Personally, I was so busy in meetings and attending to visitors at our booth, I hardly had a chance to tour the exhibit hall or see many technical presentations. With the conference in Vegas, delegates dispersed each night after the show so there also wasn’t as much of an opportunity to network and get some industry low-down as you do when the show is based in a venue with fewer distractions.
If there was one takeaway from the show, it is the growing
interest in the universal MF/UF rack system. This was featured at booths of a
number of OEMs and discussed in some presentations. It was also interesting to
see new UF modules continuing to come on to the market. As an OEM, you have
just got to select a few and base your design around these, even for a universal
MF/UF rack. Having now designed a few of these, it is a lot simpler if the
modules are similar in size (dimensions, port location and membrane surface
area) where the smallest module drives the footprint of the rack, as well as
uniformity in backwash and CIP requirements. If the universal rack concept
takes off, I can see this driving UF module manufacturers to more closely align
their sizing and operational parameters.
Desalitec seems to be making some inroads with
their closed circuit desalination (CCD) process based on presentations and some
press releases I have seen. The jury is still out with me as to whether CCD is just a niche applications or has potential on a larger scale. I also saw a really cool compact energy recovery
device that can be used on smaller skid mounted RO systems. I am sure there
were many other great technical innovations I missed and that deserve mention.
Hopefully next year in Orlando I get more time to roam and mingle…
