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Houston researchers harness dialysis for new wastewater treatment process

waste not

Rice University's Menachem Elimelech and Yuanmiaoliang “Selina” Chen published a study in Nature Water on mimicking dialysis from the medical field to treat wastewater. Photo by Gustavo Raskosky/Rice University

By employing medical field technology dialysis, researchers at Rice University and the Guangdong University of Technology in China uncovered a new way to treat high-salinity organic wastewater.

In the medical field, dialysis uses a machine called a dialyzer to filter waste and excess fluid from the blood. In a study published in Nature Water, Rice’s team found that mimicking dialysis can separate salts from organic substances with minimal dilution of the wastewater, addressing some of the limitations of previous methods.

The researchers say this has the potential to lower costs, recover valuable resources across a range of industrial sectors and reduce environmental impacts.

“Traditional methods often demand a lot of energy and require repeated dilutions,” Yuanmiaoliang “Selina” Chen, a co-first author and postdoctoral associate in Elimelech’s lab at Rice, said in a news release. “Dialysis eliminates many of these pain points, reducing water consumption and operational overheads.”

Various industries generate high-salinity organic wastewater, including petrochemical, pharmaceutical and textile manufacturing. The wastewater’s high salt and organic content can present challenges for existing treatment processes. Biological and advanced oxidation treatments become less effective with higher salinity levels. Thermal methods are considered “energy intensive” and susceptible to corrosion.

Ultimately, the researchers found that dialysis effectively removed salt from water without requiring large amounts of fresh water. This process allows salts to move into the dialysate stream while keeping most organic compounds in the original solution. Because dialysis relies on diffusion instead of pressure, salts and organics cross the membrane at different speeds, making the separation method more efficient.

“Dialysis was astonishingly effective in separating the salts from the organics in our trials,” Menachem Elimelech, a corresponding author on the study and professor of civil and environmental engineering and chemical and biomolecular engineering at Rice, said in a news release. “It’s an exciting discovery with the potential to redefine how we handle some of our most intractable wastewater challenges.”

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KBR's Mission Technology Solutions spinoff awarded $1.1B NOAA contract

A Big Deal

Amid a major spinoff, Houston-based KBR's Mission Technology Solutions business has been awarded a five-year contract for up to $1.1 billion from NOAA’s National Weather Service to help predict and combat extreme weather conditions.

Under the follow-on Commercial Data Program National Mesonet Program (CDP NMP) contract, KBR will provide weather and observational data from commercial stations, university and research campuses, and other non-federal providers nationwide. The information collected will assist in predicting severe temperatures and high-impact weather conditions like extreme storms.

"This award underscores KBR's proven track record of delivering vital data that strengthens national forecasting capabilities," Todd May, KBR’s senior vice president of Mission Technology Solutions, said in a news release.

According to a separate release from NOAA, the contract expands upon KBR's existing relationship with the agency. KBR will work with about 70 private industry partners on services such as data recording, collection, aggregation and processing, and will lead the CDP NMP's "network of networks."

“NOAA gathers environmental information from a wide variety of sources, and a growing list of private industry partners have joined our agency to collect this vital data,” Ken Graham, director of NOAA’s National Weather Service, said in the release. “This agreement streamlines the process that turns raw data into the gold-standard forecasts that Americans depend on.”

KBR will utilize its Speed to Mission ImpactSM technology for the project to supply data from across regions, measurement types, and system configurations. Both KBR and NOAA say the expanded data collection contract will help the agency create more accurate and timely forecasts, particularly for severe weather and extreme events, while also creating a path for new weather-observation technologies.

KBR has supported the CDP NMP for more than nine years. The program will be managed in Greenbelt, Maryland.

"We're driving expanded integration of commercial sensor and data sources into this platform and are honored to know our work helps forecasters give their communities earlier warnings and more time to prepare for dangerous weather,” May added in a release.

KBR’s Mission Technology Solutions business will be rebranded as Trinzic after its planned spin-off, the company announced last month. The spin-off is expected to close in January 2027.

Trinzic will work as an independent, publicly traded company focused on technology and engineering services for the space and national security sector. KBR will remain a separate publicly traded company that will focus on sustainable technology and services to support the energy transition.

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This article originally appeared on InnovationMap.com.

Houston researchers map data center growth, trends in new interactive platform

data center development

Have you ever wondered why data centers are located where they are?

Energy experts at Rice University’s Center for Energy Studies (CES) have developed a tool to help answer that question.

Rice researchers at the CES, part of Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, have created an interactive map to track data center growth and energy infrastructure in the United States.

Kenneth B. Medlock III, Miaomiao Rimmer, Anmol Mital and Beck Edwards developed the tool, known as the U.S. Data Centers and Infrastructure map. It aims to provide a comprehensive view of the factors shaping where data centers are located, from power and water costs to infrastructure, public policy and local sentiment.

“The map lets you see why data centers are being built where they are by connecting the dots between infrastructure, power costs, water availability, public policy and public sentiment across different regions,” Medlock, senior director at CES, said in a news release. “You can zoom out and look at the whole U.S. to easily realize why data centers locations are being chosen—the price of power and water matters.”

The tool maps information on data center locations against other factors like energy, water, economics and politics. It also shows existing infrastructure in the area, including electric transmission lines, power plants, and fiber-optic networks, and provides information on water stress, electricity prices and natural gas prices.

According to Rice, the map will be updated in real time and currently includes information on existing data centers and proposed data centers.

Additionally, the map provides county-level analyses of news coverage and media to explore local attitudes towards the development of data centers in communities. Users can also explore political and demographic information.

According to the Pew Research Center, most data centers that are being built will appear in rural areas, with Virginia, Texas and Georgia leading the way in the number of planned facilities. Pew’s 2026 findings also noted that 38 percent of Americans live within 5 miles of at least one operational data center.

Meanwhile, Houston and Texas are poised for continued data center growth. Other reports predict that Houston’s data center capacity could more than double by 2028. Texas is home to an estimated 400-plus data centers, according to commercial real estate services provider CBRE.

UH team lands $2.9M DOE grant to develop next-gen magnets with AI

critical minerals

University of Houston researchers are leading an effort to find alternatives to a key element of the U.S. economy.

A UH-led coalition is exploring the use of AI to design and manufacture next-generation permanent magnets for the energy and industrial sectors. The project seeks to develop new, more sustainable magnets that reduce U.S. reliance on vulnerable foreign sources of critical minerals, primarily China.

A nearly $2.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy supports the work.

“Rare earth elements, critical minerals, and magnets are indispensable to American energy, industry, and national security,” Conner Prochaska, director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy, said in a news release. “These projects will accelerate domestic mineral discovery and develop ultra-powerful magnets to mobilize U.S. critical mineral reserves, safeguard supply chains, and protect American energy and economic interests.”

Over the three-year grant period, principal investigator Jakoah Brgoch, a chemistry professor at UH, will head the Guided AI for Magnetic Boride/Carbide Intermetallic Technologies (GAMBIT) project. Brgosh was one of seven new senior members from UH named to the National Academy of Inventors earlier this year.

Other members of the team include Joshua Bocarsly, an assistant professor in the UH chemistry department; scientists at Rice University; and Houston-based startup Newfound Materials, which occupies space at Greentown Labs.

The UH-led team aims to surpass the properties of neodymium iron boron, the current industry-standard material for high-performance permanent magnets. These magnets are vital components in electric vehicles, industrial motors, generators, electronics and other advanced technologies.

“Strong magnets are used all over our economy. For example, many modern air-conditioning systems rely on permanent-magnet motors to drive compressors and blower fans,” Brgoch said.

“This has been a longstanding challenge to think about how we replace these magnets with high-performing and more reliable materials, and optimization by just replacing elements is not working,” Brgoch added. “Our goal is to use AI to find entirely new materials while simultaneously balancing these supply constraint concerns.”

The research team will work on discovering and testing potential magnet replacements. According to UH, the project’s ultimate goal is to commercialize the magnets through a new startup or by expanding Newfound Materials’ business units. The local startup has developed a predictive engine for materials research and development.

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