RO Membranes
Toray Industries, Inc. (Tokyo, Japan; www.toray.com) has developed a highly durable reverse osmosis (RO) membrane that is said to offer double the resistance to cleaning chemicals of conventional counterparts. This reduces performance degradation from membrane wear and simplifies operational management, halving replacement frequencies and shrinking the product’s carbon footprint, the company says.
The company is preparing to mass produce this membrane and launch it in the rapidly expanding Chinese market in the first half of 2024, and aims to develop products with the new membrane for the global market.
Toray combined a scanning transmission electron-microscopy technology (developed at the Toray Research Center) and a digital data-analysis technique to quantitatively analyze the pores of the separation layer of RO membranes. Using this information, the company identified a substructure that helps enhance pore structure stability when in contact with cleaning chemicals. A manufacturing process was developed to design a new polymer structure, thus creating an RO membrane that delivers a stable pore structure.