High Tech Helps Improve Water QualityEfforts to boost environmental protection in a bid to safeguard the sustainable economic development of the country have taken another step forward.Among the hurdles ahead, water quality supervision and sewage treatment are given priority during the 10th Five-Year Plan £¨2001-05£© period as China takes steps to improve the condition of about 230,000 enterprises listed by the State Environmental Protection Administration £¨SEPA£© as key water pollution sources. Traditional water treatment uses potassium permanganate and potassium dichromic acid, which in turn cause pollution during the process. New technology, jointly developed by the Bluestar Water Treatment Technology Co Ltd and Tsinghua University, is the first in China that controls water quality using biochemical principles. The technology is based on chemical oxygen demand £¨COD£©, biochemcial oxygen demand £¨BOD£© and total organic carbon £¨TOC£© in the water. Low cost and quicker than previous technologies, it can be used to replace products imported from Western countries. Currently, the technology has gained two national patents and been installed in the State-level water quality automatic supervision stations such as Chaohu Lake in East China's Anhui Province and Songhuajiang River and Helongjiang River in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province and major pollution-discharging sources. Jiang Hong, division chief of the science and technology department of SEPA, said the technology has proved effective in supervising pollutants in the water. But ways to detect heavy metals and other pollutants in organic waste water still need to be tapped. Sources: China Daily |
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