How 3D Printing is Transforming Water Infrastructure

You learned it in science class: water is the foundation of life. The renewable resource is often taken for granted, since for many of us, it is easily accessible with a turn of the tap. However, the infrastructure that delivers clean drinking water, as well as the infrastructure that deals with wastewater, requires complex engineering. Globally, many water infrastructure systems face aging systems that need maintenance, or in some cases, replacement. These systems can be troubled by leaks, inefficiency, and high costs. Additionally, these systems often face a rising demand due to growing populations. Add environmental goals to the mix, and you have an elaborate question to answer: how can a community create efficient, secure, affordable, and sustainable water infrastructure?

Increasingly, engineers have been exploring 3D printing as a solution. The emerging technology is attractive for building and maintaining infrastructure because it offers faster, greener, and more customizable solutions. But before diving into 3D printing’s role here, let’s take a brief look at what water infrastructure is.

What is Water Infrastructure?

Water infrastructure is essential to the fulfillment of basic societal needs, from sustaining life to safeguarding public health. Collecting and treating wastewater is also critical for preventing disease and protecting the environment. One of the vital components of the water infrastructure framework is water treatment plants. These facilities collect water from surface sources like rivers or underground wells and treat it with various chemical and physical processes to make it potable. Once purified, the water goes through a network of distribution systems, consisting of pipes, pumps and storage tanks, that deliver water to its destination. After this water is used, it becomes wastewater, and it must be treated again. This water goes to wastewater treatment facilities, where it is subject to advanced processes to eliminate contaminants, before being safely released back into the environment. Other components in this vast network are reservoirs and dams, which store large amounts of water. These can be useful for flood control, hydroelectric power and providing a stable water supply.

Mapping out all this infrastructure is no easy feat. It requires an understanding of local needs, environmental impact, regulations, and, of course, the cost, among other factors. So, where does additive manufacturing come in?

Applications of 3D Printing in Water Infrastructure

There are various ways 3D printing can be used for water infrastructure. Here, we will discuss the main areas of application.

Infrastructure Components

Many infrastructure components can be 3D printed, and in the United Kingdom, The Water Industry Printfrastructure project made headlines for successfully implementing many of them. The project was led by United Utilities in partnership with ChangeMaker3D, Manchester Metropolitan University’s PrintCity and Scottish Water.  Since the project launched in 2023, they have had several studies done testing both concrete and polymer 3D printing for water infrastructure. Notably, they printed a wastewater jet nozzle, a CCTV skid plate and a trough for water monitoring instruments. After rigorous testing and trial, these three components are being used daily by United Utilities. They also fabricated laboratory equipment that’s being used by Scottish Water and United Utilities.

Additionally, the project involved the opening of a 3D concrete printing hub at United Utilities’ Wigan Wastewater Treatment Works in June 2024. There, they printed sewer overflow chambers, Industrial Emissions Directive containment walls, manhole rings, and distribution chambers. The Printfrastructure project illustrates several examples of 3D printed water infrastructure elements, but there is potential for so much more, as evidenced by United Utilities’ plan to expand the budget for 3D printing from 2025-2030.

Filtration and Treatment

Beyond the water infrastructure itself, 3D printing can be used to fabricate devices for filtering and treating water. One project that illustrates this was done by researchers at the University of Bath, who 3D printed ceramic lattices capable of removing perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS), which are types of forever chemicals, from water. In 2024, these researchers published their findings, revealing that their ceramic lattices could remove at least 75% of PFOA and PFAS from water they treated. In a similar vein, the Royal Netherlands Navy recently successfully 3D printed a replacement water filter designed for the maritime environment.

Additive manufacturing is also excellent for membrane-based filtration systems. According to a 2023 study, “3D-Printed Materials for Wastewater Treatment,” 3D technologies have been used to manufacture advanced membrane components, including biocarriers, sorbents, catalysts, and even whole membranes. Conventionally, membrane fabrication requires large quantities of solvent, toxic monomer materials, and leaves a high carbon footprint and waste. By contrast, 3D printing does not require solvent discharge, making it a more environmentally friendly approach.

These membranes have been used for industrial waste treatments, especially for the degradation of organic pollutants, oily sewage, and heavy metals produced by manufacturing and pharmaceutical industries. Additionally, such membranes have been used for domestic water treatments and desalination applications for recycling and reusing undrinkable water.

Back in 2016, University of Bath researchers were also the first to fabricate a membrane module for ultrafiltration, and since then, people have used 3D printing to create whole membranes (although this is less common), and more commonly, module parts. There are several module parts that can make up a full membrane, and 3D printing has been widely studied to create the following components:

• Membrane spacers: These establish a continuous flow of fluid, preventing the active layer of the membrane from being impaired and reducing fouling. Many 3D technologies, including SLS, DLP, FDM, and polyjet have been used to design spacers in various configurations, including multilayered structures, helices, ladders and more.
• Photocatalysts: When exposed to light of a specific wavelength, photocatalysts generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as hydroxyl and superoxide radicals, which oxidize and break down organic contaminants. This makes them highly effective for removing pollutants from water and other environments. Several types of 3D technologies, including FDM, material jetting, binder jetting, and vat photopolymerization have been used to create photocatalysts.
• Biocarriers: Used for degrading organic pollutants, biocarriers are porous materials that provide a surface for microorganisms to grow and form biofilms, thus increasing the rate of pollutant degradation. Researchers have used direct-ink-writing, SLS, and polyjet to create these.
• Sorbents: Sorbents can selectively adsorb molecules or ions from a liquid or gas phase for its removal, including ammonia, heavy metals, and volatile organic contaminants. Natural materials are often used as sorbents, but developed adsorbents are mechanically unstable and possess low flexibility. By contrast, extrusion-based 3D printing, SLS, and other 3D technologies can create sorbents with high mechanical strength, controllable porosity, high stability and outstanding efficiency.

Technologies and Materials

When it comes to technologies and materials for water infrastructure, it all comes down to the application. The most common technologies for water infrastructure are DLP, material extrusion, and SLS. Pratik Gavit, from the Department of Materials Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science, was one of the researchers from the 2023 study mentioned above. He explained that when choosing a technology, industry stakeholders should consider part size, required precision, mechanical performance, and cost. For high-precision components such as membrane spacers or parts with fine features, DLP or SLA is often the best option, as these technologies deliver resolutions below 100 micrometers and exceptionally smooth surface finishes. This makes them well suited for intricate geometries, complex internal channels, and applications where surface roughness directly impacts performance and minimal post-processing is desired.

For larger infrastructure components like pipes, tanks, or structural elements, material extrusion (FDM) stands out as the most cost-effective solution, offering large build volumes up to approximately 300 × 300 × 600 millimeters and compatibility with a range of engineering thermoplastics, making it ideal when part size and budget are the primary constraints.

For functional prototypes and medium-volume production, SLS provides a strong balance of mechanical strength and design freedom, as it produces robust parts without the need for support structures. This makes SLS particularly attractive for components with complex geometries that must withstand operational stresses and where consistent material properties are critical.

Benefits of 3D Printing Water Infrastructure

The advantages of 3D printing water infrastructure are unique to each application, but there are some general qualities that make the technology favorable. For instance, the technology can permit greater design freedom and customization, rapid production and deployment, greater sustainability, improved performance and durability, and savings on unique and small-batch parts.

United Utilities shared via email that the most significant benefits it has seen from 3D concrete printing are speed, reduced carbon impact and cost saving. “For example, printing a CSO chamber was 60% quicker, provided a carbon saving of 27% and was cost effective. These figures were independently verified by our carbon assessment consultant.” The team reported that the Printfrastructure project overall expend up to 50% less carbon, with savings based on “comparing the embedded carbon impact from the asset lifecycle for the 3D printed asset compared to a traditionally constructed asset.”

Additionally, United Utilities said that polymer printing permitted them to print obsolete parts to extend the life of filter arm assets, as well as being useful for creating quick prototypes or bespoke designs. “We are further exploring the potential to use this to quickly create parts to allow a quick fix in emergency scenarios, for example a burst pipes whilst waiting for the permanent solution,” United Utilities added.    

Limitations of 3D Printing Water Infrastructure

While using AM for waterworks can be advantageous, adopting new technologies never comes without challenges. The United Utitilies team shared that they had to work to get people comfortable with this construction method and understand its potential benefits. “Setting up our printing hub in Wigan to demonstrate 3D printing in action helped to show the speed at which the concrete structures can be printed, and sharing our learnings throughout the project with other water companies, delivery partners and suppliers has helped to overcome some of these barriers.”

Gavit, one of the researchers who wrote the study mentioned earlier, broke down the main limitations of 3D printing water infrastructure into three categories: technical hurdles, economic barriers, and regulatory hurdles.

Some of the technical hurdles include:

• Resolution limitations: Current printers struggle with the fine pore sizes needed for advanced filtration (nanofiltration requires <10 nm pores).
• Material constraints: Limited selection of chemically resistant, food-grade materials suitable for potable water applications.
• Size scaling: Difficulty printing flat membrane sheets larger than 1×5 meters, which are needed for industrial applications.

Meanwhile, economic barriers can look like:

• High equipment costs: Industrial-grade printers capable of printing water infrastructure components cost $200,000-$500,000+.
• Slow production rates: 3D printing is often only economically viable only for low-volume production (<1,000 parts annually for environmental benefits).
• Material costs: Specialized printing materials cost $100-500/kg compared to $10-50/kg for conventional materials.

And finally, regulatory hurdles involve:

• Safety certifications: 3D printed components for potable water systems must meet NSF/ANSI standards, which current materials often cannot achieve.
• Long-term performance validation: Regulators require 20+ year lifespan data, but 3D printing for water applications has <10 years of field history.
• Quality control standards: Lack of standardized testing protocols for 3D-printed water infrastructure components.

Looking Forward

Despite the challenges, manufacturers are continuing to explore additive manufacturing for water infrastructure solutions. In the future, we may see more decentralized 3D printing hubs for water utilities and integration with digital twins and predictive maintenance. The shift from experimental projects to everyday practice is already here. Though still in the early stages, these advances point toward a future where 3D printing plays a key role in delivering clean and safe water more sustainably. “The key is managing expectations,” Gavit explained. “3D printing won’t revolutionize water infrastructure overnight, but it’s already creating value in specific applications and will expand as materials and processes mature.”

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*Cover Image (Left): Separonics ceramic filter membranes. Credit: Lithoz