An advanced waste heat and water recovery technology has been developed to extract a portion of the water vapor and its latent heat from flue gases based on a nanoporous ceramic membrane capillary condensation separation mechanism. The recovered water is of high quality and mineral free, therefore can be used as supplemental makeup water for almost all industrial processes. The technology was first developed and proven at industrial demonstration scale for gas-fired package boilers, and already commercialized. The technology was thereafter further developed to a two-stage design tailored to coal power plant flue gas applications. The recovered water and heat can be used directly to replace power plant boiler makeup water to improve its efficiency, and any remaining recovered water can be used for flue gas desulfurization (FGD) water makeup or other plant uses. The technology will be particularly beneficial for coal-fired power plants that use high-moisture coals and/or FGD for flue gas cleanup. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.