The summer edition of NETL’s Water-Energy Nexus News focuses on groundbreaking research and other efforts to enhance the nation’s energy foundation while helping to protect water resources for future generations.

The lead article explains steps taken by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) to integrate two water activities into a single program. Water-related research and development within FECM will be executed by Advanced Research Technologies-Water Management (ART-WM), which represents one of the first combined programs of its type within DOE. 

This quarter’s newsletter also features a summary of a recent presentation by NETL’s Life Cycle Assessment Team at the International Symposium on Sustainable Systems and Technology, which examined the life-cycle global warming potential and water consumption impacts of hydrogen production.

Other updates include:

• New modeling capabilities for electrodialysis, mechanical vapor compression, crystallization, granular activated carbon and ultraviolet processes were part of the most recent release by the Water treatment Technoeconomic Assessment Platform (WaterTAP), an open-source Python-based software tool for assessing the performance and economic viability of water treatment trains.
• NETL’s Mengling Stuckman presented “Rare Earth Element/Critical Mineral Recovery from Coal Byproducts and Acid Mine Drainage” to the Brazilian Coal Association. Stuckman explained how NETL is developing the Targeted Rare Earth Extraction (TREE) Process to extract rare earth elements from coal waste byproducts, such as acid mine drainage and combustion coal ash. TREE has the potential to end U.S. dependence on imported REEs, mitigate pollution and create jobs as the United States transitions to a clean energy economy.
• This quarter’s Researcher Spotlight highlights Eric Grol, senior energy systems analyst on NETL’s Energy Process Analysis Team. He recently completed an analysis project titled “Treatment of brackish water for fossil power plant cooling: Tradeoffs in freshwater savings, cost and capacity shortfalls.” An overview of the analysis and his other projects is provided.

Water-Energy Nexus News is also a one-stop shop for links to recent journal articles, upcoming conferences and more.

NETL is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory that drives innovation and delivers technological solutions for an environmentally sustainable and prosperous energy future. By leveraging its world-class talent and research facilities, NETL is ensuring affordable, abundant and reliable energy that drives a robust economy and national security, while developing technologies to manage carbon across the full life cycle, enabling environmental sustainability for all Americans.