KOCH Membrane Systems

About us

KMS is your strategic partner in an evolving global marketplace.

Every day, we help thousands of companies like yours reduce their water footprint, increase productivity, and lower operating expenses. And we’re helping millions of people live healthier lives by developing better ways to purify the world’s water sources, improve food processing, and more.

Our engineers have a long history of developing revolutionary technologies and bringing creative and innovative products to market that have superior functionality and efficiency that mean long-term financial benefits for you.

When you partner with us, you’ll get the business advantages of our industry knowledge, selection of specialized products, design expertise, and system commissioning. Most of all, you’ll benefit from our deep commitment to excellent service. We enjoy solving your most pressing challenges with smart, reliable, cost-effective solutions.

As your strategic partner, our goal is to discover new and better ways to help you create value. We welcome your input, because the needs of our clients drive some of our best innovations.

History

See what half a century of innovation looks like.

The Early Years

Koch Membrane Systems, Inc. was established in 1963 as a privately held company known as Abcor, Inc. Its charter was to develop and commercialize processes and equipment based on separation and purification technologies, which originated with scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Shift In Focus

In 1970, the company added ultrafiltration membranes and systems to its portfolio of separation technologies, which proved to be so successful that all other separation technologies were abandoned. Since then, the company has concentrated entirely on membrane separation and has become a world leader in this field.

The Evolution

The growth of our original company was gradual but well focused. Koch Engineering Company, recognizing the commercial potential of these technologies at the outset, not only provided the seed capital to establish Abcor, but obtained minority ownership position. In 1977, Koch Engineering Company bought out the remaining shares, with Abcor becoming a wholly owned subsidiary. In 1981, the company became Koch Membrane Systems, Inc.

A Global Community

KMS is headquartered in Wilmington, Massachusetts, with offices throughout the world. With manufacturing plants in Wilmington and Aachen, Germany, KMS has flourished thanks to our ongoing development of superior filtration products, as well as through acquisitions of leading companies in the field. Among the acquisitions were Romicon, Inc. (1991), Fluid Systems Corporation (1998), and Puron AG (2004).

What people say

We solve the world’s most critical water treatment challenges. Pure and simple.

Water & Wastewater Solutions

Listening to customers has helped us develop the world’s most comprehensive and innovative family of membranes.

Membrane Products

Concentrating, clarifying, and purifying process streams to increase yield and reduce cost.

Industrial & Life Sciences Solutions

Our technology

SPIRAL MEMBRANES

KMS produced the industry’s first spiral wound RO element. Robust, energy efficient, and economical, it is made from layers of flat-sheet membranes and feed separators wrapped around a hollow core. Feed solutions enter one end of the element, flowing under pressure through the membrane into permeate channels, spiral to the central core, and exit as permeate. This configuration offers the highest membrane-packing area with the smallest footprint.

Offered in a variety of materials, diameters, and lengths, spiral membranes have become the most prevalent of membrane configurations and are frequently used in seawater desalination, brackish water treatment, water softening and organics removal, and water reclamation and reuse. We also offer sanitary spirals for dairy and industrial biotechnology uses.

TABULAR MEMBRANES

Thanks to the rugged construction of KMS tubular membranes, they can easily process high suspended solids, and concentrate product proficiently and repeatedly to high end-point concentration levels without plugging, making them ideal for recovering wastewaters, and clarifying juices.

Available in microfiltration and ultrafiltration, our tubular membranes operate in tangential, or cross-flow, design where process fluid is pumped along the membrane surface in a sweeping action. We offer a wide selection of durable options that are easy to operate and clean, serving a variety of industrial and municipal applications.