NKK Sees Increasing Orders for Water Treatment Systems

NKK has been receiving an increasing number of orders for water treatment systems, such as activated carbon injection water purification systems and membrane-based water purification and night soil treatment systems. The value of orders received in fiscal 1997 surpassed ¥17 billion, more than three times as much as in fiscal 1996 and a record high for the sector. NKK's water treatment systems have attracted attention particularly for their advanced membrane technologies.

To better respond to the expanding demand for water treatment systems, in July 1997 NKK formed the Water System Marketing Department, designed to integrate operations for night soil treatment, water purification and agricultural communal drainage processing, independent of the sewage treatment business group.

For night soil treatment systems, NKK is actively promoting its total processing system based on membrane filtration and targeting municipalities. This system combines two technologies--biological treatment by activated sludge and ultrafiltration membranes. The system does not require monitoring of sedimentation of activated sludge and is capable of obtaining a steady flow of high quality water.

In membrane filtration water purification systems, the conventional three-step process--coagulation, sedimentation and sand filtration--has been replaced by a single membrane module system. NKK has enhanced its marketing efforts to sell the system to municipalities by supplying demonstration test plants since 1993.

As a result of its vigorous sales campaigns, in fiscal 1997 NKK secured orders for four night soil treatment systems with a combined processing capacity of 537 kiloliters per day, the most in the industry by volume. The latest order, received from the Aira County Sanitation Association in Kagoshima Prefecture, was for a 195 kiloliter-per-day plant that uses a deep-shaft aeration tank for high-load night soil processing.

NKK's recent water purification plant orders include those placed by the Kanagawa Prefecture Wide-Area Water Supply Authority and the Shimonoseki City Waterworks Bureau. Both city water purification plants are based on a dry activated carbon powder injection system. NKK also foresees promising orders for ground water treatment systems at landfill sites. The company intends to play an increasing role in supplying water treatment systems, making this sector an important pillar of its environmental engineering activities.