Coway Develops Proprietary Reverse Osmosis Membrane Technology (Sep. 6, 2007)

Seoul, September 6 - Coway Co. Ltd., a leading well-being household electronics appliances manufacturer in Korea, announced today that it has successfully developed and launched commercial production of reverse osmosis membrane, a core technology in water purification and water treatment industry. Having invested some 10 billion won (approximately $10.6 million), the company has successfully developed its proprietary technologies for reverse osmosis membrane substance and its manufacturing over the past 26 months since June 2005, for the first time in the water filtration devices industry. These technologies have been monopolized by five major filter substance makers, including Dow Chemical based in the United States.

Consequently, Coway has filed patent applications for 6 related technologies in Korea, including polyamide reverse osmotic composite membrane and its manufacturing technology, among which 3 are already granted. It has also applied for patents for 3 technologies in other countries, including the United States, Japan, Europe and China.

With the development of reverse osmosis membrane substance and its manufacturing technologies, Coway completed last month the construction of a comprehensive filter production complex in space of 33,000 square meters in Gongju, Chungcheongnam Province, injecting approximately 22.2 billion won, to produce more than 20 different filters, including reverse osmosis membrane filters and new carbon block filters.



The leader in well-being household electronics appliances plans to produce 3.3 million square meters of reverse osmosis membrane at the new plant in Gongju a year for its in-house use. It is also mulling over selling remaining products in Korea and other countries.

Leveraging the first core filter technology in the water filtration devices industry, Coway will now be able to solidify its position as the largest water filtration devices manufacturer in the world and gain a growth engine, laying a foothold to take off as a global water-related technology enterprise.

“As it has successfully developed reverse osmosis membrane technologies and constructed filter production complex, the company has now significantly acquired core water-related technologies and facilities for commercial production of filters for water purifiers that can meet the increasing demand,” said Hong Jun-Kee, chief executive officer of Coway. Capitalizing on its competitive advanced technologies for environment-oriented materials and the largest production capacity for water purifiers, the company will leap forward as a world-leading water-related technology enterprise by branching out businesses into integrated water treatment areas, such as industrial filters, sea water desalination, water supply and waste water treatment.


About reverse osmosis membrane
Water filtration device can be divided into two categories based on their filtering method - reverse osmotic method and ultrafiltration method. The adoption of reverse osmotic method originated from the development by University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Medical School in early 1950s sponsored by the U.S. Department of Interior, imitating natural osmotic pressure in plants. While osmotic pressure typically develops when less dense solvent moves to solvent with higher density passing through semipermeable membrane, reverse osmotic method is to make solvent to move to the one with lower density by applying artificial pressure. Reverse osmosis membrane-based purification works by passing water through fine stomas as small as 0.0001 micron. So reverse osmosis membrane-adopted purification removes 99% of ionic materials, including organic and inorganic pollutants, bacteria, viruses and heavy metals. Currently, reverse osmosis membrane method is recognized as the most effective technology for purifying water in water purification and water treatment industry.



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