Turning Waste into Wealth, Generating Over RMB 3 Million Annual Benefits! Our Electrochemical Technology Successfully Resolves the Resource Utilization Challenge of High-Salinity, High-COD Wastewater for a Biotech Enterprise in Shenyang

Recently, the integrated system of "Electrochemical Enhanced Pretreatment + Resource Recovery" designed and constructed by our company was successfully put into operation at a high-tech biotechnology enterprise in Shenyang, achieving a complete success. Tackling process wastewater with extremely complex compositions that render conventional treatment methods ineffective, the system not only meets stringent environmental standards such as a COD degradation rate of over 99.5% and advanced total nitrogen removal, but more crucially, it successfully recovers high-value-added salts. Comprehensive calculations show that it can generate direct economic benefits ranging from RMB 2.6 million to 3.2 million per year for the client, setting a remarkable example of win-win outcomes for both environmental and economic benefits.

Project Challenges: Complex and Variable Compositions Stump Traditional Processes

The wastewater generated by the client is a typical challenge in the biomanufacturing sector: characterized by significant fluctuations in water quality and volume, its primary pollutant is isopropyl acetate mixed with other unknown complex organic substances, with COD concentrations reaching as high as 20,000–60,000 mg/L. Meanwhile, the wastewater contains 12%–16% KCl (potassium chloride) and a small amount of K₂CO₃, with total nitrogen concentrations fluctuating between 150–1000 mg/L. The interweaving of ultra-high salinity and complex organic pollutants renders traditional biochemical processes completely ineffective, while simple evaporative crystallization is also unfeasible due to organic matter coking.

Innovative Solution: Electrochemical Technology Breaks the Deadlock and Opens Up Resource Recovery Pathways

Targeting this pain point, our company innovatively adopted a proprietary electrochemical advanced oxidation technology as the core pretreatment unit. Capable of efficient operation in high-salinity environments, this technology generates highly reactive free radicals that can non-selectively and thoroughly decompose various refractory organic compounds including isopropyl acetate, achieving efficient decolorization and total nitrogen removal. In this case, the system reduced the COD from 27,352 mg/L to 120.4 mg/L in a single pass, with a removal rate of 99.5%. The effluent COD stably remains below 200 mg/L, fully meeting the influent requirements of subsequent processing stages.

Value Realization: From "Treatment Burden" to "Profit-Generating Unit"

After the organic matter is completely removed via electrochemical pretreatment, the clean high-concentration salt solution is fed into the evaporative crystallization system, which successfully produces high-purity by-products such as KCl that can be directly sold as commodities. Meanwhile, the condensed water generated by the system can be reused in the production workshop, ultimately achieving zero discharge of wastewater. Detailed calculations indicate that the net economic benefits are highly significant—after deducting the system’s power consumption and maintenance costs, the savings from expensive hazardous waste disposal fees, sales revenue from recovered salts, and cost reductions from water reuse turn the environmental protection facility from a pure capital investment into a value-creation hub.

Milestone Significance: Providing a New Paradigm for the Fine Chemicals and Biopharmaceutical Industries

This project is not only a triumph of a single technology, but also a successful practice of a complete resource recovery solution that embodies the philosophy of "treating waste with waste and turning waste into wealth". It demonstrates the unique advantages of electrochemical technology in treating high-salinity, high-concentration, and refractory organic wastewater, and provides a clear, feasible, and highly rewarding technical pathway for similar industries such as biotechnology, active pharmaceutical ingredients, and fine chemicals to achieve green transformation, cost reduction, and efficiency enhancement.

Our company will continue to deepen the integrated innovation of electrochemical and resource recovery technologies, committed to transforming the most intractable environmental challenges of global clients into tangible economic gains and sustainable development competitiveness.