Join the DESOLINATION project partners at the 6th International Conference on Desalination using Membrane Technology in Sitges (Spain) from 19th to 22nd November 2023 to discuss the latest developments in desalination using membrane technology!

Our project partners Nadin Al-Jariry, Jonas Hedlund from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Luleå University of Technology and Muhammad Suleman from Lund University, will be presenting our project to leading academic researchers, scientists and engineers from the membrane desalination sector and associated industries, as well as to representatives of governmental organizations, international agencies and aid organizations.

Presentation extracted from the event website

Growing population, changing climate and increasing urbanisation require increasing freshwater supply and the sustainable water usage for industries and agriculture is of top priority. One of the most viable solutions is to tap from the seawater and wastewater. Membrane technologies have been established as the golden standard for desalination to address the global deficit for clean water. However, it is still expensive, which is one of the main obstacles for prevalent adoption of membranes.

Innovation is key to reduce the energy consumption and the total cost. This can be advanced by developing high performance reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF) membranes, robust module and process design, as well as other novel desalination technologies. We have seen promise in breaking the permselectivity trade-off using state-of-the-art nanomaterials. Biomimetic single ion channel and artificial water channel have shown exciting results in bench tests. The Sixth International Conference on Membrane Desalination 2023 (MEMDES 2023) is the dedicated forum to disseminate the cutting-edge research and development in this regard.

Beyond above challenges, environmental concerns are also important for sustainable membrane desalination. Harvesting valuable resources from brine has been a new direction for desalination, by highlighting the critical importance of ion selective membranes. The organising committee welcomes contributions from all fields focusing on membrane desalination and associated issues either in fundamental or applied research and applications. This conference is also open to the representatives of government organisations, international agencies and aid organisations to inform governments and stakeholders on the key progress, research findings and newest development for strategic and policy reference.

Topics include:

      • Membrane-based pre-treatments (ultrafiltration, microfiltration)
      • Advanced chemical pre-treatment and post-treatment processes
      • Membrane desalination (reverse osmosis, nanofiltration, forward osmosis, pressure retarded osmosis)

      • Thermal desalination processes (membrane distillation and pervaporation)

      • Electrochemical systems for selective desalination and polishing (electrodialysis, capacitive deionisation)

      • Membrane fouling, scaling and mitigation

      • Advanced materials (biomimetic water, 2D membranes and ion channel membranes)

      • Emerging desalination and non-conventional water production technologies

      • Novel hybrid systems and intensification efforts

      • Spacers and modules design and hydrodynamics control

      • Brine/concentrate management and valorisation

      • Resources recovery from brine

      • Energy and sustainability, life cycle and economic evaluation

      • Membrane materials recycling and upcycling

      • Pandemic impact on desalination processes

      • R&D in desalination and commercial operation of membranes for desalination