According to the company’s website news release on April 25, 2023, Toray Industries, Inc., announced that it has received a reverse osmosis (RO) membrane order for the Tseung Kwan O Desalination Plant in Hong Kong. The order testifies to the company’s successes over the past two decades or so in supplying RO membranes to desalination plants worldwide and providing technical support to ensure stable plant operations.
This will be Hong Kong’s first large desalination plant using RO membrane, with a daily freshwater production capacity of 135,000 cubic meters. It will account for around 5% of Hong Kong's potable water demand. The facility is scheduled to go online in end 2023. There are plans to boost daily capacity to 270,000 cubic meters.
Hong Kong currently sources 20 to 40% of water from impounding reservoirs and 60 to 80% from Dongjiang River in Guangzhou, China. Challenges to maintaining a stable water supply include rising water demand owing to population and economic growth and extreme weather conditions and severe drought because of climate change. Another factor is that rapid development of the Pearl River Delta has increased water supply stress on the Dongjiang River. Hong Kong’s Water Supplies Department has tackled these challenges by tightening water management measures in recent years. The project to set up a desalination plant is part of the strategy to diversify the territory’s water sources and make it less vulnerable to climate change.
Toray will help maintain Hong Kong’s infrastructure by supplying the Tseung Kwan O Desalination Plant with products and technical services that it has cultivated through its experience with desalination plants worldwide.
Over the years, Toray has expanded its RO membrane production, sales, and technical support to assist water treatment plants around the globe. Applications extend from desalination and waste water reclamation to industrial usage. The aggregate water production capacity of Toray RO membranes is around 105 million cubic meters per day. That is enough to serve the water needs of 730 million people
Providing access to clean water is pivotal to The Toray Group Sustainability Vision, representing a roadmap to the World as envisioned by Toray Group in 2050, and embodies Toray Vision 2030, through which the Group pursues sound, sustainable growth.
Toray will continue to provide RO membranes and other advanced membrane technologies and strengthen technical services to cater for local demand. It will thereby help resolve water issues in Asia and other regions in which industrial and population expansions will likely boost water demand.
Tseung Kwan O Desalination Plant details
Location: Tseung Kwan O Area 137, Hong Kong
Production capacity: 135,000 cubic meters daily
Projected operational start: End 2023
Client: Water Supplies Department, the Government of HKSAR, China
Engineering, procurement and construction and operation and maintenance contractor: Acciona
References
Hong Kong Water Supplies Department’s Tseung Kwan O Desalination Plant website (English and Chinese)
Toray Water Treatment website
