Toray Industries, Inc. has announced the development of a highly durable reverse osmosis (RO) membrane designed to provide long-term high-quality water treatment. This innovative membrane maintains the superior removal performance of Toray’s existing membranes, which is essential for reusing industrial wastewater and treating sewage.
The new RO membrane offers twice the chemical resistance compared to conventional membranes, reducing performance degradation from membrane wear. This enhancement simplifies operational management, halves the frequency of replacements, and significantly lowers the product’s carbon footprint.
Toray plans to begin mass production of this membrane and introduce it to the rapidly growing Chinese market in the first half of 2024, with subsequent expansion into global markets, including Japan.
RO membranes have broad applications, including desalinating seawater and river water, reusing wastewater, and producing drinking water, making them critical for sustainable water sources. Wastewater reuse involves treating water of varying quality levels with RO membranes, which traditionally suffer from pore deformation and reduced removal performance due to frequent cleaning chemical use. This has created a demand for more resilient membranes.
Toray utilized scanning transmission electron microscopy technology developed by the Toray Research Center and a digital data analysis technique to quantitatively analyze the pores of the separation layer of RO membranes, which are smaller than one nanometer. This analysis identified a substructure that enhances pore stability when exposed to cleaning chemicals. Toray then innovated a manufacturing process to design a new polymer structure, resulting in a RO membrane with a stable pore structure.
Tests conducted at a wastewater reuse plant simulated harsh chemical cleaning conditions, demonstrating the membrane’s effectiveness in reducing water quality deterioration. This new membrane promises an extended lifespan in applications such as sewage treatment and wastewater reuse facilities in chemical, steel, and dyeing plants, which require frequent chemical cleaning. Additionally, it supports zero liquid discharge processes and could potentially reduce carbon dioxide emissions from membrane replacement and disposal by 50%.
Toray is setting up a mass production system to meet customer demand and continues to leverage its expertise in synthetic organic and polymer chemistry, biotechnology, and nanotechnology to innovate materials that contribute to social progress.
Glossary
Reverse Osmosis Membranes: Membranes that remove ions, such as sodium and calcium, chlorine, sulfate, and low molecular organic compounds like pesticides, by forcing water through a semi-permeable membrane under pressure higher than osmotic pressure.
Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy: An advanced imaging technique used to analyze sub-nanometer structures, crucial for developing new materials.
Zero Liquid Discharge: A water reuse framework that ultimately discharges only solid waste after treatment, eliminating wastewater release into the environment.