Sembcorp Industries has signed a MoU with Mitsubishi Electric and Scinor (Asia) to test-bed new technologies for water, under the Sembcorp Industrial Living Lab initiative.
These collaborations are the first under the umbrella of the S$8 million Sembcorp Industrial Living Lab initiative, launched by Sembcorp and EDB in 2015. Under this initiative, Sembcorp will grant selected technology providers access to its facilities for late-stage test-bedding and co-innovation in areas such as water and cleantech solutions.
The technologies to be tested at Sembcorp’s facilities include Mitsubishi Electric’s Eco-MBR, an ozone backwashing membrane bioreactor (MBR); and Scinor (Asia)’s newest polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes.
Eco-MBR provides better membrane permeability, higher flux, and requires less membranes to be utilised, making for more energy-saving, compact, wastewater treatment and water reuse plants that cost less in the long run.
Eco-MBR will be applied at Sembcorp’s plants together with next-generation ozone-resistant membranes made by Asahi Kasei.
Scinor’s PVDF membranes are made using thermally induced phase separation (TIPS). These proprietary membranes for microfiltration and MBR plants offer significant energy savings of up to 30% due to higher flux, as well as improved performance and shorter backwash durations. It also allows for longer membrane life and extended plant life cycles.
The MOUs were signed during Singapore International Water Week 2016
According to Siah Keng Boon, chief technology officer, Sembcorp Industries, these partnerships represent advancements over the current state of art, and have the potential to bring about significant benefits, such as energy savings, better performance and lower life cycle cost.
Rajani Baburajan
editor@greentechlead.com