Desalination Science and Technology 2027

As global populations grow, climate change intensifies, and urbanization accelerates, securing a resilient freshwater supply and achieving sustainable water use across industry and agriculture remain top global priorities. Tapping into saline waters and wastewater is one of most viable paths forward. While traditional membrane processes—such as microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, and reverse osmosis—continue to serve as the industry gold standard, addressing the clean water deficit requires exploring the entire spectrum of separation science. This includes advancing our understanding of transport mechanisms and driving the development of emerging desalination technologies.

Continuous breakthrough is vital to reduce energy consumption, minimize carbon footprints, and ensure the robust removal of emerging contaminants. The 8th International Conference on Desalination Science and Technology 2027 (DESAL 2027) will serve as a dynamic forum bridging laboratory-scale discoveries with industry-scale desalination applications. The program will place a strong emphasis on novel desalination materials, innovative hybrid systems, and advanced module design, alongside critical operational strategies encompassing pre-treatment and post-treatment processes, as well as membrane fouling and control. Beyond engineering efficiency, environmental stewardship and circular economy principles are critical to the future of sustainable desalination. Transitioning from waste management to asset creation, a key focus of this edition will be brine/concentrate management and resource recovery.

Therefore, we are delighted to invite academic researchers, scientists, students, and engineers from the global desalination sector, alongside industry professionals, representatives of government organizations, international agencies, and non-governmental organizations, to Shanghai for DESAL 2027. This premier event will feature plenary lectures, keynote speeches, oral presentations, and interactive poster sessions highlighting the latest breakthroughs in both fundamental and applied research about desalination. The organizing committee welcomes contributions spanning from fundamental science to full-scale applications across all specified themes. To support and encourage the next generation of desalination innovators, dedicated awards will be presented for the best oral and poster contributions from students and early-career researchers. We look forward to welcoming you to the vibrant hub of Shanghai to foster the cross-disciplinary dialogues, technological breakthrough, and strategic policy references that will shape the future of global water sustainability.

Topics include:

• Novel desalination materials

• Nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, forward osmosis, pressure retarded osmosis

• Transport mechanisms in desalination

• Electrochemical systems

• Emerging desalination technologies

• Ultrafiltration, microfiltration

• Membrane distillation, pervaporation

• Membrane fouling and control

• Pre-treatment and post-treatment processes

• Resources recovery

• Novel hybrid systems and module design

• Industry-scale desalination

• Green hydrogen production from desalinated water

• AI, digital twins and autonomous operation for desalination systems

• Renewable energy integration and low-carbon desalination

• Environmental impact, brine management, LCA and sustainability assessment

• Desalination economics, policy, planning and community engagement

Special Issue – Desalination

All presenters at DESAL 2025, including invited speakers, oral presenters, and poster presenters, are warmly invited to submit a paper for a Special Issue of Desalination. All manuscripts will be subject to the same quality standards as regular submissions to Desalination and will undergo a fast but strict double peer-review process.

The submission portal will be open after the conference and accepting manuscripts.

To ensure proper identification for inclusion in the Special Issue, please select the article type VSI: DESAL 2025 when uploading and submitting your manuscript hereopens in new tab/window. The final deadline for submission is 15 November 2026.

History

• 6th International Conference on Desalination using Membrane Technology

  19-22 November 2023 | Sitges, Spain

• 5th International Conference on Desalination using Membrane Technology 14-17 November 2021 | Online

• 4th International Conference on Desalination using Membrane Technology 1-4 December 2019 | Perth, Australia

• 3rd International Conference on Desalination using Membrane Technology 2-5 April 2017 | Gran Canaria, Spain

• 2nd International Conference on Desalination using Membrane Technology 19-22 July 2015 | Singapore

• 1st International Conference on Desalination using Membrane Technology 7-10 April 2013 | Sitges, Spain

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