Request for Information (RFI) Number: DE-FOA-0002165

This is solely a request for information. This is not a Funding Opportunity Announcement. EERE is not accepting applications for funding.

The Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy is seeking feedback via a request for information from public and private sector stakeholders on the design of a prize competition to increase resource recovery from municipal wastewater treatment plants across the United States.

Wastewater treatment plants purchase about $2 billion of electricity each year and face more than $200 billion in future capital investment needs to meet water quality objectives, according to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Clean Watersheds Needs Survey. Wastewater treatment plants can recover resources, including water, energy, and nutrients, and turn them into marketable products. Resource recovery can improve net energy efficiency requirements, lower the net cost of treatment that could help upgrade water treatment infrastructure, reduce nutrient pollution, and provide alternative water supplies.

For this potential prize, DOE intends to seek novel, systems-based solutions from multidisciplinary teams to implement resource recovery at small-to-medium-sized wastewater treatment plants, as well as contribute to energy efficiency at the facility and/or system level. Specifically, the competition will seek teams of wastewater treatment plant engineers. Respondents will be asked to provide answers to questions in three categories: prize concepts and objectives, prize design, and criteria and metrics. Input from this RFI may be used to further develop the competition objectives, rules, metrics, and incentives.

View the official request and submission instructions HERE, which includes more information about the technical focus areas and response guidelines. Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to WaterResourceRecoveryPrize@ee.doe.gov no later than 5:00 p.m. (ET) on Wednesday, October 23, 2019. 

This effort is part of the Water Security Grand Challenge – a White House initiated, DOE-led framework to advance transformational technology and innovation to meet the global need for safe, secure, and affordable water.

Learn more about how DOE is using novel approaches to solve water security issues.

The Advanced Manufacturing Office within DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy developed and will manage this request for information.