<![CDATA[<P>36The Military Engineer l November-December l 2009
Technology News
Desalination Technology Increases Naval Capabilities, Meets Humanitarian Needs
The next generation of technology to turn saltwater into a
fresh resource is on tap for the U.S. Navy. The Of?ce of Naval
Research (ONR) is sponsoring the development of an inno-
vative solution for generating potable water at twice the ef-
?ciency of current production for forces a?oat, Marine Corps
expeditionary forces and humanitarian missions ashore.
Saving energy and producing clean water is a tactical is-
sue for the Navy, said Dr. J. Paul Armistead, an ONR Program
Of?cer with interests in water puri?cation. We plan to build
prototype desalination units that will use 65 percent less en-
ergy and be 40 percent smaller by weight and by volume rela-
tive to current Navy reverse osmosis systems. They should
require roughly 75 percent less maintenance.
Delivering drinkable water for ships at sea and Marines
ashore for less cost and less energy became an ONR prior-
ity in 2004 under the Expeditionary Unit Water Puri?cation
Program (EUWP).
Before modern desalinization plants, mariners relied on
the fresh water they collected from rain and stowed while at
sea. Today, sailors and Marines bene?t from high-tech reverse
osmosis (RO) desalinization plants aboard most Navy ships.
It takes energy to make water, and that energy comes from
burning fuel to spin turbine generators that produce electric-
ity necessary for ship systems, including RO plants. A more
ef?cient desalinization plant translates into a more ef?cient
ship, which uses less fuel, extends combat capability and
reduces its carbon footprint. Since its inception, EUWP has
produced advances in desalinization capability. The ?rst-
generation EUWP technology demonstrator was designed as
a deployable high-water production unit more easily trans-
ported by the military and used for a variety of missions.
The EUWP ?rst-generation demonstrator has been used in
a number of humanitarian missions. In 2005, it was deployed
in support of the Navys response to hurricane Katrina, where
it delivered safe drinking water to Gulf Coast residents being
treated at a hospital in Biloxi, Miss. The unit desalted and pu-
ri?ed about 100,000-gal of water daily from the turbid Gulf of
Mexico, replacing the daily caravan of 18 tankers needed to
keep the hospital running.
The second-generation EUWP technology demonstrator,
built with shipboard constraints imposed on the design, is a
larger, more stationary demonstration unit, and has potential
for use by isolated communities. It has been tested success-
fully at the Seawater Desalination Test Facility at the Naval
Facilities Engineering Service Center at Port Hueneme, Calif.
(Contributed by ONR Public Affairs)
CRREL Partners with NSF to Improve South Pole Traverse
Since 2002, researchers with the U.S. Army Engineer and
Research Development Centers (ERDC) Cold Regions Re-
search and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) have worked
in partnership with the National Science Foundation (NSF),
manager of the U.S. Antarctic Program, to provide research,
development and ?eld support for the creation of 1,030-mi
overland South Pole Heavy Traverse (SPoT).
The outbound traverse rises from sea level at McMurdo
Station, a research station and the largest community in
Antarctica, to approximately 9,300-ft at South Pole, crossing
challenging terrain including deep and soft snow, heavily-
crevassed shear zones and a steep glacier headwall. Early on,
the team established a safe route through ice-shear zones
and developed engineering criteria to characterize crevasse
snow-bridge strength. However, in subsequent years, the
team experienced challenges associated with deep, low-
strength snow that limited tractor mobility and increased
cargo and fuel sled towing resistances, causing breakdowns
and immobilizations.
In response, CRREL researchers led a team that developed
a next-generation, high-performance fuel and cargo sled con-
cept designed to reduce the cost of the research stations in Ant-
arctica as well as provide environmental bene?ts. The design
consisted of over-the-road 3,000-gal fuel bladders strapped
to sleds made of high-molecular-weight polyethylene sheets
Compiled by Jill M. Jackson, M.SAME
www pondco.com
678.336.7740
Atlanta, GA
Jacksonville, FL
Architecture.
Engineering.
Planning.</p>
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