Through the treatment and recycling of wastewater discharged by enterprises, high-value heavy metals can be retrieved, thus “turning waste into treasure". The sewage refining project independently developed by the Institute of New Materials and Industrial Technology of Wenzhou University has entered the final test stage and is expected to be officially put into use in the enterprise in the middle of this month.

In the laboratory of the New Materials and Industrial Technology Research Institute of Wenzhou University, the reporter saw the electrochemical membrane separation equipment that had just been commissioned. Professor Zhang Weiming who is in charge of the project, told the reporter that electrochemical membrane separation equipment uses membrane separation technology to classify various substances in wastewater containing different pollutants, which is equivalent to "garbage classification" in water. Zhang Weiming said that the wastewater from some enterprises in our city contains quite expensive pollutants such as copper. Through electrochemical membrane separation equipment, the useful components in the wastewater can be decomposed into copper oxide solids and free acids. Copper oxide can be directly recycled and reused, and acid can also be reprocessed and reused.

Zhang Weiming told reporters that in order to make the entire process safer and more reliable, technicians have used "Internet of Things" in the separation equipment, allowing real-time remote monitoring. At present, the price of this set of equipment is more than 1 million yuan, and the designed operating life is about 6 years. It can recover copper materials worth of more than 600,000 yuan every year and bring more than 3 million yuan of direct economic benefits for the enterprise in six years.

The electrochemical membrane separation equipment will be firstly applied to Zhejiang Fuda Alloy Co., Ltd., which mainly produces electrical contact materials. Dai Lintao, the technical director of the company, told reporters that in the past, the company mainly employed a third party to process wastewater. Because of the relatively simple technology, only part of the silver and copper were extracted. However, after the equipment is installed and operated, it can save nearly 500,000 yuan in cost a year.

The Institute of New Materials and Industrial Technology of Wenzhou University currently has 8 innovation teams, and has built 10 platforms such as the National Talent Introduction Demonstration Base, Zhejiang International Science and Technology Cooperation Base, and Wenzhou Key Laboratory. They have undertaken nearly 30 scientific research projects at the national, ministerial and provincial level, applied for nearly 80 invention patents, and carried out scientific research cooperation with more than 50 enterprises across the country.