Social Venture Airun Supported by SK Innovation Targets Global Market with Wastewater Recycling Technology

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyewon] Arun, an eco-friendly social venture supported by SK Innovation, has gained recognition overseas for its wastewater reprocessing technology.

On the 30th, Arun announced that it has made its first overseas delivery of a test facility for the water treatment filtration equipment called the 'Micro Filtering System (Non-Clogging Filtering System, NCFS)' to regions including the United States and Canada.

Arun has been evaluated overseas for its economic and environmental value, as it not only minimizes environmental pollution through recycling contaminated water using wastewater treatment technology but also enables facility maintenance at a reasonable cost.

On the 25th, Arun and U.S.-based SLD Marketing signed an exclusive sales contract worth $500,000 covering five states: Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and New Mexico. Arun delivered the test facility to a private company in Texas through SLD Marketing. This facility will undergo test operations for more than three months before being expanded to other business sites.

Arun also signed a joint technology agreement with Osolno, a Canadian company developing microbial treatment systems. After operating the test facility installed at Osolno, Arun plans to sell it as a package combined with Osolno’s microbial treatment system.

This facility helps with ▲ removal of high concentrations (over 500ppm) and fine particles (0.5μm) and improvement of turbid wastewater treatment ▲ continuous filtering without clogging ▲ no need for separate cleaning processes and 85% reduction in maintenance costs compared to existing systems by using low power ▲ up to 12 times reduction in installation area compared to conventional devices.

At the 'Environmental Social Business Discovery Project Support Growth Fund Ceremony' held last November, Vice President Aaron Jo Hee-cheol (left) and SK Innovation Value Creation Center Director Lim Soo-gil are taking a commemorative photo.

Additionally, Arun was selected as the first domestic company by Imagine H2O, a U.S. water industry accelerator. Imagine H2O is a global water industry accelerator in the U.S. that has attracted about $500 million in investment to approximately 129 startup companies worldwide. Arun was selected after being evaluated by Suez Ventures, an investment institution under a global water treatment company, at this competition.

From the perspective of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) management, SK Innovation has been hosting contests with the Ministry of Environment since 2019 to discover and support social enterprises and social ventures aimed at solving environmental issues and revitalizing the social economy ecosystem in the environmental sector. Arun was one of the three companies finally selected in the contest held last November and was chosen as a focused growth target with a growth support fund of 100 million KRW.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.