China has become the world's largest MABR membrane market! 300+ rural sewage cases witness technical strength

https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/619929526?utm_id=0

How does Fluence, a foreign-funded environmental protection company with Israeli technology and listed in Australia, develop business in China's rural sewage market and complete more than 350 sewage treatment cases, making China the world's largest MABR membrane market?

This foreign-funded enterprise has a deep understanding of the pain point in China's rural sewage treatment field, that is, the mismatch between the actual population and the designed water volume.What method did they use to solve this problem?

Recently,"Environmental Circle" interviewed Yang Wangzheng, CEO of Fluence Asia, who has more than 18 years of experience in the sewage treatment industry, and listened to him talk about the harvest and experience of this foreign-funded enterprise in the seven years of deep cultivation of China's rural sewage market.

▼Yang Wangzheng, CEO of Fluence Asia

1

Won two consecutive awards

The backbone of water environment innovation in villages and towns

After seven years of hard work in the Chinese market, it finally ushered in the harvest season.Recently,Fluence won the "2021 Science and Technology Progress Award" issued by the China Highway Construction Industry Association, in recognition of Fluence's contribution to the "Key Technology Research on Highway Water Pollution Treatment and Environmental Risk Control in Ecologically Sensitive Areas".

▼Fronts won the "2021 Science and Technology Progress Award" issued by China Highway Construction Industry Association

Being able to win this honorstems from the successful application of Fluence technology in the highway sewage treatment project.

The sewage in the expressway service area mainly comes from catering wastewater and public toilets. The concentration of sewage is much higher than that of general domestic sewage. It belongs to high ammonia nitrogen domestic sewage, which is likely to pose a threat to the eutrophication of surrounding water bodies.With the change of seasons and holidays, free traffic will fluctuate greatly 24 hours a day, resulting in great changes in the amount of sewage.There is no other domestic sewage to dilute the high-ammonia-nitrogen sewage produced by toilets. If the domestic sewage in the service area cannot be properly treated, it will seriously affect the nearby agricultural production and residents' lives.

Fluencehas developed a set of water pollution control solutions with strong pertinence, high treatment efficiency and low operating cost in order to deal with high total nitrogen water quality and water pollution in ecologically sensitive areas, which can achieve a removal rate of more than 90% of total nitrogen,effectively Control environmental risks and ensure the ecological security of ecologically sensitive areas.

It is worth mentioning that in addition to Fluence, otherinstitutions such as the Highway Research Institute of the Ministry of Transport, Tsinghua University and Hubei Communications Investment Group won the above awards together.Being able to win awards alongside these authoritative organizations also fully confirms Fluence's technological advantages and innovation capabilities in this field.

Coincidentally, while the road construction industry is full of harvest, Fluence has also achieved great success in the field of rural sewage.

In addition,Chen Xi, Director of Technology and R&D of Fluence Water, also won the "Village Water Environment Application Innovation Core Person Award" issued by the 12th Village Water Environment Alliance, in recognition of his outstanding contributions in the field of village sewage.

▼Chen Xi, Director of Technology and R&D of Fluence Water, won the "National Power Person Award for Water Environment Application Innovation in Villages and Towns"

It is understood thatChen Xi is the main person in charge of Fluence sewage treatment equipment development and project application. He led the team to develop a series of products of MABR membrane aeration bioreactors for sewage treatment in villages and towns, which solved the pipeline construction cost faced by sewage in villages and towns. , design, compliance, operation and other issues.

Fluence has achieved remarkable results in the fields of highway sewage treatment projects and village sewage treatment. The winning of these awards once again demonstrates its outstanding technical strength.

2

Deeply cultivate China's rural sewage market

Solve the mismatch between the actual population and the designed water volume

Like other environmental protection market segments, the development of the rural sewage market is driven by policies.As early as in the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan", it was clearly proposed to "encourage towns and large-scale villages to build centralized sewage treatment facilities, integrate sewage from surrounding villages and towns into urban sewage collection pipe networks for unified treatment, and promote Decentralized, low-cost, and easy-to-maintain construction of sewage treatment facilities".

Therefore,Fluence began to pay attention to the sewage treatment problem in rural China in 2012. In order to develop this huge potential market, they have conducted years of research and preparation.Finally, in 2016, Fluence took the lead and officially entered the country. At the same time, it set up a MABR production base in Changzhou, and set up sales offices in Beijing and Shanghai to fully develop the rural sewage treatment market in China.

In 2018, the Changzhou production line of Fluence was officially put into operation. In 2019, two additional factories in Yiyang, Hunan and Panjin, Liaoning were invested to meet the needs of the regional market.

▼France factory production line

The decisiveness and firmness of this decision laid a solid foundation for the rapid development of Fluence in China.

Up to now, Fluence's total investment in China has exceeded 20 million US dollars, and it has initially achieved profitability.

After being deeply involved in China's rural sewage market for many years, Fluence found that China's rural sewage treatment is facing many unique problems, such as high discharge standards, small treatment scale, scattered sites, and difficulties in operation and maintenance.Among them,the problem of "mismatch between actual population and designed water volume" is particularly prominent.

Due to the high mobility of the rural population in China, the registered population is one thing, but the actual resident population is another.Usually young people go out to work, and there are basically no people in the village.However, when major holidays such as the Spring Festival, May 1st, and 11th come, the population of the village will increase sharply in a short period of time, which will cause difficulties in sewage treatment.

It is difficult for sewage treatment companies to balance the contradiction between the design water volume and the actual water volume. If the water volume is designed according to the household registration population, the actual water intake will not meet the design requirements most of the time, resulting in excessive energy consumption. ; However, if it is designed according to the actual water volume at ordinary times, it will be overloaded during the holidays, causing great risks and hidden dangers.

How to resolve this contradiction?Fluence believes thatfactors such as one-time investment, effect stability, and operational feasibility should be fully considered in product concept and design, rather than design and operation being separated.

Taking Fluence MABR technology as an example, it is an advanced membrane aerated biofilm reactor. By changing the traditional aeration method and the operation method of biological filler, it can greatly reduce energy consumption, and at the same time, it is more conducive to the overall biodesorption. The process of nitrogen and phosphorus removal is carried out.

MABR technology has several advantages.First of all,it is highly adaptableand can be customized according to different sites and user needs, and is suitable for sewage treatment of various scales and applications, so that it can flexibly adapt to different sewage treatment needs; secondly, it adoptsmodularization Design, with high flexibility, low installation and operating costs, can be expanded or reduced in size at any time according to demand, which gives it an advantage in responding to changing sewage treatment needs; third,low operating costs, because no need to use chemicals Chemicals will not cause secondary pollution to the environment, thereby reducing operating costs; fourth,MABR technology can protect the environment, the effluent quality is stable, and can treat and recycle sewage to reduce pollution to the natural environment; finally, itsThe operation is very simple, fully automatic operation, basically no need to be on duty, and the villagers can maintain it by themselves. At the same time, remote monitoring and data analysis can be realized, which improves its operational efficiency.

▼Fronts Huoqiu project, 15 townships contiguous sewage treatment, the total scale is 8100m³/d, and the individual scale is 500-600m³/d

MABR technology has flexibility and simplicity, and its biggest advantage lies in the application of plug and play.It can be adjusted according to the actual water volume, and can be started or closed at any time, which effectively solves the problem of the mismatch between the actual population and the designed water volume in rural sewage treatment.

3

More than 300 rural sewage cases

China has become the world's largest MABR membrane market

At present,MABR technology is still a relatively new water treatment technology. Only three companies in the world have relevant research and application on it, and Fluence is one of them.

As a new technology, will there be any difficulties in promoting it?Especially for foreign companies like Fluence, will they be "unaccustomed" to the Chinese market?Yang Wangzheng believes that this is not a problem.The success of foreign companies in the Chinese market mainly depends on the company's technological adaptability and attitude towards the market. If the company's technology is advanced and can effectively solve practical problems, it only needs to take the market seriously and spend time. To study and adjust, you will not encounter the problem of "acclimatization".

Fluence, as a foreign company, was deeply aware of this when it entered the Chinese market in 2017.They did not directly move the existing products to China, but spent nearly half a year in-depth understanding of the water quality and discharge characteristics of rural sewage in China, and communicated with the Israeli R&D team to continuously improve the product configuration until the evaluation results can meet Requirements, it was officially introduced to the market.

At the same time,Fluence's team is almost entirely composed of local Chinese talents, and their experience in China also enables the company to easily adapt to the needs of the Chinese market.

For example, when a customer requests a solution within a short period of time, Fluence can respond quickly, thanks to the fact that they have been deeply integrated into the Chinese local market in terms of corporate culture and industry habits, and have localized characteristics.

▼France's MABR production base in Changzhou

Since 2012, Fluence began to pay attention to China's rural sewage treatment market. Fluence's MABR rural sewage treatment project started from the Chinese market and has achieved rapid development.They have completed more than 350 rural sewage cases so far, 90% of which are in China.

In September 2022, Fluence's MABR rural sewage treatment project was certified by the expert group of the Municipal Construction Committee in Hubu Village, Xihu District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, becoming the first batch and the first one in Hangzhou to achieve "zero direct discharge" of rural domestic sewage village.At present, in Zhejiang, Fluence has successfully implemented 8 "Zero Direct Discharge Village" projects. These projects have adopted MABR technology and buried design to ensure that the noise, odor and water quality in the treatment process meet the relevant standards.The treated tail water can be reused for landscaping around the site, and even raise fish in the tail water pond.The entire treatment facility is integrated with the surrounding scenery, forming a beautiful scenery of Jiangnan water town.

In addition, Fluence has launched several important projects in other places in China.Among them,in Anhui, they created the world's largest MABR upgrade case, with a daily processing capacity of 20,000 tons.In Qinghai Lake, they built the largest MABR sewage treatment plant in high-altitude areas, with a daily treatment capacity of 3,000 tons.At the same time, on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, they also built the highest-altitude MABR sewage treatment facility, which is located in the Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture at an altitude of 4,200 meters.These projects can not only improve the local environment, but also contribute to the protection of the source of the Three Rivers and the Zhonghua Water Tower, ensuring that "one river of clear water flows eastward".

▼The world's highest MABR project, 4200 meters above sea level

Fluence's cases in China cover a wide range, including from Jilin, Liaoning to Guangdong, Fujian, etc., covering high-altitude areas above 4,000 meters above sea level and cold areas below minus 25 degrees, and the processing scale varies from 5 tons to tens of thousands of tons. wait.These rich data provide Fluence with valuable experience and data, enabling it to continuously optimize technology and develop more advanced products.

At present, the Chinese market has become the global leader in MABR, a new sewage treatment technology.The Fluence China team has supported the installation and commissioning of projects in countries and regions such as the Philippines, Cambodia, Europe and South Korea.

Take the two Cambodian Sihanoukville sewage treatment projects signed in 2020 as an example, with a total scale of 12,400 tons per day. One of the 7,200 tons of sewage treatment plants is priced as high as USD1,200 per square meter due to the shortage of local land.Therefore, when designing, compactness and land saving became the primary consideration. Fluence designed the sewage plant in the narrow and long river along the Sihanoukville coast. This requires a special anti-settling and anti-seawater corrosion design to ensure that it does not affect the river. flow direction.

From sales engineering civil design to installation and commissioning, Fluence China team is in charge of it alone.

"From a global perspective, China is definitely ranked first in terms of MABR technology application cases."Yang Wangzheng said.

From April 19th to 21st, the 24th China IE Expo 2023 will be held at the Shanghai New International Expo Center. At that time, Fluence will also make an appearance at the IE Expo to conduct in-depth exchanges with everyone.

Welcome everyone to visitbooth A30/B33 in Hall E1 of the Expo, and learn about Fluence's advanced environmental protection technology and equipment up close. I believe it will definitely make your trip worthwhile.