05 December 2018

SUEZ NWS wins Annual “France China Committee” R&D Award for contribution to China’s circular economy

After winning the 2017 Special Climate Prize in Innovation Awards for Franco-Chinese Teams, organized by the France China Committee¹, SUEZ NWS won another prize in 2018: the France China Committee R&D Award, distinguishing its innovative sludge ultra-dry solution Dehydris^TM Ultra. The solution is regarded as a breakthrough in China’s sludge treatment and disposal industry. It illustrates SUEZ NWS’ commitment to promote a circular economy and significantly contribute to China’s social, economic and environmental wellbeing.

With increasing urbanization and industrialization, municipal or industrial wastewater streams now come with more concentrated sludge that has high organic and water content. This has become a pressing environmental challenge for manufacturers and cities to resolve. To improve efficiency in treating and recycling sludge in an environment-friendly way, SUEZ NWS has invested significant R&D resources in turning Dehydris^TM Ultra into a readily applicable industrial technology. The solution was deployed in an industrial-scale pilot project with Handan Municipal Drainage Company Limited, and successfully yielded strong social, economic and environmental benefits.

Dehydris^TM Ultra is an environment-friendly sludge treatment solution: less CO₂ emissions and very low chemical and energy consumption. This ultra dewatering process can reduce the volume of sludge and produce hygienised biosolid product. It helps raise biogas output from anaerobic digestion and turns sludge into valuable biochar. With a daily treatment capacity of 500 tons of wet sludge, Dehydris^TM Ultra helps reduce 32,000 MWh of electricity and CO₂ emissions by one-third more than conventional thermal drying, each year. If biochar is co-incinerated in the energy recovery process, it can save 15,000 tons of standard coal per year. Biochar can also be used as a potential soil conditioner for land use that can boost soil fertility and generate carbon sinks, thereby reducing the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and contributing to carbon reduction.

A world leader in smart and sustainable resource management, SUEZ owns over 250 sludge treatment projects globally, over 50 of which are in China. In 2008, SUEZ NWS introduced its patented INNODRY®2E two-stage sludge drying technology into China and built and now operating four sludge treatment plants in Chongqing, Suzhou and Yangzhou. In early 2018, it brought the Thermylis™ solution into Shenzhen’s first centralized sludge incineration and disposal project, the largest to treat sludge with this solution in Mainland China. Thanks to the technology, the Shenzhen project has achieved thorough reduction, stabilization and neutralization of sludge and resource recycling.

The France China Committee gathers French enterprises all very active with China on the long term, working together to develop their business with China. It is an important facilitator of trade and commerce between China and France. Since 2014, it has sponsored the France-China Innovation Awards to recognize excellent original projects between Chinese-French R&D partnerships at universities, research labs, R&D hubs and businesses with significant social, economic, industrial and environmental impact.