Toray Wins Back-To-Back RO Membrane Orders For Chinese Desalination Plants
Expansion of Water Treatment Business in China Gains Momentum with TBMC Starting Operations
Toray Industries, Inc. (headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; President and COO: Akihiro Nikkaku; hereinafter referred to as "Toray") recently announced that it had received orders to supply reverse osmosis (RO) membranes to seawater desalination plants in Qingdao (Shandong) and Caofeidian (Tangshan, Hebei) in China. Scheduled to be operational within the year, the two plants together will produce a total of 150,000 m³ of water per day. The Qingdao plant, with a water production capacity of 100,000 m³ per day is the largest desalination plant in China and is the country's first plant fully geared for producing drinking water.
A description of the two plants is as follows:
- Qingdao Desalination Plant (Qingdao, Shandong)
- Caofeidian Desalination Plant (Tangshan, Hebei)
(Production capacity: 100,000 m³/day (26.4 million gallon per day); scheduled to start operations in 2011)
This will be the largest RO membrane desalination plant in China. It is currently under construction by Befesa (headquarters: Spain) jointly with Qingdao City in Jiaozhou Bay. The water produced at this plant will provide drinking water to the 7.5 million residents of Qingdao City, who are suffering from water shortages. This will be the first time desalinated water will be fully used as drinking water in China.
(Production capacity: 50,000 m³/day (13.2 million gallon per day); scheduled to start operations in 2011)
Caofeidian, located in the suburbs of Tangshan City, is the largest industrial development zone in China. The plant is co-funded by Tangshan Caofeidian Infrastructure Investment Co., Ltd. and Aqualyng China Co., Ltd., a regional office of Aqualyng (headquarters: Norway, UAE,) and is being constructed by the Development Center of Water Treatment Technology, Hangzhou (Hangzhou, Zhejiang). The quality of water to be produced at the plant will fully meet the national drinking water standards. The water will be mainly used as industrial water at the Caofeidian industrial development zone and with part of the production to be used as drinking water.
Water usage in China is growing at an exponential rate, as the country's industrialization gathers pace fueled by rapid economic growth. Water supply shortages are acute in urban areas in particular where water demand is drastically increasing due to population growth. In the northern part of the country the shortage is caused by droughts.
Under these circumstances, demand for seawater desalination and reclamation of sewage and wastewater using water treatment membranes has been growing in China and the RO membrane market in the country has been expanding at a rate exceeding 20% a year.
Toray is offering its proprietary high-performance RO membranes widely in the Chinese market and its products have been adopted by water treatment plants, including the wastewater reclamation plant at Ningxia Coal Chemical (78,000 m³/day) and the sewage and wastewater reclamation plant at Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA; 30,000 m³/day). In July 2009, Toray established Toray BlueStar Membrane Co., Ltd. (TBMC) jointly with China National BlueStar (Group) Co., Ltd. in response to the rapidly growing water demand in China. TBMC is the first company to produce RO membranes and elements by a foreign company in China. Full-scale operation began earlier this year. Toray aims to accelerate the expansion of its Chinese water treatment membrane business by establishing a supply structure with TBMC's operation and combining Toray's sophisticated water treatment technologies with BlueStar Group's unbeatable sales network.
Toray positions its water treatment business at the core of its Green Innovation businesses, which will be strategically expanded, and it pursues the enhancement and strengthening of the water treatment sales structure around the world. Toray is determined to further ensure the global No.1 position in membrane business by improving its production structure, boosting capability and creating new technologies and products.
SOURCE: Toray Industries, Inc.