On Jan.8, 2017 National Science and Technology Awards Conference was held in the Great Hall of the People, Beijing. Party and state leaders Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Zhang Gaoli and Wang Huning attended the conference and presented awards to the winners’ representatives. “Municipal Wastewater Membrane Integrated Deep Purification Technology and Engineering Application”, a cooperation project of OriginWater – a high-tech environmental protection enterprise, and Tsinghua University, won the second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award. This is the second time OriginWater has won this award, which represents the highest level of scientific & technological innovation in China. Previously, it won the award with “low-energy-consumption membrane – bioreactor: utilization of wastewater as resources new technology and project application”. 

  

It is reported that the “Municipal Wastewater Membrane Integrated Deep Purification Technology and Engineering Application” project has been jointly completed by OriginWater and Tsinghua University, and the main persons in charge of the project include Huang Xia, Wen Jianping, Wen Xianghua, Yu Kaichang, Liang Peng, Chen Yili, Li Suoding, Xue Tao, Xiao Kang, and Chen Chunsheng. Based on the industrialization of municipal wastewater membrane integrated deep purification technology and independently developed high-performance membrane materials and membrane modules, the project has broken into western developed countries’ technical monopoly in this field and, with innovative low-carbon-source deep nitrogen & phosphorus removal, and high-quality reclaimed water preparation process, the technology significantly improves the effluent water quality, realizing the linked optimized aeration of a membrane pool - biochemical pool, and its energy saving and consumption reduction reaches the world advanced level. 

According to a leader of OriginWater, the project that won the second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award involved 114 published high-level papers, 34 patents/ software copyrights, 2 monographs, and 3 ministerial standards; the project results had been widely applied to 123 municipal sewage treatment projects in 19 provinces and cities, the total project investment exceeded RMB 19 billion yuan, and the cumulative application scale was nearly 8 million tons/day; the number and accumulative scale of 100,000 tons/day and above large-scale MBR projects both ranked first in the world. 

Among them, MBR projects account for 80% of the national total in the corresponding period, greatly reducing the pollutant discharge amount and increasing the quantity of available water resources. According to the local tap water price, the project can save a total of $1.41 billion in water fees each year. The project’s environmental, social and economic benefits are all very significant. 

Founded in 2001, OriginWater is the only high-tech environmental protection enterprise in China that specializes in the full-range of membrane material R&D, membrane production, equipment manufacturing and membrane process application, and each year it puts 10% of the parent company’s net profit into technology research and development; OriginWater has almost 1,000 R&D personnel and nearly 500 patented technologies. 

In recent years, OriginWater has deeply implemented the national innovation-driven development strategy, actively responded to the national strategy of quickening the construction of an ecological civilization and, oriented by our country’s major needs and aimed at the world’s frontiers of science and technology, has promoted our country’s breakthrough and leapfrog development in R&D and application of water treatment membrane technology. These implementations have been making outstanding contributions for our country in solving water’s three main problems: “Dirty water, water scarcity, and drinking water safety”. 

So far, OriginWater has participated in water treatment in many water-environment sensitive areas, such as Taihu Lake Basin, Chaohu Lake Basin, Dianchi Lake Basin, Erhai Lake Basin, Danjiangkou Reservoir (a water source of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project) and completed thousands of membrane water treatment projects, accounting for more than 70% of China’s membrane water treatment market share. With a daily water treatment amount of over 20 million tons, OriginWater can make 7 billion tons of new high-quality reclaimed water for our country each year, which is equivalent to having re-created a sizeable river. 

Issued by the State Council, the National Science and Technology Award represents the highest level of scientific & technological innovation in China and is also a concentrated reflection of major achievements in scientific & technological innovation. It is a commendment to the scientific and technological workers who have made outstanding contributions to China’s scientific and technological undertakings and modernization construction. At this National Science and Technology Awards Conference, Li Keqiang, on behalf of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, delivered a speech, and Liu Yandong, Vice Premier of the State Council, read out The State Council’s Decisions on 2017 National Science and Technology Awards.