Toray develops high-efficiency desalination and deboronization seawater desalination membranes

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The 25th National \"Safety Production Month\" in 2026: Everyone talks about safety, and everyone knows how to handle emergencies; identifying and addressing risks and hazards. -------------------------------------------------- Recently, Toray Corporation has successfully developed a new generation of reverse osmosis (RO) membrane elements for seawater desalination. This product exhibits excellent performance in terms of desalination efficiency, boron removal efficiency, and chemical resistance, and is expected to reduce the operating costs of seawater desalination equipment while improving the quality of the treated water. 　　It is reported that neutral substances with small molecular sizes such as boron are difficult to remove using existing seawater desalination membranes. How to improve the removal efficiency of salts and boron while maintaining high water permeability has always been a key challenge in the development of RO membranes. Toray has integrated its years of accumulated expertise in microporous precision control technology and membrane/membrane element manufacturing techniques. By introducing methods such as quantitative analysis of polyamide pore size distribution, digital analysis of the interaction between membranes and water molecules, and simulation of water molecule flow within the pores, it has successfully developed a new type of membrane structure that can significantly reduce the permeation of small molecules such as salts and boron. This membrane possesses both desalination and deboronation capabilities, along with high water permeability, all in one. 　　Compared to existing products, the salt permeability of the new membrane can be reduced by up to 50%; when this membrane is used in newly installed seawater desalination systems, processes that previously required two stages of RO membrane treatment can be simplified to a single-stage process. The new product also has a high capacity for removing boron, enabling it to meet the strict water quality standards for drinking water and industrial use. At the same time, its chemical resistance has been improved compared to previous products, which helps to prevent a decline in membrane performance during chemical cleaning and thus contributes to extending the service life of the RO membrane.