Brackish Groundwater Desalination One-Pager
Texas has an abundance of brackish groundwater, estimated at more than 2.7 billion acre-feet. Once only a potential resource, it is now becoming an important source of new water supply. In the 2007 State Water Plan, six of the 16 regional water planning groups recommended brackish groundwater desalination as a water management strategy to meet at least some of their projected shortages. In total, the regional water planning groups project that desalinating brackish groundwater can create about 174,773 acre-feet of new water per year by 2060.
Brackish Groundwater Desalination Demonstration Projects
To encourage and facilitate the development of brackish groundwater in the state, TWDB proposed the Brackish Groundwater Desalination Initiative in 2004. The goal of the initiative was to develop tangible examples or models of brackish groundwater desalination that illustrate the use of innovative and cost-effective technologies and offer solutions to practical issues.
Completed Projects
City of San Angelo: Conduct an exploratory drilling program to characterize the suitability of the Whitehorse aquifer in Irion County and develop a guidance manual for the characterization of brackish groundwater resources for desalination.
North Cameron Regional Water Supply Corporation: Develop an engineering facility roadmap to use as a guide in formulating, funding, designing, permitting, and constructing small-scale brackish groundwater desalination plants in Texas.
San Antonio Water System: Perform a pilot test and assess the cost and technical feasibility of the Vibratory Shear Enhanced Process (VSEP) as a tool for reducing the volume of brackish groundwater desalination concentrate. Additionally, a model will be developed to evaluate enhanced recovery processes to aid in selecting concentrate management solutions for brackish groundwater desalination.
The University of Texas at Austin: Develop strategies to increase the recovery in reverse osmosis (RO) desalination of brackish groundwater using anti-scalant deactivation and precipitation, and electrodialysis.
Current Projects
Affordable Desalination Collaboration: Assess and demonstrate energy optimization strategies for brackish groundwater desalination.
City of Kenedy: Assess performance of aging reverse-osmosis equipment and determine cost-effectiveness of replacing it with modern technology.
City of Seminole: Demonstrate that the vast but largely untapped brackish groundwater present in the Dockum Aquifer can be desalinated economically and used for municipal purposes.
El Paso Water Utilities - PSB: Evaluate silica reduction in reverse osmosis concentrate, using lime addition and vibratory shear enhanced processing (VSEP) technology.
Texas Tech University: Demonstrate a reverse osmosis system with a configuration of parallel elements for small-scale desalination with high recovery and energy efficiency.
Carollo Engineers, Inc.: Develop a design criteria for using upflow calcite contactors in the desalination process.
CDM: Evaluate silica reduction in reverse osmosis concentrate, using lime addition and vibratory shear enhanced processing (VSEP) technology.
More Information
Please contact Sanjeev Kalaswad (512-936-0838) or Jorge Arroyo (512-475-3003) for more information on TWDB's brackish groundwater desalination demonstration projects.