The National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI) announced today that ExxonMobil has officially joined the Alliance as a member. In 2019 NAWI was selected to lead a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Energy-Water Desalination Hub to support United States water security. As a founding member of the NAWI Research Consortium, ExxonMobil is part of a world-class team of industry and academic partners formed to examine the critical technical barriers and research needed to radically lower the cost and energy of desalination.
“We’re pleased to support the efforts of the National Alliance for Water Innovation,” said Monte Dobson, ExxonMobil Unconventional Technology Development Manager. “We will leverage our capabilities to jointly develop a roadmap of different technologies to find beneficial ways to use treated produced water.”
The NAWI Research Consortium is headquartered at Berkeley Lab and includes Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the National Energy Technology Laboratory, 19 founding university partners, and 10 founding industry partners including Exxon Mobil. NAWI’s goal is to advance a portfolio of novel technologies that will secure a circular water economy in which 90% of nontraditional water sources – such as seawater, brackish water, and produced waters – can be cost-competitive with existing water sources within 10 years.
“ExxonMobil’s objectives align well with the research space of NAWI. We are excited to have them as part of our team as we embark on our research efforts,” said Dr. Peter Fiske, NAWI Executive Director.
In the NAWI Alliance, the four national laboratories and founding industry and academic partners are joined by a member community of hundreds of public and private sector organizations – all focused on the future of water treatment and stability of water supplies for U.S. industries and communities.
Each member hopes to influence technology development by participating in steering and technical working groups to help develop research roadmaps and review research projects.