Technoeconomic analysis and optimization of water treatment processes using WaterTAP

Increased water stress will force the evaluation, design, and operation of advanced water treatment technologies for treating non-traditional water sources (seawater, brackish groundwater, municipal and industrial wastewater, cooling water blowdown, etc.). Today, this design process depends largely on consulting engineering firms using dated design and costing software. These simplified, simulation-based, or sequential design tools produce suboptimal designs that lead non-traditional water projects to fail when subject to exogenous fluctuations in water quantity, water quality, energy prices, or byproduct prices. This project aims to replace these outdated design approaches with state-of-the-art tools for robust, cost-optimal water treatment system design and operation. A modern design tool for the water industry, WaterTAP offers a unified, flexible, and computationally powerful environment for identifying robust designs and operating conditions for cost-optimal, energy-efficient systems. It also allows product engineers to directly compare the value of component innovations, revealing the value proposition for developers of water treatment materials or components. The team aims to accelerate the adoption of WaterTAP’s capabilities to improve the design of water infrastructure for a rapidly changing future.