[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 239 (Tuesday, December 13, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 89974-89977]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-29723]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Reclamation

[RR08100000, 17XR0680A1, RY.1541CH20.60WA161]


Announcement of Requirements and Registration for a Prize 
Competition Titled: More Water Less Concentrate- Stage 1.

AGENCY: Bureau of Reclamation, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: This Challenge seeks to identify innovative solutions to 
expand usable water supplies by maximizing fresh water production from 
inland desalination systems in a cost effective and environmentally 
sound manner. Currently, significant and desirable water supplies are 
trapped in concentrate streams that are a byproduct of desalination 
technologies. The cost to manage or dispose of concentrate is rather 
large and very limiting to utilization of desalination in inland 
applications. This is Stage 1 of a planned three-stage Challenge, with 
the second and third stages consisting of prototype demonstrations in 
lab and field settings and larger prize purses.

DATES: Listed below are the specific dates pertaining to this prize 
competition:
    1. Submission period begins on December 13, 2016.
    2. Submission period ends on March 13, 2017.
    3. Judging period ends on May 12, 2017.
    4. Winners announced by June 1, 2017.

ADDRESSES: The More Water Less Concentrate--Stage 1 Prize Competition 
will be posted on the following crowd-sourcing platforms where Solvers 
can register for this prize competition:
    1. The Water Pavilion located at the InnoCentive Challenge Center: 
https://www.innocentive.com/ar/challenge/browse.
    2. U.S. Federal Government Challenge Platform: www.Challenge.gov. 
InnoCentive, Inc. is administering this challenge under a challenge 
support services contract with the Bureau of Reclamation. Challenge.gov 
will re-direct the Solver community to the InnoCentive Challenge Center 
as the administrator for this prize competition. Additional details for 
this prize competition, including background information, figures, and 
the Challenge Agreement specific for this prize competition, can be 
accessed through either of these prize competition web addresses. The 
Challenge Agreement contains more details of the prize competition 
rules and terms that Solvers must agree with to be eligible to compete.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Challenge Manager: Dr. David Raff, 
Science Advisor, Bureau of Reclamation, (202) 513-0516, [email protected]; 
Andrew Tiffenbach, (303) 445-2393, [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) is 
announcing the following prize competition in compliance with 15 U.S.C. 
3719, Prize Competitions.
    Prize Competition Summary: In many areas, particularly in the 
Western United States, existing sources of fresh water are fully or 
over-allocated. When inland communities are evaluating potential 
sources for a new water supply, desalination is often overlooked or not 
considered due to its perceived high cost. A major contributing factor 
to the cost is the additional handling and/or treatment required to 
manage concentrate streams where significant and desirable additional 
water resources are also lost.
    Desalination processes, typically membrane or thermal based 
processes, produce a concentrate stream composed primarily of the salts 
in the feed and some of the initial feed water. The cost to manage or 
dispose of concentrate streams is often prohibitive for inland brackish 
desalination and is currently a limiting factor to more widespread 
utilization of desalination in inland applications. This challenge is 
seeking solutions to minimizing the concentrate stream volume and 
associated handling costs while maximizing the useable water produced 
by the process.
    Desalination process recovery is often limited by capital and 
operational treatment costs. Saturation levels of sparingly soluble 
species such as calcium sulfate (CaSO4), calcium carbonate 
(CaCO3), and silica (SiO2) are reached in 
desalination processes as the saltwater feed is processed to fresh 
water leaving behind a highly saturated stream referred to as 
concentrate. Thus, classes of solutions to the concentrate problem 
might increase the quantity of treated water recovered from 
desalination processes without incurring issues with sparingly soluble 
species, therefore decreasing the volume of concentrate generated and 
increasing the overall system recovery. Other solutions may include 
novel desalination technologies or improvements to existing 
technologies that will increase the overall system recovery of 
desalination processes while also overcoming other operational and cost 
hurdles. Another class of solutions to the concentrate problem is to 
post-treat the concentrate stream that is produced to reduce its 
concentrate volume or to produce a solid waste product; thereby 
reducing the volume requiring disposal.
    In this prize competition, the Bureau of Reclamation is seeking 
innovative solutions to increase the amount of usable water supplies in 
an affordable, environmentally sustainable, and efficient manner to 
make desalination more accessible to communities looking to expand 
water supplies. Solutions can be novel technologies or approaches that 
build upon existing technologies and approaches for the production of 
fresh water from saline sources that increase the overall system 
recovery beyond the level of what is currently

[[Page 89975]]

achieved. Solutions can include ideas to reduce the large concentrate 
volumes by treatment of the concentrate or by selectively removing less 
soluble species from either the feed water, concentrate streams or at 
any other part of the desalination system. Other ideas to control or 
inhibit scale formation due to sparingly soluble species are also being 
sought along with any new technologies or improvements to existing 
technologies that increase the overall system recovery of a 
desalination system. This Challenge consists of three stages:
     Stage 1 is a Theoretical Challenge requiring a white paper 
submittal. Participants are asked to submit an idea, such as a process 
or equipment design, along with anticipated impact (if successful), 
detailed descriptions, specifications, supporting data or literature, 
and requirements necessary to bring the idea to practice. Stage 1 may 
award up to 6 prizes from a total prize award pool of $150,000.
     If Stage 1 proves successful, Stage 2 is planned as a 
subsequent Reduction-to-Practice Challenge to demonstrate proof-of-
concept data at the bench scale. Stage 2 envisions a total prize pool 
of $450,000 or more, and awarding up to 3 prizes.
     Stage 3 is envisioned as a Grand Challenge, Reduction-to-
Practice demonstration at pilot-scale in a field-test setting. Stage 3 
envisions a total prize pool of $500,000 or more, and awarding up to 2 
prizes.
    In addition to the direct monetary awards for Stages 2 and 3, 
Reclamation will invite industry, non-profit organizations, and venture 
capital representatives to be present at the Stages 2 and 3 
presentations and testing. Participating industry and venture capital 
representatives will also have the ability to seek and secure potential 
business deals with Solvers.
    This posting only launches the Stage 1 competition. However, 
information on the envisioned framework and prizes for Stages 2 and 3 
are available here: http://www.usbr.gov/research/challenges/current/index.html. Subsequent stages will be officially launched and announced 
with a separate Challenge.gov posting and a separate Federal Register 
Notice.
    Stage 1 is a Theoretical Challenge that requires only a written 
proposal to be submitted. The Challenge award will be contingent upon 
critical analysis and evaluation by the Seeker (Reclamation) and the 
judging panel appointed by the Seeker. The Seeker has a total prize 
pool budget of $150,000 to pay the top six submission(s) that meet or 
exceed the criteria below an award of at least $25,000 each. No awards 
are guaranteed unless they meet or exceed the criteria, and more than 
one award is not guaranteed. Full or partial awards will be considered 
for solutions that meet all or some of the criteria, respectively. If 
only a single submission meets or exceeds the criteria, the prize award 
may be as high as $50,000.
    To receive an award, the Solvers will not have to transfer their 
intellectual property rights to the Seeker and will not have to grant 
the Seekers a non-exclusive license to practice their solutions. Please 
note that any proposal submitted will not be treated as confidential 
information. Accordingly, Solvers should take whatever steps they deem 
necessary to protect their proprietary rights in their solutions prior 
to submitting their written proposal for consideration in the Challenge 
(e.g. filing provisional or full patent applications on the solution 
described in the written proposal submitted prior to submission).
    Technical Requirements. The goal of this Challenge is to identify 
methods to increase the overall system recovery in a cost effective and 
environmentally safe manner to reduce large volumes of concentrate that 
requires disposal and to increase usable water supplies. Overall system 
recovery is defined as the total product water divided by the total 
feed water. This challenge is seeking solutions to minimizing the 
concentrate stream while maximizing the useable water produced by the 
process.
    One class of solutions to the concentrate problem is to increase 
the quantity of treated water recovered from desalination processes, 
which, a priori, decreases the volume of concentrate generated. 
Desalination process recovery is often limited when saturation levels 
of sparingly soluble species (e.g. CaSO4, CaCO3, 
SiO2) are reached in the process when fresh water is 
generated from the desalination process and volume of feed water 
decreases. Another class of solutions to the concentrate problem is to 
treat the concentrate stream that is produced to reduce its volume or 
to produce a solid waste product; thereby reducing the volume requiring 
disposal. Other solutions can include novel desalination technologies 
with higher overall system recovery than conventional desalination 
technologies.
    Three sample water qualities from different inland brackish 
desalination locations with the various recoveries that each plant is 
currently able to achieve are provided in the challenge posting 
available through web addresses included under the Addresses section of 
this Federal Register Notice.

Things To Avoid

    The Seeker is not interested in the following:
    1. Surface and sewer discharge solutions.
    2. Known evaporation pond solutions (improvements could be 
acceptable).
    3. Deep well injection solutions.
    4. Existing technologies without any improvements to reduce 
concentrate volume, reduce cost or operational complexity, etc. of the 
existing desalination technology, i.e. reverse osmosis (RO), thermal or 
other membrane separation. The Seeker is not looking for a review of 
all known techniques so this requires something new/novel in your 
solution.
    The judging panel will evaluate each proposed solution against the 
following Solution Requirements:

Must Have

    1. Increase in overall system recovery: Solution must explain how 
the approach can increase overall system recovery on one of the three 
water samples provided in Table 1 for a plant producing at least 1 
million gallons of drinking water quality per day. Solution must be 
capable of treating large volumes of at least 1 million gallons per 
day. Typical desalination systems generate large volumes of concentrate 
per day that require further treatment and/or handling.
    2. Cost effective: Solutions are sought that can improve the 
recovery and reduce concentrate volume in a cost effective manner. 
Solutions cannot significantly increase life cycle (i.e. capital, 
operating, and maintenance) costs of systems.
    3. Environmentally friendly: Solutions should not create additional 
waste (in volume and complexity) than what exists today. The solution 
needs to be environmentally friendly and not create more problems than 
what is being solved. Thus, the solution must provide an assessment of 
life-cycle impacts relative to existing inland desalination approaches.
    Nice to have (not as important as the requirements above, but would 
add value to a submission):
    1. Solution demonstrates an increase in Overall System Recovery on 
two or more of the three water samples provided in Table 1 producing a 
minimum of 1 million gallons per day of drinking water quality.
    2. Submissions that meet the requirements will also be judged on 
the following items:
     Feasibility (technical/scientific, economic and 
environmental life-cycle considerations).

[[Page 89976]]

     Flexibility to changing water quality.
     Energy efficiency.
     Scalability.
    Project Deliverables: This Theoretical Challenge requires a written 
proposed solution which describes novel new technologies or 
improvements to existing technologies to increase overall system 
recovery and decrease the volume of concentrate. Each submission should 
include:
    1. A one-paragraph executive summary of the proposed solution. All 
Solvers agree to allow the executive summaries of their solutions to be 
posted on Reclamation's Web page and used in other publications 
reporting the results of this Challenge.
    2. Idea description that should include:
    a. Detailed description of a method to increase overall system 
recovery and decrease the volume of concentrate. The Solver must 
describe with a high level of technical detail as to how the system 
would meet or not meet each of the ``must have'' and ``nice to have'' 
Solution Requirements described above. The Solver should expect that 
their submittal will be reviewed by experts in the field of water 
treatment, chemistry, and multiple fields of engineering. If the level 
of detail is insufficient for the experts, it can't be scored as 
feasible.
    b. Rationale as to why the Solver believes that the proposed method 
will work. This rationale should address each of the Solution 
Requirements and should be supported with relevant examples/data.
    c. Drawings/sketches of the proposed system, if applicable.
    The proposal should not include any personal identifying 
information (name, username, company, address, phone, email, personal 
Web site, resume, etc.)
    Judging: After the Challenge submission deadline, a Judging Panel 
will evaluate the submissions and make a decision with regards to the 
winning solution(s). The Judging Panel may be composed of Federal and/
or Non Federal scientists, engineers, and other technical experts, 
including subject matter experts from the listed collaborators for this 
Challenge. All Solvers that submit a proposal will be notified on the 
status of their submissions. Decisions by the Seeker cannot be 
contested.
    Eligibility Rules: To be able to win a prize under this 
competition, an individual or entity must:
    1. Agree to the rules of the competition (15 U.S.C. 3719(g)(1));
    2. Be an entity that is incorporated in and maintains a primary 
place of business in the United States, or (b) in the case of an 
individual, a citizen or permanent resident of the United States (15 
U.S.C. 3719(g)(3)).
    However, submissions can be entertained from all Solvers regardless 
of whether they are U.S. citizens/entities. Meritorious submissions 
from non-eligible persons and entities, if any, will be recognized in 
publications issued by the Seeker announcing the results of the 
competition, such as press releases. Non-U.S citizens/permanent 
residents or non-U.S entities can also be included on U.S. teams. 
However, prizes--whether monetary or otherwise--will only be awarded to 
eligible persons and entities under the authority of the America 
COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (15 U.S.C. 3719).
    3. Not be a Federal entity or Federal employee acting within the 
scope of their employment (15 U.S.C. 3719(g)(4)). A Federal entity is 
defined by 5 U.S.C. Appendix 8G with a list of current Federal entities 
periodically posted on the Federal Register.
    4. Assume risks and waive claims against the Federal Government and 
its related entities (15 U.S.C. 3719(i)(1)(B)); and,
    5. Not use Federal facilities, or consult with Federal employees 
during the competition unless the facilities and employees are made 
available to all individuals and entities participating in the 
competition on an equitable basis.
    The following individuals or entities are not eligible regardless 
of whether they meet the criteria set forth above:
    1. Any individual or organization who employs an evaluator on the 
Judging Panel or otherwise has a material business relationship or 
affiliation with any Judge.
    2. Any individual who is a member of any Judge's immediate family 
or household.
    3. The Seeker, participating organizations, and any advertising 
agency, contractor or other individual or organization involved with 
the design, production, promotion, execution, or distribution of the 
prize competition; and all employees, and all members of the immediate 
family or household of any such individual or organization.
    4. Any individual or entity that uses Federal funds to develop the 
proposed solution now or any time in the past, unless such use is 
consistent with the grant award, or other applicable Federal funds 
awarding document. NOTE: Individuals or entities that have been funded 
by the Federal Government in the past to work within the technical 
domain of the competition are eligible provided their specific 
submission was not developed by them with Federal funds. Submissions 
that propose to improve or adapt existing federally funded technologies 
for the solution sought in this prize competition are also eligible. 
Individuals are also encouraged to consult with their employer Ethics 
Officer for additional guidance and considerations.
    Consultation: Reclamation and collaborator scientists, engineers, 
and technical specialists were consulted in identifying and selecting 
the topic of this prize competition. Direct and indirect input from 
various stakeholders and partners were also considered. The U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Army, U.S Army Corps of 
Engineers, the Water Environment and Reuse Foundation, and the Water 
Research Foundation are collaborating with Reclamation on various 
aspects of this Challenge.
    Public Disclosure: InnoCentive, Inc. is administering this 
challenge under a challenge support services contract with Reclamation. 
Participation is conditioned on providing the data required on 
InnoCentive's online registration form. Personal data will be processed 
in accordance with InnoCentive's Privacy Policy which can be located at 
http://www.innocentive.com/privacy.php. Before including your address, 
phone number, email address, or other personal identifying information 
in your proposal, you should be aware that the Seeker is under no 
obligation to withhold such information from public disclosure, and it 
may be made publicly available at any time. Neither InnoCentive nor the 
Seeker is responsible for human error, theft, destruction, or damage to 
proposed solutions, or other factors beyond its reasonable control.
    Liability and Indemnification: By participating in this Challenge, 
each Solver agrees to assume any and all risks and waive claims against 
the federal government and its related entities, except in the case of 
willful misconduct, for any injury, death, damage, or loss of property, 
revenue, or profits, whether direct, indirect, or consequential, 
arising from participation in this Challenge, whether the injury, 
death, damage, or loss arises through negligence or otherwise. By 
participating in this Challenge, each Solver agrees to indemnify the 
federal government against third party claims for damages arising from 
or related to Challenge activities.
    No Insurance Required: Based on the subject matter of the 
Challenge, the type of work that it will possibly require, as well as 
an analysis of the likelihood of any claims for death, bodily injury, 
or

[[Page 89977]]

property damage, or loss potentially resulting from competition 
participation, Solvers are not required to obtain liability insurance 
or demonstrate financial responsibility in order to participate in this 
Challenge.

    Dated: November 18, 2016.
David Raff,
Science Advisor.
[FR Doc. 2016-29723 Filed 12-12-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4332-90-P