Beijing Huaifang Water Reclamation Plant

Built and operated by Beijing Drainage Group in Fengtai District, Beijing, with a planned catchment of about 137 km². The plant is fully underground with an 18-hectare constructed wetland above and began operation on 27 October 2016. Rated at 600,000 m³/d with 450,000 m² of floor area, it is Asia's largest underground water reclamation plant, paired with 1,220 t/d of sludge treatment using thermal hydrolysis, advanced anaerobic digestion and filter-press dewatering. The MBR-based process, followed by ozone and UV disinfection, delivers effluent meeting Class IV of the surface water standard. It supplies about 190 million m³ of reclaimed water a year for river landscape replenishment, municipal uses and industrial cooling, saving roughly 240 mu of land compared with a conventional above-ground plant, and won the IWA Project Innovation Award gold medal in 2018. Sources: dowater.com (28 Oct 2016); CNR (8 Aug 2019). Image: MBR membrane tank at the Huaifang Water Reclamation Plant (photo: CNR)