Many countries are currently experiencing water shortages due to the rapid pace of population growth and social development. These shortages exert a serious effect not only on everyday lives but also on food production and natural ecosystems. Observers also fear that problems involving the safety of the water supply, for example water pollution caused by inadequate wastewater treatment facilities, are becoming increasingly serious. Toray is working to address these problems from a global perspective to ensure it remains responsive to the needs of society.
With seawater accounting for 97.5% of the water on Earth, the freshwater required to maintain human life is only 2.5% of the total. Moreover, because most freshwater is locked up in glaciers and underground aquifers, experts believe that only 0.01% of freshwater is accessible for use by people. Today this invaluable supply of water is experiencing a range of problems. Worldwide, 1.1 billion people must walk at least 30 minutes to obtain the water they require each day, and 2.6 billion people live without access to toilets and other hygienic facilities. Ecosystem damage caused by deteriorating water quality is also a fear. More recently, alarms are being sounded about water shortages caused by the effects of global warming and falling groundwater levels due to development.
Human beings require water for a range of applications including agriculture, industry, and daily life. For example, we need membranes for extracting pure water from seawater and for drinking water, membranes to remove the bacterium cryptosporidium, which cannot be killed by chlorine.
Toray developed and brought to market RO membrane (reverse osmosis membrane) for manufacturing ultrapure water for industrial applications in 1980 and later applied the technology to seawater desalination. We have developed a variety of separation membranes based on our core competencies of organic synthetic chemistry, polymer chemistry, biotechnology, and nanotechnology. Used in combination, these products deliver the membrane technologies that are needed to implement efficient water treatment.
Increasing Demand for Seawater Desalination
As worldwide water shortages intensify, Toray expects demand for effective use of seawater and wastewater will increase to secure sustainable water sources, in addition to the use of limited river and groundwater resources.
Until now, the methods of evaporation and electrodialysis have been used to desalinate seawater. However, RO is becoming the preferred approach thanks to the development of technologies for improving RO membrane performance (water permeability and salt rejection), lowering the RO membrane cost per unit of freshwater generated as well as operational energy consumption.
Toray has accumulated significant expertise in seawater desalination with exceptional RO membranes, and our products are used by water treatment plants worldwide. As a result, we help desalinate a total of 2 million cubic meters of seawater each day (as of June 2007), enough water to sustain approximately 8 million people in their daily lives.
Sulaibiya (Kuwait), the world's largest wastewater reclamation
plant by membrane
Capacity: 320,000 m3/day
Photograph: GE-Ionics (U.S.)
Tuas (Singapore), Reverse Osmosis Building, SingSpring
Desalination Plant, Hyflux Ltd, one of the world's largest seawater reverse osmosis desalination plants
Capacity: 136,000 m3/day
Photograph: Hyflux Ltd (Singapore)
Kinuta & Kinuta-shimo Purification Plants (Tamagawa/Tokyo, Japan), one of Japan's largest filtration facilities
Capacity: 88,000 m3/day
Photograph: Suido Kiko Kaisha, Ltd. (Japan)
Although efforts to combat global warming have begun in the world's major countries, international partnerships and initiatives to address water problems continue to lag. As part of our efforts to increase partnerships with relevant entities in order to address the world's water problems, Toray has participated in the World Water Forum, a gathering sponsored by the World Water Council, UNESCO, and related Japanese government agencies, since its third meeting in 2003. We also actively support the Japan Water Forum, a non-profit organization that operates primarily in Japan.
In an effort to address the world's water and its hygienic problems, Toray Group is committed to making an international contribution consistent with these support activities by providing membranes and other advanced water treatment technologies.
Few nations are as blessed with high-quality water and an absence of urgent water source problems as Japan. Regions around the world are experiencing problems such as water shortages and water-related environmental pollution in the face of rapid population growth and industrial development on a global scale. These problems are also having an increasing impact in the form of water-related food shortages and hygiene issues. Global warming is also affecting the Earth's water environment, and observers point out that damage from flooding and drought conditions is growing more frequent.
To solve the world's water problems, it is necessary to develop water treatment technologies that meet the different water quality and infrastructure conditions in each country and region. Local problems must be addressed in the context of existing regional policy. As a membrane manufacturer, we are developing our water treatment business through global partnerships with organizations involved in constructing and maintaining water-related infrastructure. The successful development of four advanced separation membrane products (RO, NF, UF and MF), advanced technologies such as the membrane bioreactor MBR method, and technologies for ensuring efficient facility operation attests to our ability to meet a variety of water source and water treatment objectives.
