HKUST Receives Prestigious HKAEE Gold Award
A team led by Prof. Guanghao Chen has won the Gold Award at the 2018 Hong Kong Awards for Environmental Excellence (HKAEE). Prof Chen is Chair Professor of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Director of the Chinese National Engineering Research Center for Control and Treatment of Heavy Metal Pollution (Hong Kong Branch), and the award recognizes his team’s innovative SANI® process - a paradigm-shift technology for Hong Kong sewage management.
In conventional biological sewage treatment processes, microbes grow rapidly, and large amounts of sludge are produced. Hong Kong, for example, generates about 1,200 tonnes of sludge every day, and the sludge is either incinerated at T·park or disposed of in landfills. The problem with this is that T·Park will reach designed capacity by 2030, and landfills have limited lifespans. Any effort to minimize sewage’s impact on the environment has to tackle the problem at its root—sludge production must be curbed.
The SANI® (Sulfate Reduction, Autotrophic Denitrification and Nitrification Integrated) process, an innovative biological sewage treatment process, was developed at HKUST. The SANI® process makes use of highly efficient, low sludge-yielding microbes and sulfate in seawater to eliminate pollutants, thereby reducing sludge production. As a result, the SANI® process eliminates a significant portion of the sludge-handling costs and relieves burden on the already scarce land supply in Hong Kong.
Research on the SANI® process began in 2004 in a laboratory at HKUST, followed by joint testing with the Drainage Services Department (DSD) at the Tung Chung Pumping Station between 2007 and 2010. From 2013 to 2015, with the support of the Innovation and Technology Commission, DSD and other private parties, HKUST launched a full-scale trial of the SANI® process at the Shatin Sewage Treatment Works (STSTW), and between 2015 and 2017, an extension study was conducted on the performance of the full-scale pilot plant at STSTW: the results have confirmed reductions of 60-70% in sludge production, 20-30% in energy consumption and 30-40% in space, compared with conventional sewage treatment processes. Upon successful completion of the trial, the DSD would consider applying the revolutionary technology in the territory. Successful demonstration may also lead to the future adoption of the SANI technology in other parts of the world.
The HKAEE are organized by the Environmental Protection Department and the Environmental Campaign Committee to reward innovations that tackle environmental challenges. At the April 29 presentation ceremony held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Prof. Chen received the well-deserved award from the honorable Mr. Matthew Cheung Kin-Chung, Acting Chief Executive of the HKSAR.
