1) Sea Water Desalination ...
Published by Ahmed Ansari, Process Engineer (SeaWater RO Desalination) at Suez Water Services LLC.
1) Sea Water Desalination with Forward Osmosis technology, and incorporating Membrane Distillation to increase Sea Water conversion (to sweet water).
2) Industrial Waste Heat utilization for use in Thermal desalination.
Amongst many others, either of the above 2 fileds looks interesting in terms of scope and novelty.