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Potable Water Production Module
Navy SBIR 2006.2 - Topic N06-135 NAVSEA - Ms. Janet Jaensch - [email protected] Opens: June 14, 2006 - Closes: July 14, 2006 N06-135 TITLE: Potable Water Production Module TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Ground/Sea Vehicles, Human Systems ACQUISITION PROGRAM: PEO SHIPS – Littoral Combat Ship (PMS501) - ACAT 1D OBJECTIVE: Develop and demonstrate a modularized potable water production system suitable for shipboard use. DESCRIPTION: The next generation of Navy combatants will utilize commercial modularization standards to allow great flexibility in the payloads and systems they can employ. This flexibility means that the types and capacities of ship service systems are no longer imbedded in the basic ship design and unchangeable, but can be adjusted for a particular role or over the life of the ship with the installation of particular modular services. The objective of this topic is the development of technologies to enable a standard commercial ten foot container that can generate and manage freshwater supply for shipboard applications. A conventional shipboard freshwater plant can have a weight of 11,000 lbs to produce 12,000 gallons per day. These plants are directly integrated into ship power and piping, and require continuous watchstander operation and monitoring. While remaining in compliance with weight and volume limits of reference (1), the objective system should generate 12,000 gallons per day of potable water from ship supplied seawater supply and transfer resulting freshwater to ship tanks, effectively doubling the water making capacity of a small Navy combatant. The system must also be capable of rapid startup and shutdown, variable water production rates, and must provide automated monitoring and treatment of output water to ensure safety and compliance with applicable standards. Because the host ships may operate in near shore littoral waters with corresponding high risk of seawater contaminants, the system must demonstrate exceptional capability for continued operation and production of potable water under these conditions. The operations and conditions of conventional desalination approaches may be unacceptably restricted by the need to operate in a modular mission bay with only limited interface connections, strict weight limits, and power and thermal exhaust limits. Therefore completely new desalination processes or modifications to conventional approaches are desired. In addition to innovative core technologies for water purification, successful modularization in compliance with ISO standard 1161 layers on additional challenges. In order to comply with this global commercial standard for transport containers, the system will have to meet strict size, weight, and ruggedness specifications. Beyond transportability requirements, the systems will then have to operate within the challenges of a shipboard operating environment, including shock and damage control requirements. Unlike a traditional system that is highly integrated into the ship’s engineering plant, the modular system will have minimal interfaces with ship systems and must operate safely and effectively as a stand alone module with minimal manning and monitoring. Because the target system goes beyond current interface connections for seawater and freshwater flows, innovative methods to interconnect the container with ship systems with minimal manpower and impact on ship operations will be highly valued. Together, these performance requirements, the challenges of compliance with the commercial containerization standards, and the need to operate effectively in the shipboard environment, make conventional approaches to potable water generation inefficient and ineffective. Innovative core technologies for water production will be required to provide the physical and operational characteristics necessary to perform in these circumstances. PHASE I: Develop and demonstrate the feasibility of a detailed concept for a potable water production module that will provide the above features. Provide a prototype design including a concept of operation and projected capabilities, system descriptions, drawings, weight and cost projections. Consideration should also be given to, and summaries developed for, operating sequences, emergency procedures, logistics support concept, shock and fire safety compliance. PHASE II: Finalize the design, fabricate and demonstrate a prototype of the system developed in Phase I. Through land-based testing, demonstrate the functionality of the module in each of its required functions, including generating capacity, efficiency, water quality, and ease of integration and operation. Develop detailed concept of operation and projected capabilities, prototype descriptions, production drawings, operating sequences, emergency procedures, logistics support plan, weight breakdown, system cost estimates (both acquisition and lifecycle), and manning/Human Systems Interface (H.S.I.) requirements. PHASE III: Working with the Navy and Industry, as applicable, develop transition plans and demonstrate the commercial and shipboard uses of the potable water production module. PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: All commercial ships are limited in their freshwater production capacity by the installed plant. For ships in roles with intensive freshwater needs, such as washdown of remote vehicles, certain drilling operations, or support of expanded numbers of crew or passengers, the ability to easily and affordably expand that capacity through the addition of self contained potable water modules would be highly valuable. These modules would also provide increased capability for drinking water supply for disaster relief or homeland security applications. REFERENCES: KEYWORDS: Potable; Water; Module; Container; Shipboard; LCS TPOC: Larry Murphy
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