Why Ceramic Membranes Are Entering More Water Plants

For a water plant, meeting water quality standards is always the most basic requirement.

But in actual operation, what truly tests a water plant is often not whether a single test can pass, but whether the outlet water can remain consistently stable when raw water quality changes, during rainstorms, high-algae periods and seasonal fluctuations, and under long-term equipment operation.

In recent years, as drinking water standards continue to improve, whole-process water supply management is further strengthened, and residents' attention to drinking water quality keeps rising, more and more water plants have begun to consider new questions beyond "compliance":

After meeting the standard, water plants begin to ask

01 Can water quality be more stable?

02 Can the process better cope with raw water fluctuations?

03 Can upgrading an old plant reduce the need for new land?

04 Can equipment remain reliable over a long lifecycle?

The upgrade from "compliant water supply" to "high-quality water supply" is prompting water plants to re-examine their technical choices in the filtration stage.

01 High-Quality Supply Must First Solve the "Stability" Problem

At present, water plants generally adopt mature processes such as coagulation, sedimentation, filtration and disinfection. These technologies have long supported urban water supply safety.

But as treatment targets rise, in scenarios such as high algae, obvious raw water fluctuations, micro-polluted water sources and old plant upgrading, the filtration stage needs to bear higher water quality assurance requirements.

One of the core values of ceramic membranes is adding a physical filtration barrier with clearly defined pore size and controllable operation to water treatment.

Through membrane separation, pollutants such as particles, suspended solids, colloids and microorganisms in water can be effectively intercepted. Compared with conventional filtration that depends on changes in the state of the filter media layer, the physical interception boundary of a membrane is more clearly defined.

Therefore, for high-quality water supply, the significance of ceramic membranes lies not only in "filtering more finely", but also in helping water plants maintain more stable filtration performance when inlet conditions change.

02 High-Quality Supply Requires Reduced or Even Zero Chemical Dosing

Drawing on water supply processes in developed countries in Europe and America, the core of high-quality water supply processes is filtration technology centred on ceramic membranes. Through physical, physicochemical or biological methods, the impact on the natural properties of water is minimized as far as possible, while coupling and integration with other processes can strengthen the removal of different pollutants.

Compared with conventional water plant processes, ceramic membranes require essentially no chemical dosing during the purification process, achieving a genuine "green water purification technology".

03 From Material to Module, Ceramic Membranes Are Becoming More Suited to Water Plants

Jiuwu Hi-Tech developed and produced China's first independently developed ceramic membrane product in 1997, and has now formed a product series including tubular ceramic membranes, silicon carbide ceramic membranes and high-packing ceramic membranes. Ceramic membranes are made from inorganic materials such as alumina, zirconia, titanium oxide and silicon carbide, with filtration precision covering microfiltration and ultrafiltration ranges.

For the low-turbidity, low-COD and large-flow scenarios of tap water treatment, Jiuwu Hi-Tech has developed high-packing ceramic membranes dedicated to water treatment.

Compared with conventional single tubular membranes, the high-packing module integrates a larger effective membrane area inside a compact module, providing greater treatment capacity within limited space; at the same time, it adopts an operating mode suited to low-turbidity water quality, achieving stable filtration at lower pressure and restoring membrane performance through online backwash and chemically enhanced cleaning. Jiuwu's existing products allow selection of different filtration precisions and module forms such as PVC, FRP and stainless steel according to project requirements.

These characteristics are especially important for water plants.

Many old plants need upgrading and capacity expansion, but the site no longer has enough space to build new large filter basins or structures. High-packing, equipment-based and modular ceramic membrane systems provide a new technical option for process upgrading within limited space.

04 Ceramic Membranes Do Not Work Alone, but Enter the Entire Water Purification Process

High-quality water supply has never relied on a single piece of equipment to solve all water quality problems.

According to different raw water conditions, Jiuwu Hi-Tech has now formed a variety of ceramic membrane combination processes.

For projects with relatively good water source quality, the current typical flow can be adopted:

Conventional water source - typical flow

Coagulation → Sedimentation → Ceramic membrane → Disinfection → Network

For water sources with problems such as micro-organic pollution, advanced treatment units such as ozone and activated carbon can be combined with ceramic membranes:

Micro-polluted water source - advanced treatment flow

Coagulation → Sedimentation → Ozone → Activated carbon → Ceramic membrane → Disinfection → Network

In this system, different processes undertake different tasks: ozone decomposes trace organic matter, activated carbon adsorbs pollutants such as pesticides, ceramic membranes provide stable physical interception, and disinfection further ensures the microbiological safety of supply.

What Jiuwu Hi-Tech can provide is not just a membrane element, but a complete technical chain from ceramic membrane materials, membrane modules and complete equipment to process design and overall solutions.

At present, the company has formed integrated equipment suitable for rural and township water supply, and also has the engineering design capability for modular ceramic membrane equipment and larger-scale water plant ceramic membrane systems.

100-300 m³/d - Integrated equipment for township water supply

5,000 m³/d - Modular ceramic membrane equipment

10,000 m³/d class - Engineering design for large water plant systems

05 Long-Term Plant Operation Makes "the Material Itself" Increasingly Important

A water plant is typically built for a long lifecycle.

Therefore, membrane systems cannot be evaluated on initial investment alone; long-term cleaning, membrane replacement, downtime maintenance and material stability must also be considered.

Ceramic membranes use inorganic materials and feature oxidation resistance, resistance to strong chemical cleaning and high mechanical strength. Jiuwu ceramic membranes have more than ten years of application practice in multiple actual projects.

In recent years, issues such as PFAS and microplastics have also led the drinking water industry to pay more attention to the long-term stability of water treatment materials themselves. Ceramic membranes and polymer membranes such as PVDF belong to different material technology routes, which also gives inorganic ceramic materials new discussion value in the high-quality drinking water field.

06 Looking at the Real Value of Ceramic Membranes Through Project Operation

Jiuwu already has engineering practice at different scales for ceramic membranes used in tap water treatment.

Qushan Island Siping Water Plant - 6,000 m³/d upgrading project

By adding ceramic ultrafiltration membrane equipment to optimize the existing process, treatment capacity was improved while outlet turbidity reached within 0.02 NTU.

Ordos, Inner Mongolia - 26,000 m³/d groundwater treatment project

After ceramic membrane treatment, outlet turbidity is below 0.1 NTU, SDI below 3, and system recovery above 92%.

Xuyi - 1,500 m³/d township tap water project

Adopting the short-flow process of "flocculation and sedimentation + ceramic membrane", outlet turbidity is stably below 0.1 NTU.

Behind projects of different scales and scenarios, the same trend is reflected: tap water treatment is upgrading from simply meeting the water quality baseline toward stabilization, intensification, long-cycle operation and high-quality supply.

Looking to the future, Jiuwu Hi-Tech will continue to rely on ceramic membrane material R&D, intelligent manufacturing and membrane integration engineering capabilities to continuously improve products and solutions for urban water plant upgrading, new high-quality water plants and urban-rural water supply scenarios, providing a new technical path for high-quality drinking water construction with more stable, efficient and sustainable membrane separation technology, so that advanced materials truly serve safer and healthier domestic water.