Kurita Water Industries Ltd. and Fracta Leap Inc. have initiated “Project Yatagarasu,” which seeks to harness informatics within standardized methodologies to expedite and improve the creation of new products and services by utilizing extensive water treatment data, machine learning, and other advanced technologies.
With increasing environmental regulations and a rising demand for water conservation and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions, the water and environmental challenges facing customers and society are evolving rapidly. The swift advancement of technologies and solutions to tackle these challenges is disrupting traditional methods and processes.
To accelerate the development of solutions, Kurita and Fracta Leap commenced their informatics collaboration in 2022. This approach has been implemented across 14 development themes, concentrating on materials informatics (MI) for the development of materials and process informatics (PI) for managing equipment operations.
For instance, MI was employed in a project aimed at enhancing the production process for next-generation sustainable energy by pinpointing appropriate materials for testing, which decreased the time needed to identify suitable materials by around 90%. PI was utilized for reproducible image analysis to assess the status of water treatment processes with greater accuracy and efficiency, moving away from reliance on human expertise and knowledge. These initiatives suggest that informatics could potentially reduce the time required for research and the exploration of new technologies and solutions by as much as 25%.
The project intends to transform the Kurita Group’s research and development (R&D) processes into a data-driven framework through the application of informatics, thereby reducing development time while simultaneously introducing new value. By the 2026 fiscal year, informatics will be gradually integrated as a new approach to consistently support essential processes from the initial stages of R&D—such as the development of research themes and experimental design—to the final stages of productization and commercialization. Moreover, in the 2027 fiscal year, there are plans to broaden its application to development themes that previously lacked sufficient data for informatics use and to incorporate informatics into standard methodologies within the Group’s R&D process.
By embedding informatics throughout the R&D department, Kurita and Fracta Leap will facilitate the swift commercialization of new technologies and solutions that provide added value in addressing societal issues, as well as further enhance the Group’s revenue. Additionally, by reinforcing data-driven R&D across the organization, the Group aspires to evolve into an innovative powerhouse that spearheads advancements in the global water treatment industry.
Source: Kurita
