[Chinese Mainland] Wuhan Erlangmiao Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrading and Capping Project EPC Won: RMB 634 Million, Capacity Upgraded from 240,000 m³/d to Quasi-Class IV Standard, with Concurrent Construction of On-site Reclaimed Water Utilization Proj

Lead Summary: 9月4日, the bid result for the design, procurement, and construction general contracting (EPC) of the Wuhan Erlangmiao Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrading and Capping Project has been announced, with the consortium winning the bid at an amount of 63359.0751万 yuan (approximately 6.34亿 yuan). The project maintains a design capacity of 24万 m³/d, upgrading the effluent from Grade 1B to the Quasi-Class IV standard, adding a "Magnetic Coagulation High-Efficiency Sedimentation Tank + (Denitrification) Deep-Bed Filter" advanced treatment process, with a total capping area of approximately 71876 square meters, and simultaneously constructing a Reclaimed Water Utilization Project within the plant area.

Bid Information: Four-Unit Consortium Wins 6.34亿 yuan EPC Contract

According to the bid result published on the Hubei Provincial Public Resource Trading Platform, the EPC bid section for the Wuhan Erlangmiao Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrading and Capping Project was won by a consortium composed of Wuhan Water Engineering Construction Co., Ltd., Wuhan Municipal Engineering Design & Research Institute Co., Ltd., Wuhan Hanshui High-Tech Technology Co., Ltd., and Wuhan Yucheng Qingshan Municipal Engineering Co., Ltd., with a winning bid amount of 63359.0751 万 yuan. The tenderee is Wuhan Urban Drainage Development Co., Ltd.

The EPC tender scope covers preliminary design (including budget estimate), construction drawing design and other related services for the project, as well as civil construction, equipment procurement, installation and commissioning and other accompanying services—that is, full-chain turnkey delivery from design to commissioning, which is also the mainstream contracting method for large-scale existing wastewater treatment plant upgrades at present.

Upgrade Core: From Grade 1B to Quasi-Class IV, Adding Magnetic Coagulation + Deep-Bed Filter

The core of this project is the leap in effluent standards. According to the construction scale description, the wastewater treatment plant maintains a design capacity of 24 万 m³/d, and the effluent quality is upgraded from Grade 1B to the Quasi-Class IV standard of the Environmental Quality Standards for Surface Water (GB 3838—2002). The specific criteria are:

• Main indicators aligned with Surface Water Class IV—the main effluent quality indicators CODcr, NH₃-N, TP meet the Class IV water standard of the Environmental Quality Standards for Surface Water (GB 3838—2002);
• Other indicators follow Grade 1A—the remaining indicators follow the Grade 1A standard of the Discharge Standard of Pollutants for Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants (GB 18918—2002).

From Grade 1B to Quasi-Class IV, the difficulty mainly lies in the simultaneous advanced removal of Total Phosphorus and Total Nitrogen: the TP limit for Grade 1A is typically 0.5 mg/L, while the TP limit for Surface Water Class IV is 0.3 mg/L (0.1 mg/L for lakes and reservoirs), significantly raising the stability requirements for phosphorus removal processes; for Total Nitrogen, sufficient denitrification carbon source and retention time are required.

The process solution proposed by the project is the addition of a "Magnetic Coagulation High-Efficiency Sedimentation Tank + (Denitrification) Deep-Bed Filter" advanced treatment process. The rationale for this combination is:

• Magnetic Coagulation High-Efficiency Sedimentation Tank—by dosing magnetic powder to enhance floc density, it greatly improves sedimentation separation speed and surface loading rate, occupies a small footprint, has strong resistance to shock loading, and delivers outstanding advanced removal of Total Phosphorus, making it particularly suitable for existing plant sites with limited land availability;
• (Denitrification) Deep-Bed Filter—while filtering out Suspended Solids, it also performs denitrification for nitrogen removal, creating an anoxic environment within the filter media layer through external carbon source dosing to achieve advanced reduction of Total Nitrogen, making it a conventional mainstay unit in Quasi-Class IV upgrades.

At the same time, the project will also upgrade and renovate the secondary treatment section, construct new structures including a pretreatment room, sludge dewatering room, comprehensive equipment room, mechanical repair room, transformer and distribution room, comprehensive building, and advanced treatment comprehensive tank, and renovate existing structures such as biological tanks, secondary clarifiers, blower rooms, and sludge pump rooms, with a total building area of approximately 12410 square meters; supporting production equipment including coarse and fine screens, chemical dosing equipment, coagulation mixing equipment, deodorization equipment, sludge thickeners, sludge filter presses, blowers, and pumps will be installed, and blowers in the blower room, mixers in biological tanks, and ancillary facilities will be replaced.

Capping and Deodorization: A 71876 Square Meter NIMBY Mitigation Project

Another main line running parallel to the upgrade is capping and deodorization. The project requires capping the upper parts of the existing biological tanks and secondary clarifiers, including the main capping structure and internal supporting facilities: the existing biological tanks and secondary clarifiers adopt portal steel structure capping, while newly built structures such as the pretreatment room, sludge dewatering workshop, and advanced treatment comprehensive tank adopt concrete capping, with a total capping area of approximately 71876 square meters, and supporting deodorization equipment will be installed.

In urban districts with a high degree of urbanization, odor and noise nuisance from existing wastewater treatment plants is a typical source of "NIMBY" conflict. Large-scale covering combined with odor control systems is essentially transforming a wastewater treatment plant from "environmental infrastructure" into "municipal facility coexisting with surrounding urban functions" — this portion of investment often does not generate direct effluent quality benefits, but it is crucial to the project's social acceptability and subsequent operating permits.

Resource Recovery Extension Line: Reclaimed Water Utilization Built in Parallel, Photovoltaic and Heat Pump Projects Listed Separately

It is worth noting that this project explicitly includes the construction of Reclaimed Water utilization and low-altitude economy works, while the photovoltaic power generation system project, sewage-source heat pump project, and temporary green space construction on the east side are separately approved, and the tender scope also states "synchronously construct the plant area's Reclaimed Water utilization works."

This arrangement reflects an emerging industry paradigm: the renovation of large wastewater treatment plants is no longer a single "upgrade to meet standards" project, but a composite renovation of upgrade + odor control covering + Reclaimed Water Reuse + clean energy. The tailwater from a plant with a capacity of 24 万 m³/d is a stable "second water source" for the city, usable for municipal miscellaneous use, river ecological replenishment, and industrial cooling; while photovoltaics and sewage-source heat pumps respectively convert the plant's rooftop space and tailwater thermal energy into energy revenue, offsetting the increase in power consumption brought by the upgrade.

Industry Observation: Existing Plant Upgrade and Renovation Remains the Most Certain Market Mainline

For the water treatment industry, the signal significance of the Erlangmiao project lies in three points:

• Considerable investment intensity per plant — 6.34 亿 yuan corresponding to 24 万 m³/d capacity, with unit capacity investment of approximately 2640 元/m³·d, of which a considerable proportion is directed to covering, odor control, and resource recovery supporting facilities, indicating that the connotation of renovation has expanded from "meeting standards" to "environmentally friendly + resource circulation";
• Process combinations trending toward convergence — the combination of magnetic coagulation high-efficiency sedimentation + Denitrification deep-bed filter is already a mature configuration in quasi-Class IV upgrades, and the focus of competition has shifted to system integration capability, footprint control, and operating energy consumption;
• Reclaimed Water becoming standard — synchronously supporting Reclaimed Water utilization works in new, renovation, and expansion projects is changing from a "bonus item" to a "mandatory item," and the synchronized planning of pipe networks and water intake points is the key to determining whether the reuse rate can be realized.

TIANYI TECH (TIANYI LIMITED) believes that with the continuous advancement of Yangtze River protection and urban water environment quality assessment, quasi-Class IV upgrades of existing wastewater treatment plants in major cities will remain one of the most certain market increments in the coming years. We continuously track the process routes and investment structures of such benchmark projects in the fields of wastewater treatment upgrade and renovation and Reclaimed Water Reuse, and provide clients with technical information and consulting services ranging from process comparison and selection, advanced treatment unit configuration, to Reclaimed Water Reuse scheme design, helping clients achieve the optimal balance between investment and operating costs under compliance constraints.

About TIANYI TECH: TIANYI TECH (TIANYI LIMITED) has long focused on global frontier developments in Water Environment Governance and water resource recycling, deeply cultivating technical information and industry services in the fields of wastewater treatment and Reclaimed Water Reuse, and is committed to providing timely and professional industry observations and solution references for clients and industry partners.