LG Chem said Sunday it had secured a combined $8 million in new orders supplying water purification filters for eight seawater desalination projects among Egypt, Israel, Spain, Malta and Mexico. 

The company said it would produce some 17,000 reverse osmosis filters at its plant in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, by the end of next year, with the first batch shipped on Oct. 30.

Reverse osmosis is a water purification technology that uses a semipermeable membrane to remove larger particles from seawater.

The order involves enough filters to purify 200,000 tons of seawater per day. About 150,000 households will benefit from the project, LG said.

The large-scale orders come after the South Korean company entered the water treatment business by acquiring U.S. clean water start-up NanoH2O in April last year. The company, named LG NanoH2O, started production in September.

The company is the sole supplier for the eight projects, which it said proved its technological competitiveness and ability to secure more orders in the future.

The company has poured resources into securing related technologies and patents, including developing its own filter production technologies both for industrial and residential uses.

Especially, its RO filters boast the industry’s highest desalination rate of 99.85 percent, the company said.

“This large-scale exclusive deal proves our global competitiveness in RO filter production,” said LG Chem vice chairman Park Jin-soo. “We will continue to invest in related R&D to become a top-tier player in the field.”

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)