Water plays an essential role in industry: cooling, cleaning, producing, or rinsing — process water is indispensable in production processes, not in the least in beer brewing. But precisely because it is used so intensively, process water also becomes heavily polluted. In the past, this wastewater was purified as best as possible after a single use and then discharged. Today, things can be different: thanks to a smart combination of technical fabrics and innovative membrane technology, a truly circular solution is now emerging in which water is continuously reused. It is already proving its efficiency at Carlsberg and De Brabandere Brewery.
Welcome to the future of water filtration.
VDS Weaving developed the fabric that makes the technology possible
Guy Van den Storme, VDS Weaving: “It started in 2007. Picanol, the Belgian manufacturer of high-tech weaving machines, and Agfa Gevaert, known for imaging technology, together with VITO (Flemish Institute for Technological Research), looked for a way to filter process water more efficiently. Their question: can we develop a technical 3D fabric that is strong enough to support the membrane responsible for deep purification? Until then, knits were mostly used in filtration applications, but the idea was that a woven structure would offer more stability and control. This could lead to radical innovation: the beginning of truly circular water purification.”
VDS Weaving took on the challenge and developed a 3D fabric to support a membrane. The project was eventually discontinued, but the expertise gained remained — and would later become the core of VDS Weaving.
The breakthrough: collaboration with Blue Foot Membranes
The innovation, a hybrid filtration structure far more efficient than conventional solutions, was patented by VITO and picked up again years later. Together with investors, this led to the founding of Blue Foot Membranes in 2017. What began as a spin-off has since grown into a scale-up with projects at major industrial clients worldwide.
Blue Foot Membranes (named after the blue-footed booby, a bird with striking blue feet from the Galápagos Islands) brings a new generation of water purification membranes to the market with this technology. The unique interplay of a sturdy 3D fabric and a fine membrane makes it possible to efficiently treat large volumes of industrial and municipal wastewater, even in heavily polluted streams.
The collaboration between VDS Weaving, Blue Foot, and VITO highlights the strength of a new generation of entrepreneurs in the Belgian textile industry.
How does this circular water purification work?
In broad terms:
- Step 1: Polluted process water flows through the membrane-fabric composite.
- Step 2: The 3D fabric provides stability and protects the fragile membrane from tearing or fouling.
- Step 3: The membrane filters contaminants down to the micron level.
- Step 4: The “cake” layer that forms on the membrane is removed with a short backwash process. Then the cycle starts again at step1.
This allows the system to operate continuously and on a large scale, with minimal downtime and maximum efficiency.
From lab to industry: first applications
The technology has now successfully made the leap from lab to industry. Breweries such as Carlsberg and De Brabandere (see photo) are already applying the system today to purify their process water on-site. Where beer is brewed, large amounts of water flow — and much of it can now be purified and reused internally in the production process.
Wherever the technology is implemented, less wastewater has to be discharged as effluent to external treatment facilities. At the same time, the need for discharge decreases because the water cycle is kept as closed as possible within the site itself.
This is circular economy in practice: wastewater becomes a resource again.
Circular water purification thanks to textiles
This story demonstrates that textiles play a key role in the high-tech world of water purification. Only with the support of the 3D fabric can the Blue Foot Membranes membrane perform optimally on an industrial scale. Textiles literally form the backbone on which the membrane relies.
We see here how traditional industries such as textiles — in collaboration with innovative start-ups and research centers — are tapping into new applications and markets. The combination of in-depth knowledge, cross-sectoral cooperation, and circular objectives delivers a solution that not only provides economic benefits but also makes a direct contribution to more sustainable water management.
What does the future hold?
The demand for the reuse of process and wastewater will only increase in the coming years. Climate change, water availability, stricter regulations, and rising costs for water supply and wastewater disposal are forcing companies to manage their water use more creatively and sustainably.
Thanks to this innovative collaboration between textile technology, membrane science, and industrial process expertise, a scalable system is now available to make large volumes of wastewater reusable again.
More information?
- Watch this video on Youtube
- Discover the Blue Foot Membranes website
- Regulations on wastewater discharge explained by VITO
- Peter Aerts explains how membrane and 3D textiles work together for ultimate water purification.
Photos:
- Installation at De Brabandere Brewery
- Reproduction of the membrane, anchored on the textile
- Diagram of an MBR (membrane bioreactor) setup within a closed water reuse cycle
