Press Releases

Kurita Water Industries Ltd. (Head Office: Nakano-ku, Tokyo; President: Michiya Kadota; hereinafter "Kurita") and Fracta Leap Inc. (Head Office: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Yasuhiro Kitabayashi; hereinafter "Fracta Leap") are pleased to announce that their joint Meta-Aqua Project^*1, which aims to achieve digital transformation (DX) in the water treatment industry, has been awarded the Environment Minister's Award as part of the Japan Open Innovation Prize^*2.

The Meta-Aqua Project was started through a capital and business alliance between Kurita and the US-based startup Fracta, which developed cutting-edge AI technology for monitoring degradation of water distribution pipes. Fracta established Fracta Leap to leverage digital technologies related to water treatment in collaboration with Kurita through the Meta-Aqua Project. This project aims to achieve DX in the water treatment industry by combining Kurita's water treatment technologies, knowledge and data with the AI, software technologies and human resources of Fracta to a new world standard.

The project will look to take advantage of the cost savings and advanced technology that can be leveraged by customers and society to solve labor shortages, knowledge transfer and environmental impact issues such as decarbonization, that will be created through AI-optimized operation^*3, AI-optimized design^*4 and life-cycle optimization which is a combination of both at water treatment plants.

Kurita and Fracta Leap received the award in recognition of the revolutionary nature of how water treatment and AI were combined, and for jointly developing advanced digital technologies and products by combining each company's strengths to advance decarbonization and improving efficiency in the water treatment industry.

In terms of future prospects, there are plans to sequentially roll out the developed solutions for actual plant operations and design. The two companies will also work on developing further solutions to smartify (more efficient and sophisticated) water treatment plant design, production, operation and management. In addition, utilizing Kurita's global network DX-based decarbonization and cost reductions will benefit not only Japan but also other countries.

Notes

• *1"Meta-Aqua Project": A joint project between Kurita and Fracta Leap launched in 2020 with the aim of radically improving productivity through digital technologies for the sustainability of water treatment infrastructure. The project chiefly promotes smartification (more efficient and sophisticated) of water treatment plant design, production, operation and management using AI and IoT technologies. Kurita newly established its Digital Strategy Division in 2020 and has since accelerated the transformation of business through digital technology. The Meta-Aqua Project sits at the core of these efforts. It also marks the first joint project undertaken between Kurita and Fracta. Through this project, both companies will create greater synergy. For details, please refer to this press release from August 20, 2020: https://www.kurita.co.jp/english/aboutus/press200820.html
• *2The Japan Open Innovation Prize: The Japan Open Innovation Prize is an award organized by the Cabinet Office to celebrate highly advanced and creative initiatives expected to be model cases for the future in order to promote open innovation in Japan. For details, please refer to the Cabinet Office website: https://www8.cao.go.jp/cstp/stmain/20220128oip.html [Japanese Only]
• *3AI-optimized operation: As one example, verification at actual plants and patent applications have been completed for a solution that is expected to lower operating costs by 40% and electricity (=CO₂ emissions) by 10% for reverse osmosis (RO) membrane system. For details, please refer to this press release from March 24, 2021: https://www.kurita.co.jp/english/aboutus/press210324.html
• *4AI-optimized design: It aims to reduce design, component and construction costs while shortening delivery lead times through the optimization and automation of plant design (equipment configuration, layout design, construction plans, etc.).