research guide - UTEP Magazine - University of Texas at El Paso

Opening the Tap
Texas invests in new UTEP desalination research center
Brackish groundwater—the undesirable
salty stuff filling underground aquifers across
the country—is looking more and more
appealing to communities thirsty for fresh water
for drinking, agriculture and industry.
It’s why the state of Texas has invested
$2 million of the state’s Emerging Technology
Fund to create the UTEP Center for Inland
Desalination Systems, a research facility that
will be tasked with developing cost effective
and environmentally friendly desalination
technologies.
UTEP and The University of Texas System
will match the $2 million technology fund
investment, and an additional $2 million will
be raised in sponsored research from industry
partners to develop a world-class research
facility.
“We expect to do work that might be used
anywhere in the world,” says Civil Engineering
Professor Tom Davis, Ph.D., a nationally
recognized desalination expert who has been
tapped to lead the new center.
Davis, who has more than 40 years of
research experience and holds 13 patents
related to filtering technologies, says the
center will explore ways of transforming brine
into products with commercial value. It will also
work on developing portable and economical
desalination equipment that could be used
in remote locations, including in arid regions
where military personnel may be deployed.
The center will partner on research with
the City of El Paso’s inland desalination plant,
which taps brackish water from the Hueco
Bolson to produce 27.5 million gallons of fresh
water daily.
Tom Davis, Ph.D.
“We hope to deal with ways to
reduce energy requirements and
solve the problems of disposing
of waste.”
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