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Water Flux Raised 10 Percent by Realizing the World's Highest Effective Membrane Area

Nitto Denko Group Develops New, Energy-saving and Cost-effective RO Membrane Element for Seawater Desalination

2009.05.23

With the aim of addressing the increasingly serious water shortage around the world, Japan's leading diversified materials company Nitto Denko Corporation (Nitto Denko) and its wholly owned U.S. water technology subsidiary, Hydranautics (HY), have developed a new version of the “SWC5” reverse osmosis (RO) membrane element for seawater desalination marked by the highest level of energy savings in the world, Nitto Denko announced today.

The Nitto Denko/Hydranautics group plans to shortly enter into full commercial production of the latest RO membrane element “SWC5 MAX”. Having a roughly 10% more effective membrane area than the conventional SWC5 elements, SWC5 MAX is expected to contribute not only to reducing the total investment cost of seawater desalination plants but also to conserving energy in those plants which are expected to enjoy increasing demand from now on.

Background of the Development

With water shortage turning increasingly serious around the world, the market for seawater desalination to change seawater into pure water is showing significant growth. Given such a trend, desalination plant capacity has been increasing in scale in the recent years, with the number of RO membrane elements installed per plant also expanding accordingly.

Nitto Denko/Hydranautics have been meeting the global desalination demand, while realizing energy conservation at the same time, by launching in 2007 the SWC5 RO membrane element having the industry's highest level of water flux and salt (sodium chloride) rejection capability at the same time.

SWC5 MAX developed this time has been successful in not only maintaining the salt rejection capability of the conventional SWC5 but also demonstrating a roughly 10 percent higher water flux. That makes it possible to reduce by about 10 percent the number of RO membrane elements needed to filter the same amount of seawater under identical conditions, as compared to the conventional SWC5.

That would in turn allow the number of pressure vessels containing the RO membrane elements as well as pipes and valves in a desalination plant, thereby making it possible to lower the total plant investment cost. Too, operating the plant with the same number of membrane elements as before would require less operating cost for creating the same amount of water. All these advantages indicate that SWC MAX is a product which offers excellent prospects of contributing to cost reduction in the customers' desalination plants.

SWC5 MAX can now be mass-produced at the state-of-the-art production facility newly installed at Nitto Denko's Shiga Plant, Japan, for start of full-scale production from June this year.

Product Features

(1) High Water Flux Owing to Larger Membrane Area

By boosting the effective membrane area (the membrane area in an element through which seawater can be filtered) per unit RO membrane element, it has become possible to raise the water flux of the element by approximately 10 percent.

(2) Contribution to Energy and Cost Savings in Desalination Plant

In general, water flux and salt rejection are in a mutually penalizing relationship. But SWC5 MAX allows a large increase in the amount of water generated without impairing the salt rejection capability. As a result, the element contributes to lowering the total cost of desalination plant investment and to energy savings in plant operation.

External View of "SWC MAX" Element

Structural schema of "SWC MAX" Element

Sales Target

Projected Sales Revenue of SWC5 MAX for fiscal year 2009 is 2 billion Japanese yen.

Outline and Future Direction of Nitto Denko's Water Treatment Business

Leveraging the world's top-level membrane fabrication technology, the Nitto Denko/Hydranautics group has high achievements records to show in ultra-pure water creation and seawater desalination, as well as in the wastewater treatment fields. The group boasts a highest-level share together with Dow Chemical Company in the world market for RO membrane elements for producing industrial and public-use ultra-pure water.

Not stopping at the latest development of SWC5 MAX, Nitto Denko/Hydranautics will continue to strengthen its product offering also for microfiltration and ultrafiltration membrane elements for pretreatment use and aims to move even further, into the MBR (Membrane Bio Reactor) applications as well as plant maintenance and administration fields, to provide total solution to customers in the domain of water treatment membranes business.

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