On June 5, 2021, the "2020 China's Top Ten Scientific and Technological Advances in the Ecological Environment" were released by the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) Alliance for Ecological Environmental Sciences Industry (CAEESI). Two achievements with the participation of the School of Environment, Tsinghua University were selected, namely " the construction of the New Concept Wastewater Treatment Plants in China " and " the key technology for path optimization of coordinated control of air pollution and climate change ".
Under the guidance of CAST, all the entries of the "China's Top Ten Scientific and Technological Advances in the Ecological Environment" were recommended by the member units of CAST and academicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), and judged through public announcements, preliminary selections and final selections of academicians and experts. The award aims to reflect the cutting-edge development of science and technology in the field of ecological environment, and lead the technological innovation in this field, so as to provide scientific and technological support for ecological environment protection and ecological civilization construction in China.
The award list of 2020 comprises the research on China's long-term low-carbon development strategy that supports the decision-making of the carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals, the construction of the New Concept Wastewater Treatment Plants in China the theory and method system of the synergy between the development of golden channel and river ecological protection, the key technology for path optimization of coordinated control of air pollution and climate change, the Gross Ecosystem Production (GEP) accounting method and application, the key technology and engineering application of environmental quality automatic supervision for national surface water, the third scientific experiment of the Tibetan Plateau—the observation of the boundary layer and troposphere, the discovery of the channel and mechanism for the absorption of micro plastics by edible vegetables and crops, and the study of COVID-19 aerosol collection and monitoring. The projects involve many hot issues in the ecological environment such as the carbon peak and carbon neutrality, prevention and control of atmospheric pollution, water environment protection, green GEP accounting methods, and COVID-19 monitoring, reflecting the cutting-edge developments in China's ecological environment science and technology. It has a far-reaching influence and great significance in leading technological innovation and encouraging scientific research in the field of ecological environment, creating an atmosphere of social innovation, and improving public awareness of environmental protection.
※ The construction of the New Concept Wastewater Treatment Plants in China
Main participants: Tsinghua University, Renmin University of China, The Administrative Center for China's Agenda 21, University of Science and Technology of China, CSD Water Service Co. Ltd.
Building the New Concept Wastewater Treatment Plants in China is the direction of the industry development proposed by Chinese scientists headed by Academician Qu Jiuhui. With the goal of "sustainable water quality, energy self-sufficiency, resource recycling, and environmental friendliness", it aims to provide an engineering example of sewage treatment resource utilization, waste-to-energy and ecologicalization, and explore the leapfrog development path of sewage treatment in technology and engineering construction.
After nearly 7 years of research and exploration, the concept plant technical team has built a technical system compromising more than 40 core and key technologies, including: high-efficiency extreme nitrogen and phosphorus removal technology, oxidation blocking of UV advanced oxidation process (UV/AOP) for emerging pollutants, high-drying ananrobic technology for efficient energy recovery and resource conversion from organic solid waste, large-scale water environment construction technology with reclaimed water as a single water source, and ecological complex construction concepts and technologies for sewage treatment facilities.
In 2020, the Third Sewage Treatment Plant in Sui County, Henan Province was built and put into operation. Several core technologies were verified by the project, realizing integrated treatment of sewage regeneration and organic waste (household garbage, sludge, livestock and poultry feces, etc.), wetland-sponge city integration, more than 50% of electric energy self-supply and nutrient recycling.
The construction of the New Concept Wastewater Treatment Plants in China will promote the circular, low-carbon, ecological development of China's sewage treatment industry, contributing to the carbon peak and carbon neutrality in this field.
The brochure of the top ten Scientific and Technological Advances: The construction of the New Concept Wastewater Treatment Plants in China
(Source: CAEESI)
※ The key technology for path optimization of coordinated control of air pollution and climate change
The organization which developed of the project: Tsinghua University
For scientific understanding of the interaction and synergistic benefits between air pollution and climate change, high-quality source data on emissions is the scientific basis, and the precise coupling between climate assessment model and air quality model is the key technology.
The complex air pollution control team of Tsinghua University has made significant breakthroughs in three aspects: (1) developing a dynamic response model of emission intensity to economic, energy and control measures, and making a multi-scale coupled air pollutant and greenhouse gas emission inventory for detailed sector and technologies; (2) developing a real-time response model of air quality for emission control measures by sector and species, and building the inverse calculation technology of pollutant emission reduction with the goal of air quality improvement; (3) building the interdisciplinary comprehensive evaluation model of energy economy-air quality-climate health (GCAM-ABaCAS), realizing the cost-benefit assessment and path optimization of the coordinated control measures of air pollution and climate change, evaluating the co-benefits of greenhouse gases on the path of achieving air quality standards, and quantifying the health and climate impacts of low-carbon energy policies.
The project has supported the coordinated emission reduction of air pollutants and greenhouse gases, revealed the importance of energy policies and measures to the coordinated emission reduction, thus providing scientific and technological support for air pollution control and climate change response.
The brochure of the top ten Scientific and Technological Advances: the key technology for path optimization of coordinated control of air pollution and climate change
(Source: CAEESI)
