Research needs in desalination

Pressures are ever increasing on fresh water resources around the globe.  It is desired to bring the costs of treating seawater and other salty ground water sources down as close as possible to the costs of treating fresh water.  Over the past decade, the Office of Naval Research has managed a number of basic and applied research programs aimed at bringing down the costs of desalination and  at developing robust equipment to treat various water sources for the warfighter and disaster relief missions.  In this presentation, I will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of current and emerging desalination technologies for municipal and military water treatment and will point out areas where research needs to be done to make new technologies competitive and to help bring down the costs of desalting water.

Presenter(s)

Paul Armistead is currently a program officer at the Office of Naval Research managing programs that cover a wide range of Navy interests which contain an organic materials or polymer science emphasis.  Currently the programs include: synthesis and characterization of novel polymeric materials for water treatment membranes; research towards reducing the costs of desalination; development of biofouling resistant coatings; research towards novel dielectric materials for increased energy density capacitors; development of conducting polymers for supercapacitors; and development of active materials for potential use in photonic, photovoltaic, electronic, and acoustic devices.  He earned a B.S. in chemical engineering from Virginia Tech in 1983.  He stayed there to study the polymer science of urethane foams and received a M.S.  in 1985.  In 1985 he joined the Chemistry Division at the Naval Research Laboratory.  Through an Edison Award, he attended Johns Hopkins University and earned a Ph.D. in Materials Science while studying polymer nucleation theory.  He is an author on over 25 papers in refereed journals, 10 internal Navy reports, and 2 patents.  He received two NRL Berman Publication Awards, two Chemistry Division publication awards, and the Chemistry Division Young Investigator Award.  He started working for the Office of Naval Research in 2000.