Friday, April 13, 2012

Singapore - Toshiba To Open R&D Hub At Singapore’s Aqua Research Center


Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has set up the Aqua Research Center in Singapore, its first water treatment R&D center located outside of Japan.

Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has set up the Aqua Research Center in Singapore, its first water treatment R&D center located outside of Japan.

The new center is located at the WaterHub in Singapore, and was officially opened in a ceremony officiated by Mr. Chew Men Leong, Chief Executive of PUB.

At the ceremony, Toshiba also inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with PUB to explore a collaboration to develop and test the application of a newly developed adsorbent to remove toxic elements in the used water treatment process for semiconductor plants.

The Singapore Government has identified water as a strategic growth sector in Singapore with a SGD$470million investment from Singapore’s National Research Foundation in water R&D.

“We appreciate the Singapore government’s foresight and initiative in making the country a global hydrohub, and we look forward to making progress in our research at the Aqua Research Center and our collaboration with PUB,” said Mr. Toshio Masaki, Corporate Senior Vice President of Toshiba.

In 2008, Toshiba invented a new adsorbent named “Functional Powder” which not only absorbs toxic elements from used water, but also extracts valuable elements for recycling, including rare metals. The powder can replace the chemicals used in conventional industrial used water treatment processes for the removal of such toxic compounds and is more cost efficient as it can be reused. Toshiba intends to verify this basic technology through field testing and demonstrations under real-life site conditions.

Under the MOU, Aqua Research Center and PUB will explore developing and testing a treatment process technology under which high concentrations of fluoride ions discharged from the semiconductor manufacturing process are removed using the functional powder.

WaterHub is also home to Global Water Intelligence, International Water Association, Singapore Water Association, and Singapore Society for Trenchless Technology. Other R&D centers at WaterHub include Siemens, Nitto Denko, Optiqua Technologies, Memsys Clearwater and Xylem Water Solutions.

Source: PUB.

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