costs while increasing the sustainability of manufacturing operations.

Outputs from the workshop include the following: 1) A prioritized set of key opportunity areas for improving the cost and/or efficiency of the country's desalination operations, potential strategic targets for a national desalination agenda, reducing the water intensity of the nation's industrial operations, and potential strategic targets for a national agenda for reducing industrial water usage. 2) A list of barriers to implementing the top improvement opportunities and a set of grand challenges to improving desalination operations, reducing the water intensity of industry on a national scale, and industrial energy across the country. 3) A prioritized list of high-impact R&D pathways for desalination science and technology as well as science and technology related to the use of water in industrial operations.