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Desalination will not become fundamentally cheaper, cleaner, and more resilient by optimizing around the edges. The real step change comes from modernizing the membrane itself. In this opinion piece, Arian Edalat explains why electro-active membranes can break the link between fouling, chemicals, downtime, and rising lifecycle cost.

Active Membranes launches first commercial project for electro-active membranes, powering sustainable, chemical-free desalination in California.

Active Membranes has advanced its electro active membrane technology, earning recognition in both Track A and Track B of the XPRIZE Water Scarcity Competition. The selection highlights the technology’s potential to make desalination more efficient, sustainable, and scalable. By actively mitigating fouling and scaling, it enables chemical-free, high-recovery water treatment for a more sustainable future.

Active Membranes has reached a key milestone with the full-scale production of Smart RO Membranes in the standard 8" x 40" (8040) spiral wound format. This advancement demonstrates that smart membrane technology is ready for industrial application, delivering higher recovery, lower chemical use, and more stable operation. It marks a defining step toward smarter, more sustainable desalination at scale.

Antoine: Hi Arian, welcome to the show. Arian: Thank you for the opportunity and good to be here. Antoine: I almost wanted to say welcome back because we already had a recorded conversation — it was on the Water Show when you were just winning the Tech Idol at the Global Water Summit in Berlin. We’ll come back to that because I’d like to understand how important that was on your path. I think I discussed that with Praash Gobindidan from Gradient because he’s one of the alu