Water Technology Showcase

A platform for technical expertise and real‑world results

Want to talk to the IWC attendees about your ideas for the water industry?

• Display Monitor and laptop will be provided, bring your flash drive with your presentation!
• Presentations will be 25 minutes in length and scheduled every half hour during key times at the conference.
• Reserve your time(s) below!

Questions: send an email here.

2026 Schedule

Presentation information can be submitted here

Monday, November 9, 2026

Time: 1:30 PM

Digital Integration Across the Water Treatment Lifecycle: Linking Design, Operations, and Sustainability
Leaelaf Hailemariam, Dupont Water Solutions

Water treatment facilities are increasingly facing challenges related to variable feedwater quality, resource limitations, and growing sustainability demands. To effectively address these issues, a coordinated approach that goes beyond traditional process design is necessary. This presentation introduces a lifecycle-oriented digital ecosystem that integrates process modeling, operational analytics, and sustainability assessments to enhance decision-making throughout both system design and long-term operations.

The framework enables users to evaluate different technology configurations, optimize operational performance through data-driven insights, and quantify environmental impacts using validated methodologies. By establishing feedback loops between design and operational data, this approach supports continuous optimization, improves resource efficiency, and facilitates informed sustainability planning. The presentation will also emphasize the role of digitalization in enhancing the performance and resilience of modern water treatment systems.

Time: 3:00 PM

Same Water, Different Answer: What’s Behind an RO/NF Chemical Recommendation?
Beatriz Colacioppo, American Water Chemicals (AWC)

Two membrane chemical projections can evaluate the same feedwater and RO/NF system and still produce very different conclusions on scaling potential, antiscalant dosage, pH requirements, and achievable recovery. Why?

Evaluating scaling risk starts with the water analysis, but it does not end there. This presentation will look inside the assumptions behind membrane scaling predictions, including which water quality parameters drive common scales, what to watch for, and why precipitation potential based on saturation indices does not necessarily represent the actual scaling potential within a membrane system. System design and operating conditions, including recovery, flux, membrane configuration, concentration polarization, ion-specific rejection, pH and scale formation kinetics, can significantly influence scaling risk and the resulting chemical recommendation.

Drawing on over 10 years of experimental scale-formation testing, real-world projection comparisons, and operating experience, attendees will gain a better understanding of the factors that influence membrane scaling predictions, how modeling assumptions can change the resulting chemical recommendation and operating limits, and what to consider when evaluating or running a projection, demonstrating why the technology and validation behind a chemical recommendation can matter just as much as the chemical itself.

Tuesday, November 10, 2026

Time: 10:00 AM

Hydraulic Energy Utilization: Matching Technology to Application
Lester Burton, Fluid Equipment Development Company (FEDCO)

Recovering hydraulic energy is a critical consideration in the design and optimization of reverse osmosis systems, but the most effective approach varies significantly with feedwater conditions, system pressure, flow rate, and process configuration.

This presentation explores opportunities to apply energy recovery devices where it can provide the greatest impact across a variety of applications, and their effect on overall system performance. We’ll examine several energy recovery technologies, including motor-assisted energy recovery devices, high-efficiency turbochargers, and turbine generators. Each technology offers different advantages depending on the available hydraulic energy, system pressure, flow characteristics, and desired level of integration with the RO system.

This review also briefly examines how the application of energy recovery devices affects the performance of the overall system, such as membrane performance, high-pressure pump operation, system pressure, and flow distribution.

By considering these interactions at the system level, energy utilization technologies can be selected and applied to balance total skid performance and the optimization of hydraulic energy recovery.

Time: 10:30 AM

Turn Wastewater into an Energy Resource: Cut RO Power Demand with PX Technology
David Russell, Energy Recovery

This presentation explores how energy recovery technology enables low-energy water reuse by capturing and reusing hydraulic energy within RO processes. By reducing the load on high-pressure pumps, pressure exchanger technology lowers energy consumption and operating costs.

The session will highlight a pioneering European direct potable reuse (DPR) project at the Water Production Centre (WPC) in Hofstade, Belgium, developed by Waterunie and Nuoro. The facility converts treated municipal wastewater into high-quality drinking water using a multi-barrier treatment train that includes ultrafiltration, RO, activated carbon, and advanced disinfection. Integrated PX technology reduces RO energy demand by approximately 23% while helping produce about 400 million liters of drinking water annually.

Attendees will learn how energy recovery can make advanced water reuse systems more efficient, scalable, and economically viable while helping transform wastewater from a disposal challenge into a reliable water resource.

Time: 2:00 PM

Reducing Ion-Exchange Regenerant Waste: Field Results and a Path to Commercial Scale
Steve Lebischak, AYON

Ion-exchange treatment can generate significant volumes of spent regenerant and rinse water, creating disposal costs and limiting adoption at water-treatment facilities. AYON will present field-demonstration results from its work at a California Water Utility and discuss a process that reduces waste volume while maintaining treatment performance. The presentation will address operational results, potential customer economics, scale-up requirements and opportunities to integrate the approach with established ion-exchange equipment, resin and treatment-system platforms.