Mitsubishi Rayon Co., Ltd. (hereinafter MRC) and its Group company Nippon Rensui Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Toshima-ku, Tokyo; President: Yasuo Kurosaka; hereinafter NRC) are pleased to announce the conclusion with PUB, Singapore’s national water agency, of a memorandum on the joint development of water reclamation technology using membrane separation.

In this joint project, bringing together multiple MRC water treatment technologies to achieve substantial energy- and cost-savings, the goal is to establish technologies for water reclamation to meet potable water standards. Such technologies could help improve the water environment for Singapore and other countries facing water scarcity.

MRC has worked with PUB on joint development of the membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology at the Bedok and Ulu Pandan water reclamation plants, demonstrating the effectiveness of the energy-saving MBR technology.

Background
NEWater was launched in 2003 to ensure a sustainable supply of water for Singapore.
Led by PUB, we began working on the joint development of the MBR combined with the RO process at the Bedok and Ulu Pandan water reclamation plant and were able to verify the effectiveness of the energy-saving MBR technology. We have supplied STERAPORE™ micro-filtration membranes for use at the large water reclamation plant due to come into service in October this year at Jurong.

In October 2010 we added NRC to our Aqua Business Bloc with a view to expanding and globalizing our water treatment operations. NRC is involved in business covering a wide range of industrial fields, including chemicals, power plant, IT and pharmaceuticals, rooted in its pure water manufacturing and recycling technologies using ion exchange resins. It set up Rensui Asia Pte. Ltd. in Singapore in 1997.
PUB plans to further develop its technology for the production of economical, high-quality recycled water called NEWater, through the use of reclaimed usedwater. Its plans in this regard accord with the general direction of the MRC Group’s product development, i.e. leveraging MRC’s MBR method and NRC’s evolving hybrid technology for pure water production and recycling. This prompted us to decide to embark on this joint development project.