The Conference Circuit
The EDS Conference in Montpelier, France, on 21st – 24th May, is now fast approaching. Check out the details at www.desline.com. I will be leading a UF/MF seminar immediately preceding the conference, which will be useful to both users and providers of UF/MF technology.

In March, I attended the Microfiltration 4 Conference in Anaheim, California. There were some useful sessions on markets, trends, and technology. I found the discussion on MF fouling particularly useful, and there was a good series of papers on MBR’s. it can surely be only a matter of time before the Reclaim and Reuse message is taken up more widely.

Anaheim is also host to the next conference on my agenda, which is the AMTA, 31st July to 2nd August. The conference has a strong Desalination theme this year, with a major focus on the proposed SWRO projects for California. I am looking forward to the pre-treatment discussion, which will be advanced through several papers and posters. I will be doing a UF/MF training session at the Pre-Conference Workshop for Membrane Plant Operators. Details of the program can be found at www.membranes-amta.org.

Publications Update
I will be presenting a paper at the EDS in May entitled ’The Case for UF/MF Pretreatment to RO in Seawater Applications’. The paper will be published in the Desalination Journal later this year. In the paper, I will be examining the case for UF/MF pre-treatment, specifically through a case study for an Eastern Mediterranean feed. The study concludes that saving a single RO clean per year pays the additional UF/MF capex. In practice, the savings are expected to be greater, and the system would also gain from improved stability and reliability in the RO. This is in addition to any savings that could result from higher flux and recovery, especially achievable for low to medium salinity seawater feeds.

Assignments
The City of Minneapolis is currently commissioning its 70 MGD UF facility at Columbia Heights, and I have been involved in the Acceptance Test Program. This type of assignment is fascinating, since the plant generates so much data to review and make sense of.

I have also been looking at Desalination Markets, which continue to show consistent growth. The view of these markets is normally formed by the large projects which take the headlines, but the market is extensively underpinned by low profile performers working outside of the spotlights.

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