Water System Modeling

Below are the WE3 Lab's software packages and datasets related to water system modeling. Related publications are included at the bottom of the page.

Software Packages

Technoeconomic Assessment Platform

Open-source Python package that supports the technoeconomic assessment of full water treatment trains.

Data and Metadata Schema

PyPES can represent a wide variety of water systems, such as water distribution, wastewater treatment, and reverse osmosis.

Bi, X., Ladshaw, A., Bartholomew, T. V., Atia, A. A., Allu, S., & Dudchenko, A. V. (2025). Nonlinear programming optimization of a single-stack electrodialysis desalination system for cost efficiency. Desalination, 601, 118512. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2024.118512
Tucker, Carson I., Timothy V. Bartholomew, Alexander V. Dudchenko, and Meagan S. Mauter. "Component innovations for lower cost mechanical vapor compression." Water Research 260 (2024): 121950. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2024.121950
Amusat, O. O., Atia, A. A., Dudchenko, A. V., & Bartholomew, T. V. (2024). Modeling Framework for Cost Optimization of Process-Scale Desalination Systems with Mineral Scaling and Precipitation. ACS ES&T Engineering, 4(5), 1028-1047. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsestengg.3c00537
Panda, Kinshuk, Knueven, Bernard, Young, Ethan, Helman, Sam, Allen, Jeffery, & Dudchenko, Alexander V. (2024). Using Parameter Sweep in WaterTAP to Analyze New Water Treatment Technologies. https://doi.org/10.2172/2448281
Sitterley, Kurban A., & Dudchenko, Alexander (2023). WaterTAP Technical Brief: Ion Exchange Model Demonstration and Optimization. Golden, CO: National Renewable Energy Laboratory. NREL/TP-5700-86512. https://doi.org/10.2172/2005544
Atia, A. A., Allen, J., Young, E., Knueven, B., & Bartholomew, T. V. (2023). Cost optimization of low-salt-rejection reverse osmosis. Desalination, 551, 116407. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2023.116407

Chapin, F. T., Liu, Y. L., & Mauter, M. S. (2025). PyPES: A data and metadata schema for portable water system models. Environmental Modelling & Software, 106788. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2025.106788

WaterTAP contributors. (2025). WaterTAP: An open-source water treatment model library (Version 1.4.0) [Computer software]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15778836

Chapin, F. T., Liu, Y., Bolorinos, J., Wettermark, D., Rao, A. K., & Mauter, M. S. (2025). Python for Process Engineering Schema (PyPES) (Version 0.7.2) [Computer software]. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17042020