Diving into Desalination with Peter Fiske, National Alliance for Water Innovation

Apr 2, 2024

Dr. Peter Fiske from NAWI discusses desalination, water reuse, challenges, and opportunities. The conversation covers the importance of sustainable water solutions, water scarcity, rising water demand in energy-intensive industries, innovative water conservation techniques, businesses' responsibilities in emissions and water management, the federal landscape of water management, navigating career transitions, and driving innovation in the water sector.

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Introduction

00:00 • 2min

Desalination and Water Management in the Face of Climate Change

01:44 • 20min

Exploring the Rising Water Demand in Energy-Intensive Industries

21:48 • 3min

Innovative Water Conservation and Management Techniques

24:59 • 9min

Businesses' Responsibilities in Emissions and Water Management

33:52 • 3min

The Complex Federal Landscape of Water Management in the United States

36:26 • 4min

Navigating Career Transitions and Driving Innovation

40:22 • 3min

Navigating Water Challenges with Innovation and Optimism

43:48 • 3min

Dr. Peter Fiske is the Executive Director at the National Alliance for Water Innovation or NAWI. NAWI is a collection of 19 universities, four national labs and 190 plus US water companies committed to developing new technologies to enable distributed desalination and water reuse. They're a five-year, $110 million research program supported by the US Department of Energy in partnership with the California Department of Water Resources and the California State Water Resources Control Board. They're headquartered at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in Northern California. Peter joined Berkeley lab in 2017. Prior to that, he was the Chief Executive Officer at Pax Water Technologies from 2008 until January 2017, when it was acquired by UGSI Incorporated. Peter holds a PhD in geochemistry and material science from Stanford and an MBA from the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.

Our conversation today starts with a deep dive into desalination before broadening out into Peter's vision for our water system. Shout-out to former podcast guest Tom Ferguson at Burnt Island Ventures for connecting us with Peter. We've been wanting to learn about desalination and Peter helps us gain a much better understanding of that and so much more.

In this episode, we cover:

[3:11] Peter's work at the National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI)
[5:56] Overview of desalination and its various applications, including ocean desalination and water reuse
[9:19] Desalination challenges and opportunities, including energy usage and brine disposal
[14:33] Small-scale desalination systems and water reuse in buildings and cities
[20:09] The water-energy nexus and the impact of water usage on power generation
[27:30] NAWI's ongoing projects, including ultra high recovery desalination and recovery of valuable materials from wastewater
[32:16] Status of water innovation in the U.S. and other countries
[34:43] Water economics and the need for companies to consider their consumption
[36:49] The federal policy landscape for water in the U.S.
[38:30] Water as a national security
[40:45] Peter's background and career

Episode recorded on March 18, 2024 (Published on April 2, 2024)

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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant