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The following article is from Hard Krypton , written by Lin Qinging

Author | Lin Qingqing
Editor | Yuan Silai

Hard Krypton has learnt that selective separation nanocomposite film developer 'Proshare Environmental Protection' has recently completed a round of A financing in the amount of tens of millions of RMB. This round of financing was led by Yongsheng Capital and followed by Suzhou Science and Technology Fund. Qichen Capital acted as the financial advisor for this round of financing. The investment funds will be mainly used for new production lines, plant construction and investment in an integrated automation line for casting, coating and coiling.

'Founded in 2017, Proshare Environmental Protection focuses on the research, development and industrialisation of third-generation nano-composite thin-film high-end reverse osmosis and nanofiltration membranes TFN, and has established and perfected the R&D and application platform for TFN membranes, providing cost-effective, individually customised high-end separation membrane products and solutions at home and abroad.

Membranes are used everywhere in production and life. For a better understanding, membranes can be imagined as a special net that lets certain things pass through and doesn't let others pass. This kind of net is useful in many areas, such as filtering water, separating gases or extracting pharmaceutical ingredients. When we talk about separation membranes, we are really referring to the specific application of this net in separating different substances.

The so-called high-performance membrane materials are the advanced versions of such nets, which are more durable, more efficient, capable of handling more difficult separation tasks, and cheaper to use.

It is a class of materials that play a central role in new and efficient separation technologies that are characterised by their energy-saving and environmentally friendly nature, which is essential for solving problems such as water, energy and the environment. These materials can be classified into water treatment membranes, speciality separation membranes, gas separation membranes, etc., depending on their application areas, and are widely used in a variety of industries such as water treatment, food and beverage, biomedicine, and energy.

In the field of water treatment, they can be divided into microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membranes, etc., which are used for water purification and seawater desalination. In the field of special separation, it includes ceramic membranes, ion exchange membranes, osmotic vapourisation membranes, etc., which play a role in the industrial separation process. That is to say, as long as it involves water purification, concentration filtration, separation need to use membrane materials.

According to the statistics of CRRP Industry Institute, the market size of China's high-performance membrane materials has reached RMB 91.2 billion in 2023. China's membrane industry, especially in the field of reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF) membranes, is experiencing rapid development, and these high-performance membrane materials are attracting attention due to their important roles in key areas such as water treatment,

desalination, and industrial water purification, etc. It is estimated that China's reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF) membrane materials market size will exceed RMB 20 billion by 2029.

In the past, the market has mostly used TFC membranes, which are widely used in processes such as nanofiltration (NF), reverse osmosis (RO), etc. TFC membranes are generally comprised of a base layer of nonwoven fabrics (NWFs), a porous support layer, and a selective separator layer, and their performance can be affected by the structure of the membranes, their physicochemical properties, and the special functions of the different layers.

However, despite the absolute dominance of TFC membranes in the field of water treatment, they still have some technical challenges that need to be solved in practical applications, such as higher cost, low flux, high energy consumption and other pain points, as well as certain pollution problems.

At the same time, subject to early start, fast iteration and other first-mover advantages, the market for medium and high-end membrane materials has long been monopolised by overseas enterprises. Especially in the field of high-performance membrane materials, the United States, Japan, Europe and other developed countries and regions of the enterprise has a more obvious technical advantage and market position, domestic customers have long relied on overseas imports.

Dr Lin Xiaofeng, the founder of 'Proshare Environmental Protection', introduced that the nanocomposite film (Thin-Film Nanocomposite, or TFN membrane for short) developed by the team has the main advantage of significantly improving the performance of the membrane through the third-generation process compared with the traditional TFC membrane.

This improvement allows TFN membranes to enhance water treatment efficiency, retention performance, and contamination resistance. The technological innovation of the functional layer increases the water permeability and also enhances the hydrophilicity of the membrane, reducing the adhesion of fouling and bio-contamination. In addition, the chemical resistance of TFN membranes has been improved, especially in acid and alkali resistance and oxidation resistance, which makes the membranes more stable and durable in some specific scenarios and expands new application scenarios with high added value.

It is understood that the main products of 'Proshare Environmental Protection' include reverse osmosis membranes, nanofiltration membranes, special membranes, customised membranes, ultrafiltration membranes, five categories of reverse osmosis and nanofiltration membranes, twelve models, which are equipped with high retention, high flux, anti-pollution, and customised special membranes, etc. The main products of 'Proshare Environmental Protection' have been widely used in the field of chemical industry.

At present, 'Proshare Environmental Protection' has established a complete process 'from membrane to membrane element to system', the first SPEC membrane custom development application platform, and has served many industry head customers such as Sinopec, Ningde Times, Zijin Mining, etc., and has been widely used in the industries of new energy, semiconductors, petroleum and petrochemicals, biomedicine, desalination, municipal high-quality water supply and reclaimed water. water supply and reclaimed water industries.

Dr Lin Xiaofeng said, 'We believe that the market in this industry will be gradually replaced by domestic products, the domestic competition in the field of low-end membrane products has been white-hot, we have entered the price of the stage of fighting; while the high-end membrane monopoly by overseas can still reach more than 80%, and there are still a lot of pain points and difficulties, which can not be solved by imported products, such as more resistant to high temperatures and cleaning product performance. Cleaning product performance. Foreign start ahead of us three or four decades, medium and high-end membrane market is still a great opportunity, the next 5 to 10 years is the window of time for the rapid development of China's membrane brand.'

Team, 'Proshare environmental protection' founder Lin Xiaofeng national major talent introduction project membrane experts, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, College of Environmental Science and Engineering Professor, focusing on the theoretical basis of polymer nano-assembly technology and industrial application of research, its core team members have more than 20 years of experience in management and sales and membrane R & D and application.

Investor Views:

Xu Yong , founding partner of Wing Sheng Capital, said that energy saving and environmental protection is Wing Sheng Capital's long-term concern and optimistic about the direction of the Proshare environmental protection team with polymer nanocomposite film in the field of many years of R & D and industrialisation experience, breakthroughs in a number of key bottlenecks in the technology, to become the third-generation nanocomposite film (TFN) reverse osmosis, nanofiltration membranes the only supplier in the country, the product has been verified by a number of head of the industry customers to form a batch! Procurement, looking forward to the company to further increase R & D efforts and expand more industry applications, for the development of green environmental protection industry to contribute more 'Proshare power'.

Chen Xilin, head of the second investment department of Leader Venture Capital, said: Proshare has a unique technology platform, with advantages in membrane material customisation and production capacity, especially in the acid and alkali resistance, high flux, anti-pollution and other high-end membrane scenarios, the enterprise broke the dominance of imported brands of medium and high-end membrane products. At present, Puxi's products have been widely used in new energy batteries, photovoltaic, lithium extraction from salt lakes and other industry sectors, with more head of customer trust and re-purchase, the market scale has great potential for growth. Leader Venture Capital highly recognised the project founder and team background, the subsequent Leader Venture Capital will integrate the resources of all parties, work together to help Puxi high-speed development.

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