GE Global Research will develop treatment technologies to enable power plant use of non-traditional waters. Using effective treatment methods to make non-traditional water sources available to power plant water needs will allow power plants that are affected by water shortages to continue to operate at full capacity without adversely affecting local communities or the environment by limiting freshwater withdrawals.

As part of the project, GE Global Research will work with the GE Water and Process Technology team to prepare ligand-functionalized core materials (LFCMs) for the removal of silica from non-traditional waters. The project team will develop a recycle protocol for releasing the silica and regenerating a reusable LFCM. The project team will demonstrate the silica removal ability of the LFCM on a bench-top cooling tower simulation unit. The successful LFCM process will be scaled up and further tested at pilot scale. Throughout the course of the program, a cost model will be developed, updated, and finalized to predict the final cost of water and percent reduction in freshwater withdrawal.

GE Global Water Treatment Process Schematic