2018 Membrane Technology Conference and CA WateReuse Conference Wraps

March was a busy month for conferences so I am combining my summary of the 2018 MTC in West Palm Beach and CA Annual WateReuse Conference in Monterey. There were may of the same West Coast engineers at both shows, which is an indication of the high use of membranes in wastewater recycling projects.

AMTA/AWWA Membrane Technology Conference

Attendance was similar to the past few years at just over 1000 delegates. It felt a little down to me based on exhibit hall traffic, but the quality of delegates was very good as usual, with a lot of interesting membrane projects in the works. The technical program was excellent, and I found myself torn between sessions many times when papers I wanted to see were being presented simultaneously.

There were quite a few sessions on potable reuse including studies directed at proving pathogen removal credits for MBRs and Reverse Osmosis for indirect and direct potable reuse of wastewater and the results look pretty conclusive with regulations to follow in the near future.

In terms on new technology, it looks like Metawater has some real competition now on the ceramic membrane front, with Nanostone recently completing some drinking water plant retrofits in the Dakotas. I think this a pretty good strategy for Nanostone where retrofitting will allow them to get some quick references for their ceramic membrane. The current target for the retrofits is cold water filtration applications where the capacity of systems with polymeric membranes is reduced in winter while the flux reduction for ceramic membranes is significantly less.

There were also a number of presentations on the use of Desalitech’s Closed Circuit Desalination (CCD) process for concentrating brine and improving recovery at wastewater reuse and brackish water applications. It looks like there will be some decent sized CCD systems in municipal applications on the West Cost in the near future.

WateReuse California Annual Conference

This was my first time at this show and I was very impressed with the number of delegates, around 600, which is about half of what is at the national WateReuse Symposium. A large percentage of those attending were water utilities, indicative of all the reuse activity in California. Since this was in Monterey, the Monterey One Water reuse demonstration plant and full-scale reuse system under construction were featured, including a tasting of beer made from the demonstration plant, a frequent and popular event at the WateReuse shows. I must say that Monterey One Water has done an excellent job with their demonstration plant that is set up for tours for all sectors of the community. I believe Pure Water San Diego probably had the first long term demonstration plant followed by Monterey and now many more water utilities are following suit to gain public acceptance of direct and indirect potable reuse.

Monterey One Water Demonstration Plant

I did hear in one presentation that the State of California is about to award pathogen log removal credits for MBRs and in anticipation of this, a number of future reuse projects are already removing UF from the Full Advanced Treatment (FAT) train and feeding RO directly from a MBR. Some of these full-scale projects are currently or about to bid. If you ask me, I am OK with MBRs as a barrier for indirect reuse, but I am not ready for MBRs without a subsequent UF filtration step as a pathogen barrier for direct potable reuse.

The organizers of this conference did a great job in planning every detail, including presentations and entertainment at lunches and breakfast (the WateReuse Family Feud was hilarious!) and I can see why the attendance at this show was so good.

Next major show, ACE18 in Vegas baby!