[Mainland China] "China Membrane Industry Sustainable Development Strategy Research Report (2026-2030)" Released: Domestic Production Rate of Reverse Osmosis / RO Membranes Exceeds 61% for the First Time, Equipment Localization Rate for 10,000-Ton-Scale S

2026 年 9 月 released the "China Membrane Industry Sustainable Development Strategy Research Report (2026–2030)", which provides the following comparison: in 2025 年, China's membrane industry total output value reached 2750 亿 yuan (a year-on-year increase of 11.3%), accounting for 35.6% of the global total; in the first quarter of 2026 年, the market share of domestically produced Reverse Osmosis / RO membranes rose to 43%, driving the localization rate to exceed 61% for the first time, and the domestic substitution rate in the Ultrafiltration / UF and Membrane Bioreactor / MBR fields has exceeded 73%. However, the same report points out that among the desalination projects with a capacity of 10,000 tons/day or above already built in China, the proportion of domestically produced core membrane-based equipment applied is less than 10%, and the import dependence on high-end desalination membranes and specialty Nanofiltration / NF membranes is about 28%.

An industry health check showing "polarization at both ends"

The report's tone is not pessimistic, but it does not conceal structural problems either. When broken down by different tiers, the gaps are clear at a glance:

• Mid-range and general-purpose categories have already gained the initiative — in the fields of general-purpose Reverse Osmosis / RO membranes, Ultrafiltration / UF membranes, and Membrane Bioreactor / MBR membranes, domestic enterprises have formed scale advantages and cost advantages. This is the main source of contribution to the domestic substitution rate rising from 32% in 2020 年 to 48% in 2025 年;
• High-end categories are still dominated by foreign capital — in segmented fields such as high-pressure desalination membranes, semiconductor-grade ultrapure water membranes, and specialty gas separation membranes, leading international enterprises still hold about 73% of the market share;
• The core bottlenecks lie in three areas — first, the formulation and preparation processes of high-end membrane materials; second, the long-term stability and consistency of membrane modules (domestic membranes still lag in service life and performance decay control); third, the level of intelligence in membrane system integration, especially the accuracy of Membrane Fouling prediction and cleaning decisions.

It is worth noting that the difference is not only "whether it can be made," but also "whether it can enter the threshold." Desalination projects with a capacity of 10,000 tons/day or above are extremely sensitive to the long-term reliability of membrane elements. Once batch performance decay occurs, the loss far exceeds the equipment price difference. This is also the practical reason why the localization proportion has long remained low — it is not a price issue, but a trust issue.

Three breakthrough points on the technology side

First, the performance indicators of leading domestic membranes have already caught up. The report discloses that the stable salt rejection rate of domestically produced Reverse Osmosis / RO membranes can reach above 99.8%; a certain chemical new materials enterprise has listed it as a strategic emerging track, connecting the complete industrial chain from basic raw materials, membrane material R&D, element manufacturing, to engineering applications and standard formulation, and launched three desalination membrane products: ultra-high salt rejection, high salt rejection, and high flux; a product developed by a certain national-level platform has a Reverse Osmosis / RO salt rejection rate stably above 98%, covering three major categories — Nanofiltration / NF, Ultrafiltration / UF, and Reverse Osmosis / RO — with a total of 13 product series; a newly established membrane technology research center, after only more than a year since its establishment, has achieved a Reverse Osmosis / RO membrane salt rejection rate exceeding 99.8% and a boron removal rate reaching 95%.

Second, frontier membrane materials have entered a period of intensive results. In 2026 年, Nature published research on graphene oxide–polydopamine membranes, achieving high-flux sieving of water and ions by controlling interlayer spacing; a fish-gill-inspired hierarchical membrane achieved a water flux of 53.44 L/(m²·h) and a salt rejection rate of 99.91%; a "confined catalytic membrane" integrates catalytic function and membrane separation function at the nanoscale, and is expected to solve the challenges of Zero Liquid Discharge / ZLD and salt resource recovery in coal chemical wastewater.

Third, low-carbonization is becoming a new technology track. The report specifically mentions a "new quality zero-carbon membrane water purification process," which features near-zero energy consumption, zero chemical consumption, and zero operation and maintenance, with a minimum power consumption of only 0.007 kWh per ton of water, self-consumption water volume of less than 2%, and no chemical cleaning waste liquid discharge; in addition, research published in 2026 年 3 月 Nature Communications shows that in-situ regeneration of end-of-life Membrane Bioreactor / MBR membranes using a curtain-type dynamic membrane process can reduce carbon emissions by 1070 times and environmental costs by 99.9%. The energy consumption of membrane treatment in some industrial projects has already been reduced by more than 25% compared with traditional processes.

Many patents, but the conversion rate remains a weak point

Another set of data in the report is equally noteworthy: in 2025 年, the number of global patent applications related to water treatment membranes exceeded 1.8 万, with Chinese applicants accounting for 43%, and China already ranks first globally in the number of patent applications in the membrane technology field. However, the proportion of core patents and international patent applications still lags behind leading international enterprises, and patent quality, conversion rate, and industrialization efficiency all need improvement.

In one sentence: leadership in quantity is already a fact, while quality and conversion have not yet kept up. This is precisely the key direction of industrial policy during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period — transforming the leadership of basic research into reliability at engineering sites.

Demand side: application scenarios are diverging in two directions

From the perspective of application structure, municipal water supply and desalination, industrial applications, and electronic and semiconductor ultrapure water respectively constitute the main segments. Demand in the industrial field for near-zero discharge and resource recovery equipment for highly difficult wastewater is in the fastest-growing stage; the preparation of electronic-grade ultrapure water in the semiconductor field imposes extremely high requirements on Reverse Osmosis / RO membranes and electrodeionization technology, and is considered a high-end application scenario in which domestic membranes urgently need to make breakthroughs.

Meanwhile, seawater desalination has been designated as a clear direction for capacity expansion: the publicly released comprehensive plan proposes that by 2030 年, the total scale of China's seawater desalination projects will exceed 450 万 tons/day, with the localization R&D and substitution upgrade of high-performance separation membrane materials positioned as core support. The simultaneous rise in demand scale and technical thresholds means that the window for this round of domestic substitution is not generous in terms of time.

What It Means for Us: TIANYI TECH's Assessment

TIANYI TECH has long served municipal and industrial park wastewater treatment and Reclaimed Water Reuse clients. Based on the report's framework, we offer three recommendations to our clients:

• Tiered selection, no "one-size-fits-all localization" — For conventional municipal Reclaimed Water and Industrial Wastewater reuse scenarios, domestic membranes can be prioritized, given their clear advantages in cost-effectiveness and supply lead times; for high-reliability scenarios such as high-pressure seawater desalination and semiconductor ultrapure water, careful evaluation based on life-cycle cost is still necessary;
• Incorporate low-carbon criteria into equipment procurement terms — As product carbon footprint-related standards are progressively implemented, the embodied carbon emissions of membrane products will be included in accounting. We recommend setting energy consumption and cleaning waste liquid discharge indicators in the technical scoring criteria of tender documents;
• Pay attention to Membrane Fouling prediction and Smart Water O&M — The report explicitly lists "intelligent system integration" as one of the three major shortcomings, indicating that software capabilities such as Membrane Fouling early warning and cleaning decision optimization are likely to become the focus of differentiated competition in the next phase.

About TIANYI LIMITED: TIANYI TECH is deeply engaged in the field of wastewater treatment and Reclaimed Water Reuse, committed to providing efficient, low-carbon, and sustainable water treatment solutions for municipal and industrial clients.