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