Our vision is to enable access to suitable water
almost anywhere in the world
NEWT is an interdisciplinary, multi-institution nanosystems-engineering research center (headquartered at Rice University) whose goal is to facilitate access to clean water almost anywhere in the world by developing efficient modular water treatment systems that are easy to deploy, and that can tap unconventional sources to provide humanitarian water or emergency response.
NEWT’s technologies will safely exploit the unique properties of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) to treat water using less chemicals, less electricity and smaller reactors than current technologies, enable re-use or regeneration of ENMs to decrease treatment costs, and use interchangeable treatment modules to accommodate different feed-water quality and treatment objectives.
NEWT also develops systems to treat and reuse challenging industrial wastewaters in remote locations, such as oil and gas fields to help energy production be more sustainable and more cost-efficient in regards to its water footprint.