Naperville and Argonne, IL — Nalco Company, the global leader in industrial water treatment, and Argonne National Laboratory have announced a joint research partnership to develop advanced technologies to reduce, reuse and recover power plant cooling water. Cooling water is essential to power plants, which consume more than 100 billion gallons daily in the United States. Advances in technology have the potential to reduce fossil fuel power plant water withdrawal and consumption, leading to more efficient use of water and energy.

"Coal-based power plants have re-emerged as the preferred fuel type in new plants to be built in the next decade. Increasingly, water management has become a crucial issue for construction and operation of power plants," said Tom Archakis, Global Marketing Manager for Nalco's Power Strategic Business Unit.

"Argonne National Laboratory has unique R&D capabilities in advanced separations technologies, which complement Nalco's strengths," added Manian Ramesh, Nalco Vice President, Research and Development. "Partnering with Argonne enables Nalco to use a wider range of technical approaches and develop the best solution for the power industry."

"We are excited by the opportunity to work with Nalco, a company that develops state-of-the-art water treatment technologies," stated Seth Snyder, a biochemical engineer and the leader of the Chemical and Biotechnology Section in Argonne's Energy Systems Division. "This project enables us to see ideas that started as computer models, developed by co-investigator Yupo J. Lin, grow into technologies that meet a growing societal need to reduce freshwater use and wastewater discharge."

Under the partnership, Nalco and Argonne will develop the technology, knowledge and strategies for optimum water utilization, resulting in lower treatment costs and less environmental impacts. This three-year research project is funded jointly by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Energy Technology Laboratory's (NETL) Innovations for Existing Plants (IEP) program and Nalco.