- De.mem Ltd shares are up 22.73 per cent after reports of technology generated $150,000 of accumulated revenue since March 2018
- The technology is now underway and De.mem has started preparing an industrial solution for the technology in response to strong customer interest
- The technology has several uses outside of waste water treatment, including the concentration of fruit juice, milk, and other beverages
- The use of membrane technology in the food and beverage industry is an estimated US$5.8 billion market
De.mem shares spiked 22.73 per cent this morning after a report was published showing the revenue produced by the company’s water treatment technology.
The technology, originally developed at Singaporean Nanyang Technological University, has achieved $150,000 of accumulated revenue since it received licensing in March last year.
De.mem says following this encouraging news, the scale-up of the FO technology is now underway, and the company has started preparing an industrial solution for the technology in response to strong customer interest.
De.mem CEO Andreas Kroell said the company’s propriety technology profile is quickly gaining “excellent” market recognition.
“Our hollow-fibre Forward Osmosis technology is part of this technology portfolio; patent protected and unique in the industry. We have validated it with customers, and are now witnessing very solid interest for larger industrial solutions,” he said.
Kroell added that the technology has applications beyond waste-water treatment.
“The addressable market for this technology alone is very large, particularly in the industrial wastewater management and food and beverage sectors in the Asia-Pacific. The IP carries substantial value and it gives De.mem a major strategic advantage. We are building on the growth and uptake of this unique and highly appealing water technology solution.”
Forward Osmosis is a water cleansing process that makes contaminated, impure, or potentially dangerous water safe for human consumption. Through the process, water is separated from dissolved solids using a thin membrane and a specifically-developed solution to “draw” the water out through the membrane.
The water is then separated from the drawing solution, which can be filtered back into the process for re-usability. The hollow fibre technology developed at NTU is a leader in the field, characterised by its high concentration of water feed and low draw solution leakage.
De.mem says the technology can be easily manufactured and scaled up, and the process can also be used for the concentration of fruit juice, milk, and other beverages. According to De.mem, membrane processes in the food and beverage industry is an estimated US$5.8 billion per annum market.
Technological uses for De.mem technology in the food industry are applied in partnership with Singapore-based Aromatec, in which De.mem holds a 32 per cent interest.
De.mem shares are trading at 14 cents a piece as at 10:51am AEST, compared to yesterday’s close of 11 cents per share.