FLC Talk X Hubei ITEST Chairwoman Du Hui: Prospects for sewage treatment in expressway service areasIntroduction: Hubei Xiaogan Expressway Service Area Project is one of the classic cases of Fluence's business in China. Since the project was completed in 2018, it has been field-tested by project visitors from all over the country and even from overseas. The project solved the painful point of high-concentration domestic sewage treatment in the expressway service area and became a demonstration project of Fluence's sewage treatment in the highway area of China and the world. It has a benchmark effect and has become the important cornerstone of two companies cooperation.Recently, the editor was fortunate to meet with the Chairwoman of Hubei ITEST, Ms. Du Hui, to talk about the cooperation and future prospects of smart detection and Fluence's sewage treatment business in the expressway field.
Q: We understand that smart detection has been committed to the technical services of highways, bridges, tunnels and related facilities in the province. What makes your company pay attention to traffic and environmental protection?A: This question has to mention the Hubei Provincial Transportation Investment Group, where the intelligent testing is located. It is an investment and financing platform of the provincial government. The main task is the construction of transportation infrastructure, including roads, railways, airports and so on. It has the only company specializing in transportation and environmental protection - Xiecheng Environmental Protection Company. Tracing back to history, its predecessor was the Hubei Provincial Highway Environmental Monitoring Station, which was established in 1997. At that time, Hubei Province built the first World Bank loan project, which is now the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macau Expressway. According to the requirements of the World Bank, it is necessary to carry out environmental monitoring during the construction period, which led to the birth of this entity. After more than 20 years of development, it is dedicated to environmental protection in the transportation sector.
Q: What is the opportunity for smart detection to be connected to the rich world?A: A pair of service areas will be set up every 50 kilometers on the expressway to facilitate the travel of the passengers. In the service area, it is inevitable that certain sewage will be generated from our catering, public toilets and other flushing sewage. In response to these sewage, the competent authorities of the industry clearly require compliance with the discharge. In recent years, as the country's requirements for environmental protection are getting higher and higher, and the people's requirements for environmentally friendly living environment are getting higher and higher, the requirements for sewage treatment in expressway service areas are getting higher and higher. To this end, in the first half of 2018, we conducted a comprehensive environmental status survey on the province's expressway service areas, and found that there are many common problems in the sewage treatment of service areas, of which water treatment is now widely used. Technology is not a good match for the current characteristics of sewage in our highway service area. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce new technologies to promote the sewage treatment in the service area.In the process of searching for new technologies, Smart Detection learned about Fluence and its innovative MABR aerated membrane biofilm reactor technology, and learned about its advantages in wastewater treatment, such as good nitrogen and phosphorus removal and long service life. The characteristics of cycle, product modular design and remote control system are highly targeted to the sewage discharge in the service area, which is in line with our requirements. We chose to verify the technology in the construction of the Xiaogan service area on the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macau Expressway.
Q: What are the key factors that contributed to the formal cooperation between the two parties?A: After the pilot project of Xiaogan Service Area was completed and put into production, it experienced the test of the two peaks of National Day and Spring Festival. The water quality of the effluent reached the national standard A standard. The actual operation results confirmed that the MABR technology is suitable for sewage in the highway area. Dealing with this is an important key for the two sides to establish a formal partnership.The picture shows the sewage treatment project of Xiaogan Service Area of Hubei Expressway, with a scale of 200m3/day, and the effluent meets the national standard A standard.Future expectations
Q: What are the expectations for the current and future cooperation between the two parties?A: The cooperation between the two sides can be said to be a cross-cultural cooperation between China and the West. Although there are many background differences between the two sides, the environmental protection work and direction in the transportation field and market awareness can reach a consensus. This is an important factor for the two sides to maintain sustained cooperation. In the future, there will be a lot of room for cooperation on further optimization of technology and further promotion of the market.
Q: What are your unique views and opinions on the current status of China's environmental protection industry, especially in the field of sewage treatment in the transportation sector?A: In the field of transportation, with the increasing emphasis on environmental protection, there is actually a lot of work to do. Taking sewage treatment as an example, the competent authorities of the industry require all service areas to achieve emission standards in 2020. There are currently
3,000 pairs of expressway service areas in the country. As the mileage of highways increases, this number will continue to increase, and the market is very large.Since the completion of our (Xiaogan Service Area) pilot, we have received the peers from many provinces that have come to investigate. We can feel the power brought by technology. We have also reached a cooperation consensus with Fluence China, and will discuss more in the future. Develop more cooperation models, optimize technologies and products to suit different projects, and maintain a longer-term, stable partnership, so that excellent technology can be more sustainable in transportation and environmental protection.
