The Seawater Desalination Challenge is a competition to facilitate the development of breakthrough technologies for low-cost removal of salt from seawater.
The goal?
To develop technologies capable of desalinating seawater at 1/10 the cost of existing thermal and reverse osmosis desalination processes.
What would a 90% reduction in cost in saltwater desalination mean for the world?
- It will mean a cost effective source of fresh water for the 2 billion people facing a water crisis in the next 20 years.
- It will mean the support of farming and food production for the 9.6 billion projected to inhabit the planet in 2050.
- It will mean new jobs and a robust economy.
- It will mean the reduction of energy and food production costs.
- And it will prevent resource wars and save countless lives.
How does this challenge work?
- Phase 1 is a three-year project resulting in a Laboratory Prototype of the desalination technology to enable data collection and validation of predicted performance of the system to perform desalination. A prize of $2M is awarded to up to 5 contestants demonstrating promising desalination technologies. The laboratory work is performed at a location of choosing of each technical team. SDC Management is responsible for coordinating visits by members of the Technical Advisory Panel to review progress and evaluate measurement approaches.
- Phase II is a two-year Pilot Plant Demonstration to show the feasibility of scaling up the Laboratory Prototype systems to larger scale to reduce the technical risk of transitioning to an initial commercial scale system.
- Phase III, the ultimate winner of Phase II receives a cash prize of $50M USD.
What can you do to help?
- Visit the Seawater Desalination Challenge page and pledge your support.
- Share the Seawater Desalination Challenge with your social networks.
- Join the conversation on social with #SeawaterDesal.
