Tuesday, April 1, 2014

AWWA/AMTA 2014 Annual Membrane Conference Wrap

Las Vegas was the venue this year and it looked like a record number of exhibitors turned up for the AWWA/AMTA Annual Membrane Conference in March. Maybe that is a sign that the economy is picking up and many more membrane projects are starting to move forward. There was certainly heavy attendance from Western U.S. where drought is driving interest in membrane project for reuse, brackish and seawater desalination.

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…