The Energy-Water Connection

By Bill Clayton

Energy and water. The two are inextricably bound because the generation of the former requires a staggering volume of the latter.

In 2000, thermoelectric power plants in the United States used 136,000 million gallons of fresh water per day - that's enough to supply Ann Arbor with drinking water for more than 28 years. In addition to using vast supplies of fresh water, power plants consume energy as they bring the water from the source. In other words, it takes energy to make energy. ("See sidebar: "Water and Thermoelectric Power Generation.")

Furthermore, pollutants build up in a power plant's boilers and cooling systems, creating highly saline solutions. If the plant discharges that water into a lake or river, the contaminants could harm fish and plants. At the same time, burning fossil fuels to generate electricity releases greenhouse gases that acidify bodies of water and can affect air quality hundreds of miles away. If rain falls on coal stored in piles outside power plants, the runoff can wash out heavy metals, such as arsenic and lead, and carry them into nearby bodies of water or into the ground water. To say that the interrelated problems are complex is an understatement.

Peter Adriaens and Christian Lastoskie have put together a team to take on water-energy challenges. Adriaens is a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and has additional appointments in the School of Natural Resources and Environment and in the Stephen M. Ross School of Business. Las­toskie is an associate professor in the departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Biomedical Engineering.

"Technology is key," Adriaens said. "But supplying the energy grid in a sustainable manner is equally an issue of public health, business entrepreneurialism, environmental law and public policy - they're all aspects of the problems and solutions associated with water and energy. The University of Michigan is traditionally strong in all of those areas, so we're well-equipped to address the issues. And they're important issues. It's no exaggeration to say that sustainable economic growth depends on solving the problems related to the energy-water connection."

The cross-University team includes Michigan Engineering, the School of Natural Resources and Environment, the Institute for Social Research, the Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies in the Stephen M. Ross School of Business, and the cross-disciplinary Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise. "When you get smart people from so many different disciplines in one room," Adriaens said, "you multiply your ability to solve tough problems. And this team is special."

The Challenges

The competition for fresh water is fierce - thermoelectric generation uses 40 percent, agriculture devours another 40 percent, and about 20 percent finds its way to other segments, all of which are integral to daily life. (See chart, Distribution of freshwater in 2000.) This competition will become even more ferocious as energy demands increase and freshwater water supplies shrink, and the population not only grows but migrates to the southwest United States, where water is already scarce. Plus, environmental regulations will become more stringent, leading to new constraints on the operation of existing power plants and the construction of new ones.

"The problems become more dramatic when you consider that, by the year 2020, our population will require an additional one hundred and fifty new high-output power plants," Adriaens said. "So we're looking at an elaborate scenario in which we'll need innovative water technologies, new environmental restrictions, new public policy and legal approaches, and an energy model that provides incentives for the power industry to continue evolving, improving its output and efficiency - it's unfortunate, but once a facility achieves a certain performance standard, there currently is little incentive to become even more productive and efficient."

The issues are significant and a comprehensive program is required to address them.

The Energy-Water Nexus Program

The wisdom of forming a multi-disciplinary team becomes obvious while considering many facets of the energy-water dilemma that researchers must address.

"One of our primary investigations will delve into the opportunities to conserve water in current operations, and to use impaired water and saltwater," Adriaens said. (Impaired water is water with impurities that require treatment before it can be used for cooling - wastewater, for example, as well as water from mining operations, and irrigation drainage.) "We'll study the costs and benefits of using treatment technologies for impaired water, as well as the costs of retrofit technologies to improve efficiencies of existing plants. This will entail an analysis of the impact that various technologies have on the lifecycle of water as it flows through power plants. We'll weigh options for water recovery, conservation potential and environmental impact. And there will be a very close examination of alternative cooling systems, which might include new ways of dry cooling or using new configurations of existing cooling options."

By program's end, the Energy-Water Nexus team expects to identify technologies and plant designs that will make it possible to reduce the use of freshwater up to 10 percent in the generation of thermoelectric power.

To facilitate the development and implementation of technology for water conservation, the team members will pursue non-technical issues, including a policy and economic framework to incentivize both industry and the consumer. "The electric utilities industry is very competitive and driven by legislative pressures to implement technologies," Adriaens said, "and currently their focus is on curbing atmospheric emissions. At the same time, it's unclear whether the general public understands the connection of energy production to water, and how this knowledge would influence consumer behavior. We want to give utilities an economic reason to make water sustainability an integral part of energy generation, and explore how water valuation for energy generation may create better pricing strategies."

To address the social and policy aspect of the nexus issue, the team is working with Robert Marans and Thomas Lyon. Marans is a professor emeritus at the A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, and a research professor emeritus with the Survey Research Center at the Institute for Social Research. Lyon, a Dow Professor of Sustainable Science, Technology and Commerce at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business, is also director of the Erb Institute and a professor of natural resources and the environment at the School of Natural Resources and Environment.

Lastoskie noted that, in cooperation with these units, the Energy-Water Nexus program "will collect survey data to explore the demand-side incentives for energy - and thus water - conservation. In conjunction with that study, the program will analyze market-based policy alternatives in collaboration with practitioners (e.g., LimnoTech) to evaluate supply-side incentives for the utilities industry to adopt and incorporate technology-based solutions."

This technology-policy framework creates conditions in which there's not only enormous economic and commercial value in developing and implementing technology for water conservation but also ample opportunity for entrepreneurs to do so. This is why the team engaged the Zell-Lurie Institute. "Ultimately, the energy-water nexus business opportunities for these enabling technologies require strategic positioning," Adriaens said. "We're seeing innovative companies such as General Electric investing heavily to serve this future need for integrated energy-water solutions. It isn't clear at this time which technology solutions will best serve the needs of the utilities sector, what the market demand will be as the power generating capacity changes, nor what the price point will be to trigger investment."

By directly engaging with the Institute's Dare to Dream and other business development programs, the team is positioning itself to take advantage of venture investment in clean-technology business development.

The need and timeliness of this program can't be understated. The Department of Energy's Nexus roadmap states that technologies need to be ready to deploy by 2015.

Adriaens pointed out that "successful implementation of nexus innovations will depend on proactive partnerships with the utilities industry and the Electric Power Research Institute, nexus managers at the National Energy Technology Laboratory, and policymakers. It won't be easy, but we have the horses to get the job done." - E