With the increasing awareness of human environmental protection, the world has taken protecting the environment as a top priority, and membrane separation technology has been rated as one of the most promising clean technologies in the 21st century. It is widely used in various fields, including high-difficulty wastewater treatment, municipal sewage advanced treatment, reclaimed water manufacturing, ultra-pure water preparation and seawater desalination.

01 Multiple factors work together, and the development prospect of membrane technology is broad

The development of membrane separation technology in China has been 60 years of history. After entering the 21st century, due to the explosive growth of water treatment demand, China's membrane industry began to rise rapidly, with a compound growth rate of 24.77% from 2009 to 2021, and the total output value of the membrane industry reached 323 billion yuan in 2021. It is expected to reach 500 billion yuan by 2025.

At present, China's membrane separation market has ranked among the top in the world, accounting for nearly one-third of the global water treatment membrane market. Membrane industry system mainly includes reverse osmosis membrane, nanofiltration membrane, ultrafiltration membrane, microfiltration membrane, electrodialysis membrane, ceramic membrane and so on.

In recent years, the development of the membrane industry is flourishing, the rise of a surge of investment in reverse osmosis membrane products, in this context, China's reverse osmosis membrane material manufacturers continue to rise, including Wharton technology, blue star Toray, Qin Sen high-tech, blue water source and so on. In particular, Wharton Technology has become the largest producer in the field of reverse osmosis membrane in China, especially Wharton Technology, has become a world-class reverse osmosis membrane giant. In the field of desalination, the water source has broken the monopoly situation of foreign reverse osmosis membranes through its own hard core technology, and solved the problem of "jam neck" of key materials in the field of desalination. At present, reverse osmosis occupies more than 50% of the scale of China's water treatment membrane market, and China's reverse osmosis membrane production accounts for about 18.98% in the world, second only to 21% in the United States.

In the field of ultrafiltration membrane and microfiltration membrane, China is also rising, and a number of high-quality enterprises have emerged, such as Jin film Technology, Jiuwu High-tech and so on. The production technology of microfiltration membrane and ultrafiltration membrane has a high degree of localization, and the self-sufficiency rate of products is about 85%.

Up to now, China's film industry has formed an industrial cluster with strong competitiveness.

There are three main reasons to promote the development of membrane technology. First, the shortage of water resources in China is becoming increasingly serious, and the recycling of sewage has become the most effective means to solve the shortage of water resources, and the recycling cannot be separated from the application of membrane technology. The state attaches great importance to the utilization of sewage resources, and in 2021, 10 ministries and commissions jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the utilization of sewage resources", proposing the overall goal of "by 2025, the utilization rate of recycled water in prefecture-level cities and water-scarce cities above shall reach more than 25%, and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region shall reach more than 35%". Membrane technology, with its super-strong separation ability, has become the main role in realizing sewage resource recycling.

Second, China's environment has been facing serious pollution for a long time. After the implementation of the revised Environmental Protection Law, it has been comprehensively updated in terms of technology, management, supervision and other systems. It has not only strengthened the supervision and punishment of environmental violations, but also improved the effluent quality standards, forcing sewage enterprises to seek more efficient ways to treat sewage wastewater. Due to its high efficiency and high quality treatment efficiency, membrane technology has gradually become the first choice for these sewage enterprises.

Third, due to the shortage of water resources in China, the per capita water resources occupancy is only a quarter of the world average level, and it is listed by the United Nations as one of the 13 water-poor countries. As an unconventional water source, seawater desalination can effectively relieve water pressure in our country. During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, in order to promote the seawater desalination industry to large-scale and integrated development, the National Development and Reform Commission and the State Oceanic Administration jointly issued the "13th Five-Year Plan for National Seawater Utilization", and seawater desalination has become a strategic emerging industry in China. Reverse osmosis technology is the most commonly used technology for seawater desalination. According to statistics, in seawater desalination engineering, reverse osmosis technology accounts for about 65%, and reverse osmosis membrane can effectively filter soluble salt in seawater, and the desalination rate is as high as 99.75%.

In addition, after continuous development, membrane technology has gradually matured, and the cost is constantly decreasing, and the advantages of membrane compared with other water treatment technologies are too obvious, so the membrane industry is developing very rapidly. Representative companies such as: DuPont, Hyderon, LG, Wharton, Cellemer, Risrising, Asahi Kasei, CSM, Sinochem, Biwater Source, Wieserb, Qensen, etc.

02 Membrane technology enables the high-quality development of the industry with new quality productivity

This year's government work report listed "vigorously promoting the construction of a modern industrial system and accelerating the development of new quality productive forces" as the first task.

"New quality productivity" has three important characteristics, namely high technology, high efficiency and high quality.

High quality development has become the main theme of all walks of life, especially the environmental protection industry. After decades of extensive development, the environmental protection industry is undergoing quantitative to qualitative changes. In this process, membrane technology continues to innovate and iterate, becoming the "new quality productivity" of the industry, promoting the deep transformation and upgrading of the sewage industry, from the original high energy consumption and high pollution to low energy consumption and low pollution, for the high-quality development of the industry, there are very obvious technical advantages.

The core of membrane separation technology is the membrane material, the membrane material can be divided into ultrafiltration membrane, microfiltration membrane, nanofiltration membrane and reverse osmosis membrane according to the aperture, the microfiltration membrane aperture is between 0.05 and 10μm, allowing small molecules to pass through, blocking macromolecular substances through, such as in sewage treatment, can remove suspended particles, microorganisms and bacteria. The diameter of ultrafiltration membrane is about 0.02-0.1μm, which can trap the impurities such as polymer material, suspended matter, colloids, particles, organic matter, bacteria and viruses in the sewage station. Nanofiltration membrane aperture is usually less than 2 nanometers, can be used to remove water hardness, turbidity, chroma and organic matter. Reverse osmosis membrane aperture is the smallest of all membranes, generally between 0.0001 and 0.01μm, so its filtration accuracy is also the highest, almost all particles, organic matter, ions, etc., can be filtered in water. Commonly used in seawater and brackish water desalination, boiler recharge water, industrial pure water and electronic grade high pure water preparation, drinking pure water production, wastewater treatment and special separation processes.