GRL Water : Global Research Laboratory of Advanced Materials and Systems for Water Sustainability
Principal Investigator and Director: Prof. Mamadou S. Diallo
Graduate School of Energy, Environment, Water and Sustainability (EEWS)
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
I. Vision and Mission
The availability of clean water has emerged as one of the most critical problems facing society and the global economy in the 21st century. Already there is insufficient availability of clean water for human consumption, agriculture and industry. According to the World Resources Institute, 2.3 billion people (~40% of the world’s population) live in water-stressed areas. The problem will get much worse unless we develop more efficient and cost-effective technologies to desalinate and reclaim impaired water (e.g. seawater, brackish water and wastewater) and provide clean water to underserved populations throughout the world.
• Seawater and brackish water from saline aquifers constitute ~97% of the water on Earth. We must find efficient ways to extract clean water from this source.
• More than 90% of the water used in agriculture, industry, and human consumption is returned to the environment as wastewater. We must find efficient ways to recycle this wastewater.
• Water planners are questioning the viability of the current practice of building large and centralized treatment plants to meet the water demands of all users. We must develop more efficient and cost-effective point-of-entry (POE) and point-of-use (POU) treatment units to provide clean water to underserved populations.
The mission of the Global Research Laboratory of Advanced Materials and Systems for Water Sustainability (GRL Water) is to carry out the transformative research needed to
1. Develop efficient, economical, and environmentally sound technologies to convert brackish water, seawater, and wastewater to clean water.
2. Develop robust, cost effective and environmentally sound POE and POU treatment systems to provide clean water to underserved communities.
3. Work with government, industry and the venture capital community to implement these technologies.
Figure 1: GRL Water Research and Technology Transfer Framework
