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Houston Matters

Rice University Leading National Center to Provide Clean Water for Communities, Energy Industry

The lack of access to clean water is still a challenge for many homeowners and the energy industry. That’s why Rice University is heading up a national research center here in Houston that will use nanotechnology to enable water-treatment systems. Project leaders behind Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment — or NEWT — say it’ll provide safe […]

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The lack of access to clean water is still a challenge for many homeowners and the energy industry. That's why Rice University is heading up a national research center here in Houston that will use nanotechnology to enable water-treatment systems.

Project leaders behind Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment — or NEWT — say it'll provide safe drinking water for millions of people who lack it, and enable thousands of oil and gas production sites to manage and reuse water.

NEWT is funded by a five-year, $18.5 million dollar federal grant and brings together experts from Rice and other academic and industry partners.

Dr. Pedro Alvarez is director of NEWT, and the George R. Brown Professor of Environmental Engineering at Rice. He tells Houston Matters' Maggie Martin about the impetus for this collaboration between Rice and other entities.