Toray Industries has been awarded orders for supply of reverse osmosis (RO) membrane for Al Dur 2 Desalination Plant in the Kingdom of Bahrain and Umm Al Quwain Desalination Plant in the United Arab Emirates. While the combined water production capacity of the two plants will amass 911,000 m3/day, Umm Al Quwain Desalination Plant alone will hold one of the world’s largest capacity with 681,000 m3/day fresh water production.
RO membranes supply and technical services to the plants are planned to be provided by Toray Membrane Middle East LLC (TMME), a Toray’s local subsidiary located in Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. With further reinforcement of localization in its strategy, Toray’s long term focus will be to contribute to solve water shortage issues in the Middle East through TMME, which will ultimately lead to stable energy resource supply to the world.
To cater to rising populations, not only are Gulf countries investing extensively in infrastructure, they are moving up the desalination plant construction schedules to secure sufficient drinking water for the citizens. In addition, the demand to build RO desalination plants which consume less energy to operate as compared to thermal desalination plants is also on the rise, with the increasing awareness to reduce greenhouse gas emission.
More than 8 years of stable operation using Toray RO element at Al Dur 1 Plant was highly recognized and acclaimed for the Al Dur 2 Plant award, while Toray’s solid desalination plant reference in the region as well as technical proposal focusing to achieve stable operation led to the award of Umm Al Quwain Desalination Plant.
While RO membrane is used in wide range of the field from desalination, waste water, to industrial application, Toray has reinforced RO membrane production capacity, and technical support on a global scale over the years to further contribute to resolve water issues, achieving the total accumulated water production of over 79,000,000 m3/day on RO membrane shipment basis which is equivalent to serving water to 550 million people, or around 7% of world population.
Raising to provide safe water using membrane technology as an initiative in “Toray Group Sustainability Vision” announced July 2018 as well as in the mid-term management vision “Toray Vision 2030” announced this May, Toray will continue to supply RO membranes and other advanced membrane products through enhancement of localization of business activities to serve local demands, striving to help overcoming the challenges of ever growing water demand globally including the Middle East.