LG Chem announces $94

August 28, 2023 | By Mary Bailey

LG Chem Ltd. (Seoul, South Korea) announced that it is spending 124.6 billion won ($94.1 million) over the next two years to expand its manufacturing facility for its key filter membrane product used in water desalination.

The facility, located in the central provincial city of Cheongju, will have an annual production capacity of 400,000 reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, enough to desalinate some 1.57 billion tons of seawater a year.

That is equivalent to supplying treated water to about 16 million people in South Korea, or a third of its population, a day, LG Chem said.

An RO membrane, in concept, is similar to a filter in a water purifier. But an RO membrane is made with a polymer that filters the seawater down to the molecular level to remove salts and other chemicals.

LG Chem’s RO membranes tout 99.89 percent removal of salts, utilizing the company’s unique thin film nanocomposite technology.

The expansion work at the Cheongju plant will take place until July 2025, based on which LG Chem will seek to double the growth in water treatment in the next five years.

The Cheongju RO membrane factory will operate 100 percent on renewable energy by 2030, LG Chem added.

LG Chem, the country’s leading chemical producer, advanced into the water treatment sector with its takeover of NanoH20, a U.S.-based water treatment company, in 2014.

In May, the company said it won a contract to exclusively supply its RO membranes to a joint desalination project in Israel.