Application and Market Status of Reverse Osmosis Membrane Technology in China

The 7th China International Membrane and Water Treatment Technology and Equipment Exhibition, the most influential international event in China's membrane industry, has just concluded at the China World Trade Center in Beijing. Exhibitors included companies from over a dozen countries and regions, including the United States, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong, as well as various provinces and cities across China. Notable participating companies included Dow Chemical (China) Investment Co., Ltd., IONPURE (USA), Hydranautics (USA), Koch Membrane Systems Co., Ltd., Toray Industries (China) Investment Co., Ltd., Sehan Co., Ltd., Vasob Environmental Materials Manufacturing (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., Harbin Lepu Industrial Development Center, Dalian Yuxing Water Purification Equipment Co., Ltd., and Huitong Yuanquan Environmental Technology Co., Ltd. The exhibition showcased a comprehensive range of membrane and water treatment technologies and equipment, highlighting the latest achievements and products from both domestic and international manufacturers.

In recent years, membrane technology has developed rapidly and has been widely applied in fields such as power, metallurgy, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, food, municipal engineering, wastewater reuse, and seawater desalination. The demand for membrane technology and equipment in various projects is increasing rapidly. Furthermore, the strong support and attention from the national and governmental departments have brought unprecedented opportunities for the development of the membrane industry.

Current Status of my country's Reverse Osmosis Membrane Market

my country began developing reverse osmosis membranes (hollow core and spiral wound types) in the 1960s. At that time, the technology was nearly on par with world standards. However, due to limitations in raw materials and basic industrial conditions, the performance of the membrane elements produced was relatively low, and production costs were high, preventing large-scale production. In the following years, the domestic level gradually lagged behind international levels, and foreign membrane production lines were introduced starting in the 1980s. Currently, there are 4-5 companies with certain production capacity, but their market share in the domestic membrane market is very low. Membrane products from Hydranautics (Nitto Denko) and Dow Chemical (Filmtec) account for approximately 80% of the Chinese market share. Other foreign membrane manufacturers, such as Koch (Fluid Systems), Osmonics (Desal), CSM (Saehan), and Toray, together account for approximately 20% of the market. This demonstrates that all international spiral-wound membrane manufacturers with large-scale production capabilities have entered the domestic market and secured a place for themselves.

The domestic sales of various types of spiral-wound membranes in my country were approximately US$200 million, US$500 million, US$800 million, US$1000 million, US$1500 million, and US$25 million from 1996 to 2001, with an estimated sales figure of US$30 million in 2002. Global reverse osmosis membrane sales were approximately US$500 million in 2001. Excluding regional and product price differences, domestic membrane sales volume was approximately 10% of global sales volume. The successive establishment and operation of emerging domestic membrane manufacturing enterprises will intensify competition in the membrane market, and related downstream industries in China will be the biggest beneficiaries.

In terms of the structural forms of reverse osmosis membranes, the market for hollow fiber membranes, tubular membranes, and plate membranes is relatively narrow. This has led DuPont to cease production of hollow fiber membranes, and Toyobo's hollow fiber membranes have extremely limited sales in China. However, spiral wound membranes, due to their lower pretreatment requirements, wider range of treatable water sources, broader applications, and huge market, have become almost synonymous with reverse osmosis membranes. Regarding membrane materials, cellulose acetate membranes have largely exited the market due to their high operating pressure and low desalination rate. Low-pressure and ultra-low-pressure aromatic polyamide composite membranes have become the absolute mainstream. The development trend of membrane products is towards multi-variety and multi-purpose development, including low-fouling membranes, positively charged membranes, and sodium filtration membranes.

Reverse Osmosis Membrane Applications

In the application field of RO membranes, the YUMA Water Plant in the United States (which treats canal water), commissioned in the 1980s, still maintains its position as the world's largest reverse osmosis membrane water treatment project with a daily treatment capacity of 280,000 tons. Seawater desalination is a key application area of reverse osmosis technology. Globally, the three largest seawater desalination projects with a production capacity exceeding 100,000 tons/day are located in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Spain, with the Fujairah Water Plant in the UAE, which began operation in 2002, boasting a treatment capacity of 140,000 tons/day. According to incomplete statistics, the world currently produces over 12 million tons/day of pure water using reverse osmosis technology. In comparison, while my country's total production and the scale of individual projects are still at a relatively early stage, its development is rapid, and its market potential is enormous. Conservative estimates suggest that there are currently over 200 reverse osmosis systems in China with a production capacity exceeding 100 m³/hour for industrial use. The largest completed project is the 750 m³/hour, 14,000 ppm sub-seawater desalination project at the Cangzhou Chemical Plant, using domestically produced membranes from Yuchai Northern Membrane Company. The largest projects under construction in 2002 were two 2,000 m³/hr rolling mill water systems at the Shanghai Baoshan Steel Plant and Taiyuan Steel Plant. The largest power industry project is the 100 m³/hour water supply project for power plants in Yantai and Dalian. There are already over a dozen reverse osmosis production lines for bottled and packaged water with a daily output exceeding 500 m³/day, the largest being 1,000 m³/day. It is expected that drinking water production systems with a daily output of 10,000 tons will appear in Shandong and Dalian within the next two years. Due to economic and geographical factors, reverse osmosis projects are concentrated in Shandong Province and the Dalian area. With the increasing aridity in northern my country and the continuously rising demands for water quantity and quality from industry and domestic use, membrane-based seawater desalination will inevitably shift from its current focus on marine and island applications to industrial and municipal sectors, representing a huge market potential.

Development of Reverse Osmosis Technology

Development of Enterprises

The sales revenue of the pure water equipment manufacturing industry related to reverse osmosis technology reached an estimated 8 billion RMB in 2001. This signifies that the reverse osmosis equipment manufacturing and pure water preparation industry has become a member of the rapidly developing industries in China. In Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Huzhou, Xi'an, and other cities, a cluster of specialized enterprises has emerged focusing on RO membrane technology, including product distribution, equipment manufacturing, engineering installation, and the production of supporting products. After nearly a decade of rapid development, this industry has entered a period of stable growth. Although turnover is still growing rapidly, the growth of operating profits has slowed down. Currently, a fundamental issue facing all enterprises in the industry is to simultaneously focus on market development and conduct in-depth research on products and technologies, seeking development through intensive management.

Faced with such a huge and continuously growing membrane product market, and facing the pressure of WTO accession and the severe situation of foreign companies establishing factories in China, the pace of localization of technology and materials in my country's membrane production industry has been slow. Yuchai Group's acquisition of Northern Membrane Industry Co., Ltd. has given industry insiders hope, but truly developing research capabilities requires extraordinary efforts from enterprises. To achieve a certain market share, the industry needs to show the same trust and enthusiasm as it does for supporting products. For the equipment manufacturing industry, both equipment manufacturers and parts manufacturers lack effective industry association organization and coordination, and disorderly price competition severely restricts the industry's development. For various reasons, in addition to the pressure of market competition, companies in the industry are also threatened by frequent internal divisions, making it difficult to form internationally competitive flagship enterprises. Only by relying on flagship enterprises can large-scale domestic projects avoid easily falling into the hands of large foreign companies, and only then can domestic companies make significant inroads into the international reverse osmosis water treatment engineering and product markets.

Furthermore, domestic companies must learn from the business communities of South Korea and Taiwan, applying the management skills honed in the domestic market to the markets of less developed countries. This means shifting the fierce competition among domestic companies to overseas markets, allowing the success of expanding the domestic market to be repeated in less developed countries. The speed and success of this process largely depend on the formation and development of the industry's core group of enterprises.

Future Prospects of Reverse Osmosis Technology

It is predicted that China's population will reach 1.6 billion by 2030, with per capita water resources amounting to only 1,750 cubic meters. Total water consumption is projected to reach 700-800 billion cubic meters, requiring a water supply capacity increase of 130-230 billion cubic meters. The actual usable water resources nationwide are approaching the upper limit of rational utilization, making the development of new water resources, such as seawater desalination, imperative. Currently, reverse osmosis membranes are the most economical and clean method for seawater desalination.

Furthermore, in recent years, my country's wastewater and sewage discharge has increased by 1.8 billion tons annually. The daily discharge of industrial wastewater and domestic sewage nationwide is nearly 164 million tons, of which approximately 80% is discharged directly into water bodies without treatment. Therefore, the demand for membrane applications in my country's environmental water treatment sector will be substantial, making this area the one with the greatest growth potential in the water industry.