Innovative solutions for Wastewater Treatment: Case of China

The Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology (INET), which belongs to Tsinghua University, is one of the most powerful nuclear research institutes in China. Since the 1990s', INET initiated R&D programmes to study Gamma irradiation induced degradation of environmental pollutants through the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). During the period 2009–2011, this study was recognized as one of the Chinese high-tech research & development programmes (so called "863") and international science and technology cooperation project. From then on, INET started a lab-scale investigation of the electron beam accelerator for industrial wastewater treatments, such as paper-mill, textile and dyeing, pharmaceutical and so on. From 2010 to 2014, with the support of IAEA, Tsinghua University participated in the coordinated research project and technical cooperation project (CRP1008). The IAEA provided highly qualified experts from Hungary, Poland, Republic of Korea, USA and other countries. We also sent young scientists to the above countries to have scientific visits and fellowship training. China has benefitted a lot from the IAEA technical cooperation programme. In March 2017, China's first industrial-scale wastewater treatment plant was commissioned in the city of Jinhua, to use electron beam irradiation in combination with conventional biological methods. This project is supported by CGN Dasheng electron accelerator technology Co., Ltd and Tsinghua University. The current capacity is 1500-2000 m³/d with one injector. The operational cost, including energy consumption, chemicals and worker salaries, is 0.35 US$/m³ for wastewater reuse. In the next 2-3 years, we have a plan to build a plant to decompose the pharmaceutical antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes in Xinjiang province. Meanwhile, we will work with many other stakeholders to establish plants to purify the paper mill and other refractory industrial wastewaters in Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces. (author)