Change the World 2025
Business and civic leaders worldwide are puzzling over how to balance the water needs of their communities with the intense water-consumption demands of vital industries like gas and oil fracking, semiconductor production, and data-center use. Engineering giant Bechtel took some steps toward a solution with its Low Energy Ejector Desalination System (LEEDS), a less energy-intensive method of desalinating the wastewater produced by such processes. A 2024 pilot project in the Permian Basin, a hub of fracking activity, successfully treated 400 barrels of wastewater per day; now the technology is generating interest across a wide range of industries.