USA: Study of Desalination Using Geothermal Heat

Mines receives $1.5M NSF grant for geothermal research (Colorado School of Mines)

Professor Tzahi Cath in the lab.

Colorado School of Mines Civil and Environment Professor Tzahi Cath has been awarded a $1.5 million grant from the Geothermal Technologies Office of the U.S. Department of Energy to study membrane distillation desalination of impaired water using low-grade heat from geothermal power plants.

The grant is part of a three-year, $4.8 million project led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in collaboration with Sandia National Lab, University of California, Riverside, GE, and Ormat.

Geothermal resources and water scarcity are common features of the western United States. Within this region, low-temperature (<100 °C) geothermal resources have wide geographic distribution, but are highly underutilized because they are inefficient for power production.

A potentially useful application of low-enthalpy geothermal energy, from low-temperature resources or rejected heat from high-temperature geothermal power plants, is the desalination of impaired waters.

Read More.........