Using ACCESS to Help Find Solutions to Potable Water Shortages – HPCwire

Report on Advanced Materials for Seawater Desalination in Support of Sustainable Development Goals

The Global Water Crisis: A Challenge to SDG 6

A report from the World Resources Institute indicates a severe global water crisis, directly impacting the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This challenge is particularly relevant to SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation, which aims to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water for all.

• Approximately four billion people currently face severe potable water distress.
• The primary causes are widespread water pollution and the finite nature of freshwater reserves.
• This situation presents a significant barrier to sustainable development, public health, and economic stability.

An Innovative Solution Aligned with Multiple SDGs

Seawater desalination presents a potential solution to augment freshwater supplies. However, conventional methods like reverse osmosis are highly energy-intensive and costly, creating economic barriers for many nations and hindering progress on both SDG 6 and SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy). Research led by Professor Heather Kulik at MIT is exploring the use of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) to create more efficient desalination membranes, representing a significant technological advancement.

Methodology: Leveraging High-Performance Computing for Sustainable Innovation (SDG 9)

In alignment with SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, the research team utilized advanced computational infrastructure to identify viable materials for next-generation desalination technology. The methodology involved:

1. Utilizing U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) ACCESS allocations.
2. Running computationally demanding simulations on the Expanse supercomputer at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC).
3. Screening a large set of experimentally synthesized MOFs to identify candidates with optimal characteristics for water desalination.

The primary challenge addressed was the inherent instability of many MOFs in water. The computational screening was designed to find materials possessing the dual traits of high stability and high permeability.

Key Findings and Contributions to Sustainability

The computational analysis successfully identified over 70 promising MOFs that exhibit both high water-stability and high water uptake. The unique properties of these materials offer a pathway to more sustainable desalination processes, contributing to several SDGs.

• Enhanced Permeability: MOF-based membranes require less applied pressure to filter water, which directly reduces energy consumption. This supports SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and can lower the carbon footprint of desalination plants, contributing to SDG 13 (Climate Action).
• Economic Viability: Reduced energy needs lower operational costs, making desalination a more accessible technology for all countries and advancing the core mission of SDG 6.
• Infrastructure Efficiency: The high permeability of MOFs allows for the design of smaller, more compact, and less expensive desalination plants, aligning with the goal of building resilient and sustainable infrastructure under SDG 9.

Collaborative Partnerships for the Goals (SDG 17)

This research exemplifies SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals, by demonstrating a successful collaboration between multiple institutions to address a critical global challenge.

• Academic Institution: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• Resource Provider: San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC)
• Funding Agencies: U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) ACCESS program and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Conclusion and Future Directions

The identification of over 70 stable and permeable MOFs marks a significant step toward developing more efficient and sustainable seawater desalination technologies. The next phase of this work involves collaboration with experimentalists to validate these findings in real-world applications. The successful implementation of this technology could dramatically improve the efficacy of reverse osmosis globally, providing a vital tool for achieving SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation for all. The research findings have been published in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.

Analysis of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Article

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

• SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation: The article’s central theme is the global water crisis, specifically the shortage of potable water and the challenges of water pollution.
• SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy: The article discusses the high energy consumption of current desalination methods and highlights a new technology aimed at improving energy efficiency.
• SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure: The text focuses on advanced scientific research and technological innovation (metal-organic frameworks) to solve a critical infrastructure problem (water supply).
• SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals: The research described is a collaborative effort involving multiple institutions (MIT, SDSC) and is supported by various funding agencies (NSF, DOE), demonstrating a partnership to advance science and technology for sustainable development.

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

• SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation

  • Target 6.1: By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all. The article directly addresses this by highlighting that “Four billion people face severe potable water distress” and focuses on a solution to make desalination, a source of drinking water, less expensive and more accessible.
  • Target 6.3: By 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution. The article mentions “water pollution” as a primary cause of the potable water crisis, implying that solutions like desalination are necessary because traditional freshwater sources are contaminated.
  • Target 6.4: By 2030, substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity. The research aims to improve the efficiency of creating freshwater through desalination, directly addressing the “limited supply of freshwater reserves” and water scarcity.

• SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy

  • Target 7.3: By 2030, double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency. The article states that traditional reverse osmosis is an “energy-intensive process” and the proposed MOF technology could lead to “energy savings” as the pumps would “use less power,” directly contributing to improved energy efficiency in the water sector.

• SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

  • Target 9.5: Enhance scientific research, upgrade the technological capabilities of industrial sectors in all countries… and encourage innovation. The entire article is a case study of this target, detailing a research effort by MIT using supercomputers at SDSC to develop a novel material (MOFs) to upgrade the technology of the desalination industry.

• SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals

  • Target 17.6: Enhance North-South, South-South and triangular regional and international cooperation on and access to science, technology and innovation. The project exemplifies cooperation between academic institutions (MIT) and research infrastructure providers (SDSC), funded by national agencies (NSF, DOE), to advance science and technology for a global challenge.
  • Target 17.7: Promote the development, transfer, dissemination and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies. The research focuses on developing a more efficient and potentially less costly technology for desalination, which is an environmentally sound approach to addressing water scarcity. The publication of the research in “ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces” is a step towards its dissemination.

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

• For Target 6.1 (Access to affordable drinking water):

  • Indicator: The number of people facing water distress. The article provides a baseline figure: “Four billion people face severe potable water distress.”
  • Indicator: The cost of producing potable water. The article provides a comparative cost: “cleaning one cubic meter of seawater costs three times more than getting the same amount of water from lakes and rivers.” A reduction in this cost would indicate progress.

• For Target 7.3 (Energy efficiency):

  • Indicator: The amount of energy required for desalination. The article implies this by stating the current process is “energy-intensive” and the new technology would allow pumps to “use less power.” Measuring the reduction in energy consumption per cubic meter of desalinated water would be a direct indicator.

• For Target 9.5 (Scientific research and innovation):

  • Indicator: The output of scientific research. The article mentions the identification of “over 70 promising MOFs” as a specific result of the research effort.
  • Indicator: The number of scientific publications. The article notes the research was published in “ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces,” which is an indicator of research dissemination.

4. Summary Table of SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

Source: hpcwire.com