2026 Membrane Technology Forum Expands Focus on Beverage Innovation and Wastewater Treatment
Annual forum will highlight new technologies, market opportunities for food and beverage development, and processing wastewater treatment.
BIRMINGHAM, MI / ACCESS Newswire / May 27, 2026 / The Membrane Technology Forum, produced by BNP Media and the American Dairy Products Association, supports innovation throughout the food and beverage industry, highlighting advancements in membrane filtration and separation, identifying new market opportunities for foods and beverages, and providing strategies for food and beverage processing wastewater treatment and reuse. The 2026 Membrane Technology Forum will take place June 15-17 at the Hilton DoubleTree in Minneapolis.
The event has always maintained a signature focus on dairy applications, with sessions highlighting innovation for on-trend product categories like lactose-free and protein-fortified food and beverage applications. The Membrane Technology Forum also offers dairy-focused breakout sessions documenting recent advances in dairy food, beverage, and ingredient processing. A second set of concurrent breakout sessions highlight advances in cleaning and sanitation strategies for membrane elements and systems.
New Beverage Opportunities
For 2026, the Membrane Technology Forum agenda will include more speakers identifying promising beverage market opportunities, a strategic area for membrane technology. The U.S. beverage market, including beer, wine, spirits, bottled water, soft drinks, dairy, energy, juices, sports drinks, coffee, and tea-all of which can employ membrane technology at some point in processing-is responsible for hundreds of billions in annual sales. This year's expanded focus on beverages will include sessions on:
Harnessing the innovation potential of ultrafiltered milk
Advanced texture possibilities for high-protein beverages
Using membrane purification for beauty beverage ingredients
Improving QA/QC in beer and wine production
The event will also include a featured presentation from Brian Sudano, CEO of S&D Insights, formerly holding leadership roles at Constellation Brands and Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, sharing strategic insights into beverage market trends and opportunities.
Addressing Wastewater Challenges
The Membrane Technology Forum has elevated its coverage of filtration and purification strategies for treating food and beverage processing wastewater, an essential consideration for producers across the industry as they cope with rising costs, water stress, and evolving treatment standards.
Event attendees will hear practical discussions around plant wastewater management, membrane selection for wastewater treatment, and treating wastewater effluent streams, with real-world case study examples from:
Dairy processing
Spirit distilling
Sugar refining
Another session will include a discussion on wastewater-related applications for hollow fiber membrane technologies, a reduced-energy approach that enables precise dissolved gas control.
Dairy Program Highlights
Membrane filtration and separation is core to dairy food, beverage, and ingredient processing, used as instrumental processing technologies for microfiltered and ultrafiltered fluid milk, cheese, yogurt, whey protein concentrate, casein, permeate, and much more. In recent years, membrane technology has enabled the significant growth of lactose-free and low-lactose products, among other innovations.
Dairy session highlights for this year's event will include:
"Ultrafiltered Milk as a Platform for Consumer-Driven Dairy Innovation," Poonkodi Tamilmani, Ph.D., Director of Innovation, Darigold Inc.
"Membrane Technology Research for Market Innovation," Jayendra Amamcharla, Ph.D., Professor, University of Minnesota, and Director, Midwest Dairy Foods Research Center
"Filtration Technologies in the Production of Aged Cheddar Cheese," Satyendrasinh Mahida, Sr. Principal Process Engineer, Great Lakes Cheese
"Moving Dairy Solids Up the Value Chain," Derik Robinson, CEO, and Jordan Oakes, Plant Manager, High Desert Milk
Other dairy-focused sessions will feature discussions of advancements in reverse osmosis for dairy processing, optimizing ultrafiltration performance for dairy products, and exploring plate and frame membrane technology for fermented milk.
The 2026 event will also feature a high-level panel discussion featuring a selection of the event's dairy producers discussing next-level perspectives on using membrane technologies as catalysts for food and beverage category innovation.
Membrane Element Cleaning & Sanitation
The Membrane Technology Forum will continue to support the circularity, sustainability, and food safety needs of food and beverage industry via the cleaning and sanitation breakout sessions. Presenters will share the latest advancements in:
Keeping membrane systems running at optimal performance
The latest in cleaning enzymes
Biofilm control and cold enzymatic cleaning
Technologies for reducing dependence on chemical clean-in-place agents
Optimizing cleaning through data-driven analysis
The complete 2026 Membrane Technology Forum agenda is available at https://www.dairyfoods.com/membrane-forum/agenda. For complete details and to register, visit www.MembraneForum.com.
About the Membrane Technology Forum
The annual Membrane Technology Forum, produced by BNP Media and the American Dairy Products Institute, is a three-day premier live event in the commercial membrane technology sector. This event showcases new technologies, research findings, case studies, industry innovations, and market opportunities for dairy, beverages, ingredients, plant-protein, and more. For more information, visit https://www.dairyfoods.com/membrane-forum.
Media Contact Information:
Douglas J. Peckenpaugh
Director, Content Strategy
Food/Beverage Innovation & Manufacturing, BNP Media
[email protected]
847-770-5916
SOURCE: Membrane Technology Forum