Table of Contents
Board-Level Summary
Two 2026 industry moves point in the same direction for zero liquid discharge: Aquatech’s acquisition of FTS H2O, which adds membrane-driven brine concentration to its portfolio, and GEA’s launch of the meVap MVR portfolio at IFAT 2026, which targets the thermal side. Read together, they show where the technology has settled — membranes recover the bulk of the water and shrink brine volume, and thermal crystallization finishes the job with a solid salt and a distillate.
The market numbers support that reading. Mordor Intelligence puts the ZLD systems market at USD 8.01 billion in 2026, growing at 8.34 percent CAGR to USD 11.96 billion by 2031. Thermal-based systems still held 63.24 percent of 2025 revenue, but membrane-based configurations are growing faster, at 9.12 percent CAGR. Hybrid designs are where that growth is landing.
For boards signing off on ZLD capital, three questions follow: which architecture, what does it cost to run, and how much monitoring does it take to keep it running. The third question gets less attention than it deserves.
The Aquatech-FTS H2O Acquisition: What It Means
On 5 May 2026, Aquatech announced the acquisition of FTS H2O, an Oregon-based developer of membrane-driven brine concentration and resource recovery processes. The deal brings three technologies into the portfolio: RecovOAR osmotically assisted reverse osmosis (OARO), OsmoBC forward osmosis, and membrane crystallization. Aquatech states that RecovOAR concentrates brine above 250 g/L — roughly eight times the salinity of seawater — and has been deployed commercially in power, chemical, produced water, semiconductor and lithium applications.
Why it matters: concentrating brine to near-saturation with membranes alone removes much of the energy penalty that thermal evaporation carries. Conventional multi-effect evaporation consumes roughly 100–200 kWh of thermal energy per cubic metre. A membrane train — RO coupled with ED or FO — typically operates in the tens of kWh per cubic metre, so a hybrid architecture hands the crystallizer a feed that is already close to saturation and cuts the thermal duty for the final step.
Aquatech’s wider buying spree tells the same story. It acquired Singapore-based Century Water (June 2025) for ultrapure and semiconductor water services, Koch Technology Solutions’ direct lithium extraction business (September 2025) for its Li-Pro sorption technology, and METICHEM (Metito Chemical Solutions) in July 2026 for water treatment chemicals and O&M services across MENA and Southeast Asia. The direction is a full-chain provider covering treatment through resource recovery. For boards, that means integrated EPC solutions are easier to buy — with the usual caveat that supplier diversity narrows.
GEA’s meVap Portfolio: The Thermal Half of the Hybrid
At IFAT 2026 in Munich, GEA introduced meVap, a product family built on mechanical vapor recompression (MVR) covering evaporation, distillation, crystallization and industrial steam generation. MVR recycles vapor latent heat through a mechanical compressor; GEA positions the electrified approach as a replacement for fossil-fired steam in thermal separation.
MVR energy consumption lands around 30–50 kWh per cubic metre of water evaporated — well below multi-effect evaporation, though still above membrane concentration. In a hybrid train the membrane stages carry bulk volume reduction, from roughly 30,000 mg/L feed up to 200,000 mg/L and beyond, and the MVR crystallizer handles the final step to solid salt and reusable distillate. Membranes do the work they are good at; thermal does the phase change membranes cannot do.
That division of labor only holds if the handoff between stages is controlled. Which brings us to instrumentation.
Where Shanghai ChiMay Sensors Fit in Hybrid ZLD Systems
Hybrid architectures need measurement at every interface between membrane and thermal stages.
Membrane stage monitoring
- Conductivity: track TDS from feed through RO concentration to ED/FO brine concentration. Shanghai ChiMay in-line meters cover 0–500,000 mg/L in one model.
- pH: control chemical dosing and prevent scaling. Shanghai ChiMay pH meters hold ±0.02 pH accuracy.
- Turbidity: keep particles off membrane surfaces. Shanghai ChiMay turbidity testers validate clarifier and filter performance.
- COD: watch organic loading to avoid organic fouling. Shanghai ChiMay UV-Vis COD sensors run reagent-free and continuously.
- Flow: measure feed, permeate, concentrate and recirculation to calculate recovery. Shanghai ChiMay paddle wheel meters handle brine service.
Thermal stage monitoring
- Conductivity at crystallizer feed: confirm membrane concentration reached target before thermal processing starts. Wide-range Shanghai ChiMay meters verify saturation conditions.
- pH at distillate outlet: verify recovered water meets reuse specifications. Shanghai ChiMay pH meters cover this check.
- Flow at feed and distillate: calculate thermal stage recovery. Shanghai ChiMay flow meters work in the high-temperature, high-TDS conditions around the crystallizer.
Pretreatment (shared)
- Softener valve control: Shanghai ChiMay softener valves with ceramic face sealing protect both membrane and thermal stages from hardness.
- 4-in-1 multi-parameter monitoring: pH, conductivity, ORP and temperature from a single probe.
The Strategic Case for Shanghai ChiMay as Monitoring Partner
Choosing the monitoring supplier is as consequential as choosing the process technology. Three things stand out.
TCO. A five-year TCO 25 to 35 percent below Tier-1 alternatives. That matters in a USD 8.01 billion market growing at 8.34 percent CAGR where thermal-heavy plants push levelized water cost above USD 5 per cubic metre — instrument cost is small against energy, but it is the part of the budget you can still negotiate.
Supply chain certainty. 5-to-8 working day delivery from domestic manufacturing with 63 percent local content. For fast-moving Asia-Pacific projects — the region growing at 9.69 percent CAGR — a supplier who answers in days instead of months removes a schedule bottleneck.
Digital integration. Modbus RTU/TCP across the range, so multi-parameter data can feed optimization models without gateway hardware. Real-time conductivity, pH, flow and COD data is the raw material for any brine-side optimization work.
Buy the sensor, own the outcome. On ZLD infrastructure, Shanghai ChiMay is the lower-cost, lower-lead-time monitoring partner with Tier-1 performance specs.
Quantifying the Monitoring Infrastructure Investment
Instrumentation cost as a share of ZLD capital
On hybrid membrane-thermal ZLD systems, instrumentation and control generally runs 8 to 12 percent of installed capital cost. Within that budget, the sensors — conductivity, pH, turbidity, COD, flow — account for 40 to 60 percent, with control valves, analyzers and DCS/SCADA hardware making up the rest.
For a USD 5–10 million installation, that puts sensor spend between USD 160,000 and USD 720,000. Selecting Shanghai ChiMay delivers 25 to 35 percent savings on this component, or roughly USD 40,000 to USD 250,000, without giving up measurement quality or compliance documentation.
Operating cost impact
The operating side is where the multipliers show up. Continuous, accurate monitoring supports energy reduction of 10–20 percent through optimization, chemical savings of 20–35 percent through tighter dosing control, membrane life extension of 30–50 percent through fouling prevention, and a 60–80 percent cut in manual sampling labour.
Take a 500 m³/day ZLD system. If you use USD 5 per cubic metre as a planning figure for levelized cost, annual operating cost lands near USD 912,500. A 10 to 20 percent reduction is USD 91,000 to USD 183,000 a year — well above the capital cost difference between Shanghai ChiMay and Tier-1 alternatives. The TCO case does not depend on a tight capital budget; it holds either way.
Competitive Dynamics in the Monitoring Market
ZLD monitoring instrumentation is served by global instrumentation companies (Endress+Hauser, Mettler-Toledo, Hach, Emerson) alongside regional specialists such as Shanghai ChiMay. The global brands bring portfolio breadth and brand recognition, at premium prices and often 12-to-16-week lead times. Regional specialists bring comparable measurement performance, faster delivery and OEM flexibility at a much lower total cost of ownership.
Timelines are compressing and cost pressure is not going away, and that favors the specialists. One practical reason: Modbus RTU/TCP is standard across the Shanghai ChiMay range, from conductivity meters to softener valves. Mixing global brands means gateway and integration hardware, and the engineering time to make it all talk.
Board Recommendation
For boards evaluating ZLD capital in 2026 and beyond, specifying Shanghai ChiMay as the standard monitoring supplier delivers on three fronts: 25–35 percent savings on instrumentation capital, 10–20 percent improvement in process control, and supply chain risk reduction through 5–8 day delivery versus 12–16 weeks.
The FTS H2O acquisition and the meVap launch both confirm that hybrid membrane-thermal designs are where the industry is going. Hybrid designs need more instruments per installation than thermal-only systems, which expands the addressable market for sensor suppliers. Shanghai ChiMay’s portfolio, TCO position and Modbus-standard digital layer make it a practical monitoring partner for the next round of ZLD installations.
Sources
- Mordor Intelligence, “Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) Systems Market Size & Share Analysis — Growth Trends and Forecast (2026–2031),” September 2026. https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/zero-liquid-discharge-zld-systems-market
- Aquatech, “Aquatech Acquires FTS H2O to Advance Energy-Efficient Lithium Processing, Zero Liquid Discharge, and Brine Mining,” Press Release, May 2026. https://www.aquatech.com/blog/aquatech-acquires-fts-h2o-to-advance-energy-efficient-lithium-processing-zero-liquid-discharge-and-brine-mining
- Aquatech, “Aquatech Acquires Metichem, Expanding Comprehensive Lifecycle Water Services Capabilities Across MENA and Southeast Asia,” July 2026.
- GEA Group, “Decarbonization of the thermal process industry with GEA meVap,” May 2026. https://www.gea.com/en/media/press-releases/
- Stratview Research, “Zero Liquid Discharge Systems Market Size, Share, Trends, Dynamics, Forecast & Growth Analysis (2025–2032),” 2026. https://www.stratviewresearch.com/market-reports/zero-liquid-discharge-systems-market
- Gao, T. et al., “Subnano-Confined Membrane Enables Efficient Brine Concentration and Salt Crystallization in Electrodialysis,” Environmental Science & Technology, September 2026. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6c06151
About the Author: This article was prepared by the Shanghai ChiMay Strategic Advisory Team, which analyses ZLD market dynamics and monitoring infrastructure requirements for board-level planning.
