Toray develops highly durable RO membrane

Toray Industries has developed a highly durable reverse osmosis (RO) membrane. This innovative product guarantees long-term supply of high-quality water. It also maintains the excellent removal performance of Toray's existing membranes, which is critical for industrial wastewater reuse and wastewater treatment.

The new membrane is twice as resistant to cleaning chemicals as its conventional counterpart. This reduces performance degradation due to membrane wear, simplifies operational management, halves replacement frequency and reduces the product’s carbon footprint.

The company is preparing to mass-produce the film and launch it in the rapidly expanding Chinese market in the first half of 2024. It hopes to develop products using the new membrane for global markets, including Japan.

A wide range of applications for RO membranes include seawater and river water desalination, wastewater reuse, and production of drinking water as a technology to ensure sustainable water sources. Wastewater reuse requires the use of reverse osmosis membranes to treat water of varying quality levels. The disadvantage is the increasing reliance on cleaning chemicals to remove contaminants from the membrane surface to maintain its operating efficiency, which can lead to pore deformation and thus reduced removal performance. This spurred demand for more elastic membranes.

The company combined scanning transmission electron microscopy technology developed by Toray Research Center and digital data analysis technology to quantitatively analyze the pores of the RO membrane separation layer, which is smaller than one nanometer in diameter.

Toray used the analysis results to identify a substructure that helps enhance the stability of the pore structure when in contact with cleaning chemicals. It innovates the manufacturing process and designs a new polymer structure, thereby creating an RO membrane with a stable pore structure.