[Mainland China] First Industrial Park BOOT Project Under the National New PPP Mechanism Reaches Financial Close: Zhongjie Petrochemical Industrial Park Wastewater Treatment and Reclaimed Water Reuse Concession, 30-Year Term, Service Fee Unit Price of RMB

Lead Summary: In early 9月, the wastewater treatment and reclaimed water reuse franchise project of the Petrochemical Industrial Park in Zhongjie Industrial Park, Bohai New Area, Cangzhou, Hebei, completed its bid award and implementation: the project adopts the BOOT (Build-Own-Operate-Transfer) model, with a franchise period of 30年, and an initial unit price for wastewater treatment services of 17.85元/ton; this phase builds a dual system of 1万 m³/d wastewater treatment + 0.5万 m³/d reclaimed water reuse, and the high-quality demineralized water produced is directly reused for production processes and boiler make-up water of enterprises in the park. This is the first industrial park BOOT project implemented under the new national PPP mechanism.

Project Overview: Integrated "Treatment + Reuse" of High-Salinity, High-Concentration Petrochemical Wastewater

Zhongjie Industrial Park was formerly Zhongjie Friendship Farm, personally named by Premier Zhou Enlai in 1956年, and was incorporated into the five major functional park system of Huanghua City, Cangzhou Bohai New Area in 2022年, focusing on high-precision and advanced petrochemical industries such as deep oil processing, fine chemicals, and specialty chemicals. Petrochemical production wastewater generally has the three major characteristics of high salinity, high concentration, and poor biodegradability, and is recognized in the industry as a highly difficult industrial wastewater treatment scenario.

The core parameters of the franchise project implemented this time are as follows:

• Implementation model — BOOT (Build-Own-Operate-Transfer), with a franchise period of 30年 (including the preliminary and construction periods), making it the first industrial park BOOT project under the new national PPP mechanism.
• Construction scale — a new wastewater treatment plant and supporting pipe network, with a wastewater treatment scale of 1万 cubic meters/day and a reclaimed water reuse capacity of 0.5万 cubic meters/day.
• Commercial conditions — the initial unit price for wastewater treatment services is 17.85元/ton.
• Construction content — covering four major sections: wastewater treatment, sludge treatment, reclaimed water reuse, and supporting pipe networks, including process units such as a high-salinity equalization tank, high-salinity emergency tank, air flotation, hydrolysis tank, anoxic/aerobic tank, secondary clarifier, Fenton fluidized bed, high-density sedimentation tank, denitrification deep-bed filter, and disinfection tank.

Process Route: A Full-Chain Closed Loop to Solve the High-Salinity Wastewater Challenge

In response to the water quality pain points of the park, the project owner tailored an integrated comprehensive treatment solution of "quality-based collection, graded treatment, and cascade reuse," building a three-stage full-chain closed-loop process system:

• Front-end precise pretreatment — equipped with a differentiated wastewater collection and transmission/distribution pipe network system, separately collecting ordinary wastewater and high-concentration wastewater, with high-salinity equalization tanks and emergency tanks buffering water quality and quantity shocks, and units such as air flotation and hydrolysis reducing characteristic pollutants first.
• Mid-end biochemical coupling with advanced oxidation — after the anoxic/aerobic biological system removes organic matter and ammonia nitrogen, a combination of Fenton fluidized bed + high-density sedimentation + denitrification deep-bed filter treats poorly degradable organic matter and Total Nitrogen, effectively solving common industry challenges such as high-salinity shock, high-concentration COD exceedance, and residual poorly degradable organic matter.
• Back-end membrane-based deep purification and reuse — the reclaimed water reuse system adopts the route of "Ultrafiltration + security filter + activated coke + Reverse Osmosis + EDI," further desalinating and purifying the compliant tailwater to produce high-quality demineralized water, which can be directly reused in the production processes and boiler make-up water links of enterprises in the park.

Significance of the Model: A "New Mechanism Sample" for Industrial Park Water Services

In the view of the industry, the signal significance of this project's implementation is no less than the engineering itself.

First, it validates the payment path for industrial park franchising. After the implementation of the new PPP mechanism, franchising has become the dominant model for government-enterprise cooperation in the infrastructure sector, but there had been no precedent for a packaged BOOT project of "wastewater treatment + reclaimed water reuse" in an industrial park. The combination of a wastewater treatment service fee unit price of 17.85元/ton and a franchise period of 30年 provides a benchmarkable price anchor and term reference for similar park projects.

Second, it marks the shift of industrial water services from engineering delivery to ownership and operation. The project adopts "Build-Own-Operate-Transfer" rather than traditional EPC or entrusted operation. The social capital party owns the facility property rights within the 30年 cycle and bears full life-cycle performance responsibility, with revenue coming from long-term service fees rather than one-time engineering payments — this requires participants to possess three capabilities simultaneously: investment and financing, process technology, and long-cycle operation.

Third, it turns reclaimed water reuse into a rigid industrial demand. The 0.5万 m³/d reclaimed water reuse system is designed and constructed simultaneously with the wastewater treatment system, with high-quality demineralized water directly supplied to production processes and boiler make-up water, incorporating the park's water resource recycling rate into the project performance assessment logic, directly echoing the resource endowment of Bohai New Area's coastal water scarcity.

Industry Impact: Industrial Park Water Environment Governance Enters the Second Half

In recent years, policies on wastewater treatment in industrial parks have been continuously strengthened: the Ministry of Ecology and Environment's "Technical Guidelines for the Formulation of Water Pollutant Discharge Standards for Centralized Wastewater Treatment Facilities in Industrial Parks" has been implemented on 2026年9月1日, and the "one park, one policy" approach has become the basic method for wastewater management and control in industrial parks; eight ministries and commissions jointly issued a document requiring the promotion of the construction and upgrading of centralized wastewater treatment facilities in industrial parks around farmland, and the advancement of full collection and full treatment of wastewater in industrial parks.

Driven by both policies and models, the integrated project of "centralized wastewater treatment + quality-based reclamation and reuse" in industrial parks is expected to become the main track of the industrial water market during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period. For the industrial chain, participants that master core processes such as pretreatment of high-salinity and high-concentration wastewater, Advanced Oxidation / AOP, and dual-membrane deep desalination, and can adapt to the long-cycle operational assessment of 30年, will seize the initiative in this round of market-oriented development of water services in industrial parks.

About TIANYI TECH: TIANYI LIMITED has long focused on the frontiers of global water environment governance and water resource recycling, and is deeply engaged in technical information and industry services in the fields of wastewater treatment and Reclaimed Water Reuse, committed to providing timely and professional industry observations and solution references for customers and industry partners.