Toray Industries, Inc., announced that it has opened the Toray India Water Research Center in Chennai, India. The center will step up R&D into applications for its water-treatment membrane technology to help India meet surging treatment demand in the years ahead and overcome water shortages.
The center is at the IIT Madras Research Park (IITMRP), which fosters collaboration between industry and scholars. The center will conduct joint research with the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) into using water-treatment membranes for sewage reuse technologies. That university has ranked first in the Indian government's National Institutional Ranking Framework for the past four years and has a solid record in water treatment.
Toray was chosen in April 2021 for its proposal of SDGs Business Verification Survey with the Private Sector for Energy Saving Water Purification System with Water-Treatment Membranes for Sewage Water Reclamation in India. The selection was for the Japan International Cooperation Agency's second SDGs Business Supporting Surveys project in fiscal 2020. Toray's new center and IITM will together formulate plans for developing business by demonstrating energy-saving wastewater reuse and water purification system employing water-treatment membranes, with a view to deploying such setups around India.
Around half of India faces droughts and reservoir and groundwater depletions. About 600 million people experience extreme water stress. This problem will likely worsen as the population grows and the economy develops, with water demand exceeding twice the available supply by 2030. An urgent need to resolve shortages has propelled efforts around the nation to improve the water supply infrastructure and reuse wastewater.
Toray will leverage the new center to boost its water treatment technology development capabilities and innovate products for local needs in catering to the fast-rising water treatment demand in India. At the same time, Toray and IITM will collaborate closely in joint research and demonstration work for wastewater reuse technology using the company's water-treatment membranes. They will disseminate the results of such efforts around India, thus helping resolve the nation's water shortages.
The Toray Singapore Water Research Center, which opened in August 2009, will integrate its work with that of Toray's new facility in India to foster R&D that expands the company's water-treatment business in Southeast and South Asia.
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 embodying Toray Vision 2030, through which the Group seeks to achieve sound, sustainable growth. In keeping with its commitment to innovating ideas, technologies, and products that deliver new value, Toray will help resolve the world's water problems and materialize a circular economy by developing water treatment membrane systems.