Final Call for Energy-Water Desalination Hub Concept Papers

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), invests in cutting-edge research, development, and demonstration activities focused on sustainable transportation, renewable power, and energy efficiency.

IllustrationAtmocean's scaled wave energy system capable of producing both clean power, and fresh water from desalination (Photo: Atmocean)

Through EERE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) public-private R&D consortia, manufacturers, small businesses, universities, national laboratories, and state and local governments are brought together to pursue coordinated early-stage R&D in high-priority areas essential to energy in manufacturing. Federal funding is the catalyst to bring stakeholders into shared spaces and to address process and technological challenges that present a significant degree of scientific or technical uncertainty.

The purpose of this funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is to establish an Energy Innovation Hub (Energy-Water Desalination Hub) to address water security issues in the U.S. For the purpose of this FOA, “desalination” more broadly includes technologies that primarily remove salts. The Hub is a critical component of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) broader Water Security Grand Challenge which will use a coordinated suite of prizes, competitions, early stage research and development (R&D), and other programs to help address the nation’s water security needs.

The Energy-Water Desalination Hub will be organized around four topic areas: 1) Materials Research and Development, 2) New Process Research and Development, 3) Modeling and Simulation Tools, and 4) Integrated Data and Analysis.

DOE intends to select and fund one application with the greatest likelihood of achieving the goals of all four topics of this FOA.

The deadline line to submit concept papers is Thursday, February 7, 2019.