On the waterfrontInitiative to reduce power plants' fresh water demands

Published 19 July 2007

U.S. electric power plants are the second largest user of fresh water in the nation after agriculture, withdrawing some 140 billion gallons of fresh water per day; DOE, Sandia launch project to address this growing problem

Here is a fact you may not have been aware of: Electric power plants in the United States are the second largest user of fresh water in the nation, withdrawing some 140 billion gallons of fresh water per day. Only agriculture uses more water than the power generation industry. Herewith lies the problem: There are two trends that appear to be heading toward a collision: The ever-increasing need for energy and the the ever-larger demand for fresh water by electricity producers. To address this growing tension, two U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories are joining hands in a collaborative effort within the DOE’s emerging energy-water research program.

The Office of Fossil Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory(NETL) and Sandia National Laboratories(Sandia) recently signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at advancing the research, development, demonstration, and commercial deployment of technologies, concepts, and systems to reduce fresh water demands related to fossil energy production and generation.

DOE established its energy-water research program to help develop tools for the thermoelectric power plants to apply for better management of their use of fresh water. The goal of the program is to ensure the availability of technologies to reduce fresh water withdrawal and consumption, while minimizing impacts on water quality. Thermoelectric power plants using coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear sources require large amounts of water for cooling and are a major competitor for limited water resources. The U.S. Geological Survey reported that electric power plants were the second largest user of fresh water in the United States — the first is agriculture. About three-fourths of the water used for thermoelectric cooling goes to fossil-fuel-based power plants. An NETL study, Estimating Fresh Water Needs to Meet Future Thermoelectric Generation Requirements, projects an increase in fresh water consumption by the thermoelectric power sector ranging from 21 to 48 percent between 2005 and 2030.

The two organizations will complement each other in the effort to address the energy-fresh water problem. NETL manages different coal, oil, and natural gas programs to reduce the use of fresh water related to power production. NETL is currently working on thermoelectric power generation, carbon sequestration, oil and gas production, including beneficial uses for produced water, development of integrated gasification combined cycle power systems, and FutureGen, the power plant of the future. Sandia is doing research in both energy and water areas including fossil, renewable, and nuclear energy development, energy and water infrastructure security and reliability evaluations and improvements, nontraditional water treatment and use, and water resources planning and management. The memorandum calls for the two laboratories to accomplish the following:

* Develop technologies that significantly reduce fresh water withdrawal and consumption over technologies that are commercially available today

* Expand the beneficial use of produced water beyond current business-as-usual practices

* Minimize the potential impact of carbon sequestration on water availability and quality

* Ensure that energy-water planners use improved decision-making tools

The two labs have allowed that they would seek out partnership support from organizations that have demonstrated strong research ties to energy-water issues. These partners include other national laboratories, educational institutions, the Electric Power Research Institute, environmental groups, electric utilities, coal, oil, and gas production companies and technology developers and vendors.

DOE says its overall goal in its energy-water research program is to ensure that technologies are available for initial commercial deployment by 2015 to reduce power plant fresh water withdrawal and consumption by 50 percent, while minimizing impacts on water quality by power plant operations.

-also see details of the Sandia Water Initiative