Background Seawater is the world’s main water resource and the process of desalination provides a way of tapping into it. The main technologies employed are thermal evaporation (distillation) and use of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes. The world market for RO water treatment systems is growing quickly – from an estimated $1.4 billion in 2000 to $3.8 billion in 2008. If this 13 % annual growth continues as expected, the market will reach $5.6 billion this year (2012). Unfortunately there can also be a high environmental cost. The energy required to produce RO water is about 10 times more than for conventional water distribution. Greater re-use can therefore help to compensate for this deficit and this is also a fast-growing area. Capital expenditure on advanced water re-use is forecast to grow at an annual rate of 19.5% until 2016. In the project’s home country, Spain, re-use will triple by 2015. There are currently more than 15 000 desalination plants operating in 100 countries. Of these, 80% use polymer-based membrane technologies, nearly 90% of them based on reverse osmosis. The RO membranes used in this process reach their end-of-life typically after five-to-10 years, resulting in costly waste which at present has to be sent for landfill. The beneficiary estimates that in Spain alone 100 000 membranes need replacing each year. Objectives The 'REMEMBRANE' project aims to prolong the lifecycle of membranes in the reverse osmosis method of water treatment through an innovative technology to improve membrane recovery and enable re-use. This seeks to avoid waste, reduce costs and improve the overall efficiency of the desalination process. A mobile demonstration plant will be established to develop diverse mechanical and chemical treatments for any RO membrane recovered at end-of-life. These will seek to make them suitable for re-use in the same desalination process or in other RO applications that need a lower quality water specification – such as for use in irrigation or industry. As part of the pilot project, a compact, portable testing unit will be built to perform trials on the recovered membranes at real installations. The prototype will diagnose a membrane’s condition before performing different treatments depending on the membrane and type of clogging. Once clean, the final unit will test membrane stability with inlet wastewater. This unit will be portable so recovered membranes can be tested on site without interrupting day-to-day work. The project aims to demonstrate how application of 'REMEMBRANE' technology will increase economic value to users by recovering RO membranes in an economically efficient way. Key benefits will be decreased landfill disposal, lower waste of resources and less need to produce new membranes. This ultimately aims to improve the efficiency of desalination processes and enhance the feasibility of water regeneration. Expected results Construction of a demonstration plant with improved physico-chemical treatments for reverse osmosis (RO) membranes expects to provide: Successful demonstration of RO membrane recovery for re-use in diverse applications; An eventual reduction of 2 000 tonnes/yr of waste material sent to landfill; Eventual waste disposal savings of €80 000/yr excluding transport cost, based on landfill disposal fees of €40/tonne; Reduction in the cost of membrane replacement to €100/unit; Reduced consumption of natural resources in the production of new membranes; Enhanced feasibility of water regeneration through desalination processes; and Stimulation of other applications that can increase the amount of re-used water produced and at lower cost.