Evaluating Contaminates of Emerging Concern’s Fate in Potable Reuse Membrane Treatment | BOR DO 20 N005

Opportunity Information: Apply for BOR DO 20 N005

This grant opportunity, titled "Evaluating Contaminates of Emerging Concern's Fate in Potable Reuse Membrane Treatment" (Funding Opportunity Number BOR DO 20 N005), is a Bureau of Reclamation (Department of the Interior) cooperative agreement aimed at improving understanding and performance of Closed-Circuit Reverse Osmosis (CCRO) for potable water reuse applications. The project is structured as applied research and development in the science and technology category (CFDA 15.560) and was designed to result in one award with an award ceiling of $120,000. The original posting date was May 22, 2020, with an original closing date of June 5, 2020.

The central purpose of the effort is to support further development of CCRO as a high-recovery reverse osmosis approach that can remove most contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) while addressing a persistent operational problem: the process produces a concentrate stream that can contain elevated CEC concentrations. That concentrate, especially when it is "CEC-rich," can be expensive and difficult to manage or discharge, and those added disposal and compliance costs can become a practical barrier to implementing potable reuse, particularly for inland facilities with limited concentrate discharge options. In other words, even if membrane treatment produces very high quality product water, the economics and feasibility of water reuse can be undermined if the residual stream becomes too costly or complicated to handle.

The opportunity emphasizes two main research needs. First, it targets the broader knowledge gap around the fate, transport, and removal of CECs in water reclamation and potable reuse membrane treatment. While reverse osmosis is generally effective at rejecting a wide range of trace organics and other emerging contaminants, the specifics can vary by compound, operating conditions, membrane configuration, and system recovery, and the concentrate side of the process often receives less attention than the product water side. Second, it focuses on reducing the volume of concentrate discharge, because higher recovery (less waste stream per unit of purified water) can directly lower operational costs and improve feasibility, again especially for inland water reclamation plants where brine management is a major constraint.

Under the cooperative agreement, the Cal Poly Pomona Foundation is identified as the assisting organization for the work, with activities organized around generating practical, decision-relevant data for Reclamation and stakeholders such as municipalities and academic partners. The planned technical work includes compiling and synthesizing existing knowledge by conducting literature studies focused on CEC behavior in CCRO and similar high-recovery membrane setups. This is intended to establish what is already known, identify gaps, and guide experimental design so that the pilot testing can answer the most pressing questions rather than duplicating prior work.

In addition to the literature component, the project calls for developing an experimental procedure that lays out how samples will be collected and analyzed in the laboratory. The sampling plan specifically covers CCRO feed water, product water, and concentrate, reflecting the need to quantify not just removal efficiency into the treated water but also how CECs partition and concentrate in the residual stream. A clear, repeatable protocol for sample handling and analytical methods is a key deliverable because CEC measurements are often sensitive to contamination, degradation, and detection-limit issues, and consistent methods are necessary to compare results across operating conditions and over time.

A major part of the effort is the commissioning, operation, and monitoring of a pilot CCRO system under different operating conditions, paired with routine sampling and analysis for CECs. By varying operating conditions, the researchers can evaluate how changes in recovery, pressure, circulation, and other operational variables influence both removal performance and concentrate characteristics. The intent is not just to confirm that CCRO can achieve high rejection, but to understand the dynamics of CEC fate in a system designed to push recoveries higher, which can change concentration factors and potentially influence compound-specific behavior.

Finally, the project includes systematic data collection and analysis to build a comprehensive data log that links operating conditions with water quality outcomes. This kind of integrated dataset is valuable for translating pilot observations into guidance for utilities and designers, because it supports performance interpretation, troubleshooting, and potentially the development of operating strategies that balance high recovery with manageable concentrate quality and volume. Overall, the opportunity is aimed at reducing uncertainty around CEC behavior in high-recovery RO configurations and helping remove a cost and implementation hurdle for potable reuse by improving understanding of the concentrate stream and how to minimize it.

• The Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Evaluating Contaminates of Emerging Concern’s Fate in Potable Reuse Membrane Treatment" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.560.
• This funding opportunity was created on May 22, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 05, 2020. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $120,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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