The mission

More than 20 Fortune Global 500 companies have settled in the Zhuhai Gaolan Port Economic Zone, along with over 130 industrial companies. Due to these companies’ large-scale production, the Economic Zone’s economy has seen brisk constant growth, becoming a major feature of the province's economic development.

 

However, the industrial development has also challenged the coastline. Not only does the creation of the Model Zero-Waste Park at Gaolan Port require enterprises to buckle down at the sewage outfall, but it also proposes higher requirements for supporting facilities in the park. SUEZ has tailored and refined our industrial wastewater treatment solutions to preserve marine resources and protect the ecological environment. We help the government to advance an environment protection strategy centred on improving the quality of the ecosystem.

Our solution

A SUEZ joint venture has built and operated Zhuhai's first centralised industrial wastewater treatment plant, with a daily treatment capacity of 25,000 m3, in the park. The plant's treatment process is precise. Industrial wastewater runs through pipelines to target wastewater treatment plants, to undergo centralised treatment. It’s the first time in Chinese industrial wastewater treatment industry history that SUEZ’s patented PulsagreenTM technology has been deployed in the tertiary treatment phase. This technology ensures a more rigid discharge standard of effluent than what municipal wastewater has.

A combination of biochemical and physicochemical treatment processes is applied at the wastewater treatment plant, to ensure the most rigorous treatment for low-concentration wastewater and high-concentration effluent. Additionally, it limits the COD (chemical oxygen demand) in treated effluent to under 40 mg/L (below most stringent standards for municipal wastewater discharge). Furthermore, the plant also lays down additional discharge requirements for characteristic pollutants such as volatile phenol and sulfide.
This project leverages SUEZ’s profound operational and managerial expertise across 16 Chinese industrial parks. To achieve separate collection and separate treatment, SUEZ conducts round-the-clock supervision of wastewater discharge. To ensure that the wastewater generated from unexpected incidents is fully treated and discharged in a compliant manner, an emergency system has been set up. 
In addition, wastewater treated by the plant is reused for chemical dosing dilution and equipment backwashing, as well as for water spray in odour control systems. In future, the plant will continue to promote the use of water cycle management and smart water solutions.

The result

The centralised wastewater treatment plant has achieved remarkable results. It won an award from the French Chamber of Commerce in China in recognition of its outstanding performance by all sectors of society.

  • It has improved the Park’s “soft environment” for investment and helped Zhuhai maximise its contribution to the Greater Bay Area’s development;
  • SUEZ has introduced global innovations into Zhuhai to safeguard production safety and support companies in overcoming hurdles like production continuity and stringent environment protection requirements;
  • The quality and volume of industrial wastewater from the enterprises are stable. Required infrastructure investment and operating costs are low, forming a wastewater treatment model that is simple to monitor centrally.
<40

mg/L
COD in the treated effluent, below the most stringent standards for municipal wastewater (i.e. <50 mg/L)
100
%
of wastewater from unexpected incidents is fully treated and discharged in compliance