Mitsubishi Rayon Engineering Co., Ltd. (MRE), one of Japan’s Mitsubishi Rayon Group companies and Nitto Denko Corporation (Nitto) have jointly entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the PUB, Singapore’s national water agency, for the joint development of wastewater reclamation technologies using separation membranes, the two Japanese partners announced today.

Under the basic agreement reached this time, MRE and Nitto who had jointly established a water treatment technology company called Kathyd Technology LLC (Kathyd) in the U.S.A. in June 2007, will provide, via Kathyd, their membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology for treating activated sludge as well as reverse osmosis (RO) membrane technology for a large-scale water reclamation facility to be constructed in Singapore in future. At the same time, the two companies together with PUB will embark on the development of a technology offering superior economics for the maintenance, operation and administration of those membrane separation systems.

In 2003, in line with its strategy to diversify its water sources, PUB introduced recycled water, which it branded NEWater as an alternative source of water supply. The NEWater production process uses separation membrane technology to purify secondary treated effluent into high quality water of drinking standards. Nitto had contributed to the NEWater Project by providing to PUB, through Nitto’s U.S. water technology subsidiary Hydranautics (HY), the “fouling-free RO membrane” elements which Nitto and HY had developed ahead of the world for wastewater reclamation, together with the operation & maintenance technology for the elements.

Since then, Nitto had furnished to PUB a series of Nitto/HY’s latest membrane products as well as their operation & maintenance technologies, to develop a close relationship with PUB. Currently 80% or more of ultra-clean water supplied by the NEWater plants is produced using Nitto/HY’s RO membranes.

On a different front, MRE has been extensively studied by PUB for its microfiltration membrane (MF) performance, having put into operation an MBR-based test plant at the Bedok Water Reclamation Plant in Singapore in 2003. With many references in terms of supplying large-scale MBR facilities around the world, MRE has been strongly encouraged by PUB to take part in a joint development effort.

The Japanese partners have decided to partner with PUB in the joint development program this time, with the hope of leveraging on each other’s strength and experience, in view of the following. Namely, PUB foresees an evolvement of current wastewater treatment and reclamation technology using separation membranes into a superior technology that combines MBR and RO. Such a development has demonstrated better reclaimed water quality at competitive costs, and these match the product development direction that MRE and Nitto are pursuing.