BlueNotes

This episode spotlights three themes driving BlueTech’s current research cycle. Rhys and Divya open with the momentum behind ceramic membranes, ahead of the 11 December web briefing with Dr. Graham Pearce and the release of BlueTech’s Ceramic Membranes 2025 Update. Once a 2% niche, ceramics now claim ~10% of the market, lifted by cost reductions, flat-sheet formats, and the EU’s proposed PFAS restrictions that could phase out PVDF. With players like MetaWater, Sōbra, Stech, and Filtech expanding into wastewater and desalination, ceramics are shifting from premium to increasingly mainstream.

The episode then moves to BlueTech's Innovation Tracker, highlighting VBact, a 4.5/5 BlueTruffle-rated bacterial scanner offering real-time, AI-driven microbial monitoring at low operating cost. Already deployed in food and beverage, it stands out for continuous phenotypic fingerprinting—though regulatory acceptance remains the key barrier. A full report on bacterial monitoring systems lands next month.

Finally, the hosts examine Aurelius’ acquisition of Xylem’s international metering business, a move TAG experts describe as strategic refocusing. The divestment allows Xylem to double down on software, analytics, and digital twin partnerships, while Aurelius takes on a complex, hardware-heavy portfolio.

Together, these threads capture the technology, regulation, and market shifts framing BlueTech’s year-end research priorities

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Presented by BlueTech Research®, Actionable Water Technology Market Intelligence.

Watch the trailer of Our Blue World: A Water Odyssey.  Get involved, and learn more on the website: braveblue.world

Electrodialysis is making a comeback. Once niche, ED and EDR are being reinvented with smarter membranes, modular stack designs, and solar-powered operation. BlueTech Analyst Dr. Vishal Wagholikar joins Rhys and Divya to explore how these innovations could enable off-grid desalination, resource recovery, and low-cost acid and base generation.

The conversation then shifts to policy, with the proposed Advancing Water Reuse Act offering a 30% U.S. tax credit that could transform industrial reuse economics—boosting uptake among data centers, semiconductor plants, and utilities.

They close on lithium, spotlighting the UK’s first commercial DLE project and a Veolia patent targeting zero-liquid discharge and circular lithium recovery. Together, these stories reveal where technology, regulation, and resource security now intersect in water innovation.

Join us for the upcoming web briefings in November:

• 20 November: Transforming Nitrogen Management: From Cost to Opportunity
• 27th November: Ceramic Membranes: Market & Technology Update 2025

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Presented by BlueTech Research®, Actionable Water Technology Market Intelligence.

Watch the trailer of Our Blue World: A Water Odyssey.  Get involved, and learn more on the website: braveblue.world

WEFTEC is where the future of water takes shape, and in this BlueNotes special, we cut through the noise. 

From the 281 submitted abstracts, our analysts have curated the top 60 that will define industry conversations this year: PFAS, emissions control, digital adoption, and circular solutions. Download the full memo from here. 

We spotlight the Innovation Pavilion cohort, where next-gen leaders like Active Membranes, AlgaFilm, Chromafora, Delta Bravo, Solidec and Weaver Labs showcase their breakthrough technologies. Also happening at the Innovation Pavilion are sessions like Dynamics of Water Innovation, Innovating for Today, and Lighthouses & Tipping Points. Visit the full list of Innovation Pavilion sessions here.

And as has become tradition, BlueTech's Breakfast Briefing will be held on Tuesday, September 30th at 7.30 AM. Over coffee and a croissant, we’ll deliver hard-earned insight from the frontlines of innovation — offering new research and real-world investment signals. This year’s edition is sponsored by Grundfos, whose keynote will set the tone for a session that spans unicorn technologies, PFAS dynamics, data centres, M&A trends, and the shifting priorities of utilities and regulators. If you believe you should be in the room, request an invite on our website.

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Presented by BlueTech Research®, Actionable Water Technology Market Intelligence.

Watch the trailer of Our Blue World: A Water Odyssey.  Get involved, and learn more on the website: braveblue.world

Electrodialysis Reversal (EDR) is getting a second life. Once overshadowed by reverse osmosis, new designs, capacitive approaches, and ceramic membranes are opening doors in brackish desalination, food and beverage, and even lithium recovery. Costs and complexity remain hurdles, but innovation is giving EDR fresh momentum .

Another blind spot: microfibers. Over half a million metric tons entered the environment in 2023, with textile effluents averaging 37 mg/L. BlueTech’s new report maps the problem and highlights solutions from ultrafiltration to simple strainers, stressing that no single fix exists — integration and shared data are key.

This month’s Analyst Alert highlights Norit’s PFAS breakthrough: NSF-certified thermal reactivation destroying 99.98% of PFAS in spent carbon. More than reuse, it signals hybrid pathways where removal, regeneration, and destruction combine to outcompete standalone solutions.

Patent Watch adds a sustainability twist. Kemira’s bio-based flocculants from cellulose and starch cut dewatering times nearly in half, showing that performance and green chemistry can align.

Looking ahead: BlueTech partners with Apple at New York Climate Week, then heads to WEFTEC with Imagine H2O for the Innovation Pavilion, breakfast briefings, and this year’s top abstracts. A packed fall, set against signals of reinvention across the sector.

Join us for the following briefings:

• 30th September: Breakfast Briefing at WEFTEC in Chicago. Register here
• 7th October: The Commercial Future of Water: Microplastics, PFAS & Consumer Trust (in collaboration with Lux Research Inc). Register here

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Presented by BlueTech Research®, Actionable Water Technology Market Intelligence.

Watch the trailer of Our Blue World: A Water Odyssey.  Get involved, and learn more on the website: braveblue.world

PFAS sensing is heating up—but still waiting for a true breakthrough. Dr. Kim Wu joins to explore a market set to hit $480M by 2026, with field-based sensors potentially swelling to $750M by 2030. Demand is surging, regulations are tightening, yet no real-time solution exists. Kim points to electrochemical sensing paired with AI as the most promising pathway, while early players like Sense and Puri are racing prototypes into the field .

The discussion then turns to one of the year’s biggest water deals: Ecolab’s $2.4B acquisition of Ovivo’s electronics division. More than a balance sheet move, it’s a play on ultrapure water for semiconductors and AI infrastructure. With a single fab consuming as much water annually as 17 million people, the deal solidifies Ecolab’s push into one of the most water-intensive growth arenas of the decade .

Innovation is also bubbling up in patents. A standout this month: USP Technologies’ filing for coagulants derived from drinking water treatment residuals—repurposing waste streams into circular solutions for sewer biofilm control and clarification. A reminder that incumbents too are finding fresh ways to close the loop .

Looking ahead, Lily Chen lays out a packed second half. Screenings of Our Blue World stretch from Dubai to Philadelphia, Ghent, and Osaka. BlueTech Unplugged teams up with Apple in New York and Vortex in Dubai. September also brings web briefings on PFAS sensing, the launch of a mini-series with Lux Research, WEFTEC’s Innovation Pavilion, and the reveal of BlueTech’s new website.

Join us for the following briefings:

• 10th September: Web Briefing PFAS Sensing. Register here
• 30th September: Breakfast Briefing at WEFTEC in Chicago. Register here

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Presented by BlueTech Research®, Actionable Water Technology Market Intelligence.

Watch the trailer of Our Blue World: A Water Odyssey.  Get involved, and learn more on the website: braveblue.world

BlueTech's TAG expert Dr. Sebastien Tillman joins Rhys and Divya to unpack a wave of projects in places as unexpected as Belgium and the UK, challenging the “it rains here” mindset. The driver? Not just technology, but trust. Public outreach remains the decisive factor between a flagship success and a stalled proposal.

The long-standing “RO is the gold standard” stance is giving way to new thinking. Carbon-based advanced treatment – using ozone and biological activated carbon – is gaining ground as a safe, effective alternative, with several US states writing it into regulation. The shift signals a maturing market where water quality, cost, and scalability share the stage. Potable reuse is emerging as both a trust benchmark in science and infrastructure and a pragmatic, bipartisan solution – embraced in blue California and red Texas alike.

Sebastien points to Spain as the ultimate flagship opportunity: a water-stressed nation currently prohibiting direct potable reuse, where overturning regulatory barriers could set a powerful global precedent. He sketches three likely future models for reuse – high-quality defacto reuse in wet regions, desalination-plus-reuse for arid agricultural economies, and direct potable reuse for water-scarce urban centers – and offers C-suite strategies from R&D priorities to acquisition opportunities.

Also in this episode: AI’s leap from analytics to action. Emerson’s Ovation Virtual Advisor offers utilities an on-call digital operations guru; H2OK Innovations raises $12.4M to scale AI-driven inline spectral sensors; CASPR AI accelerates materials R&D timelines from decades to years. In patents, Evoqua claims PFAS destruction via plasma at the air–water interface with nano bubbles – an emerging technology to watch.

Coming up: our PFAS Sensing Technologies report and web briefing, the WEFTEC Top 100 Abstracts review, the BlueTech Client Breakfast Briefing in Chicago, and a deep dive on graywater recycling regulations.

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Presented by BlueTech Research®, Actionable Water Technology Market Intelligence.

Watch the trailer of Our Blue World: A Water Odyssey.  Get involved, and learn more on the website: braveblue.world

Autonomous water plants are here—and 49 of them are already running in China, serving 17 million people with no one on-site. Dr. Kim Wu unpacks this jaw-dropping stat and what it signals for digital twins, smart networks, and the new edge of AI in water. She also flags the rise of low-power IoT and how cybersecurity is shifting from afterthought to core infrastructure need. Later, we welcome Dr. Rick Woodling, the newest member of BlueTech’s TAG team, dialing in from Hawaii. He’s keeping a close eye on next-gen RO, new moves in ZLD, and a massively under-discussed opportunity: recovering industrial acids before they go down the drain. From plasma PFAS treatment to additive manufacturing of ceramic membranes, this episode tracks where water innovation is moving fast—and where it’s still catching up.

Join the web briefings and explore the full Horizon Scans:

July 22 – Identifying the next water sector “Unicorn” technologies | Download Horizon Scan

July 24 – Point-of-Use / Point-of-Entry Trends | Download Horizon Scan

July 31 – Plasma Water Treatment: A Clear and Urgent Need | Download Horizon Scan

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Presented by BlueTech Research®, Actionable Water Technology Market Intelligence.

Watch the trailer of Our Blue World: A Water Odyssey.  Get involved, and learn more on the website: braveblue.world

Did you know there are at least 16 different ways to capture carbon—and some of them actually generate water? Others, however, could increase water consumption at power plants by up to 30%. In this episode, Rhys and Divya unpack the complex relationship between water and carbon capture technologies, where scale-up is accelerating and trade-offs are becoming harder to ignore.

They also turn their focus to AI: data centers powering tools like ChatGPT are guzzling up to 5 million gallons of water a day. Every prompt has a footprint—and it’s not just digital. From ceramic membranes in Memphis to new cooling metrics like WUE, the discussion surfaces the hidden water costs of decarbonisation and digitisation alike.

Both topics are the subject of upcoming BlueTech web briefings, where the team will go deeper with invited experts. And as always, there’s a full research report available for each—covering the data, players, and technologies shaping these fast-evolving sectors.

1️⃣ Carbon Capture and Water:

Join the web briefing here and download the report here

2️⃣ The Water Footprint of AI

Register for the web briefing here and access the report here

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Presented by BlueTech Research®, Actionable Water Technology Market Intelligence.

Watch the trailer of Our Blue World: A Water Odyssey.  Get involved, and learn more on the website: braveblue.world

Dr Vishal Wagholikar joins Rhys and Divya to break down findings from his new Horizon Scan on cooling technologies. As data centres grow more power-hungry, water use is emerging as a blind spot—and a growing concern. 

The trio unpacks liquid cooling breakthroughs, water use effectiveness metrics, and shifting industry priorities. If you’re in cooling, water, or digital infrastructure, don’t miss this. 

The full report is now available on the BlueTech Intelligence platform. Download here or request access.

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Presented by BlueTech Research®, Actionable Water Technology Market Intelligence.

Watch the trailer of Our Blue World: A Water Odyssey.  Get involved, and learn more on the website: braveblue.world

January 2025 brought significant changes to the water industry. From extreme weather events affecting Cork, Australia, and LA, to the EPA's withdrawal of proposed PFAS limits following the new Trump administration. Bluetech will host a press briefing on the implications of these PFAS regulatory changes, particularly for biosolids management.

New research reports

Bluetech's latest research covers critical water sector challenges: stormwater management with digital and nature-based solutions, innovations in water conveyance addressing aging infrastructure, and advances in water treatment materials. The team has also analyzed emerging contaminants beyond PFAS, forecasting future regulatory trends.

Atmospheric Water Generation: a market in transition

The atmospheric water generation (AWG) market has evolved beyond its niche origins, now exceeding $100 million in revenue with projected growth to $800 million by 2030. New industrial applications are emerging, from carbon capture dehumidification to heat recovery from industrial airstreams. The sector has seen rapid growth in both technological advancement and market participants, suggesting an approaching market maturation.

Upcoming events

• PFAS Press Briefing with Dr Paul O'Callaghan, Jacob Steele, Dr Ali Ling, and Dr Glen Daigger on February 11th: register here.
• Join Bluetech's web briefing on Atmospheric Water Generation on March 6th, featuring Dr. Kim Wu and industry expert Roland Walgren. Register here.

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Presented by BlueTech Research®, Actionable Water Technology Market Intelligence.

Watch the trailer of Our Blue World: A Water Odyssey.  Get involved, and learn more on the website: braveblue.world