1
2026-10-08Core Facts: 2026年8月31日, the reclaimed water supply project of Huadian Zibo Thermal Power Co., Ltd.'s ultra-supercritical coal-fired thermal power unit project has been successfully completed and put into operation. The project has a total investment of RMB 1.3亿, with 8.9 kilometers of newly built reclaimed water transmission pipelines, a designed daily water supply capacity of 5万 cubic meters, prioritizing the guarantee of 3万 cubic meters of production water per day for Huadian Zibo Thermal Power, with a reserved margin of 2万 cubic meters. After being put into operation, it can replace conventional water sources by more than 1000 million cubic meters annually, driving the scale of industrial reclaimed water utilization in Zibo City to increase by 48% compared with 2025年.
I. An Old Industrial City with Per Capita Water Resources of 300 Cubic Meters
Zibo is a typical resource-scarce city — per capita water resources are only about 300 cubic meters, far below the internationally recognized water scarcity warning line, and also significantly below the national average. At the same time, it is an important industrial base, with dense concentration of high water-consuming industries such as power generation, chemicals, ceramics, and building materials, and the contradiction between water supply and demand has long been prominent. Under such conditions, "seeking development space from reclaimed water" is not a multiple-choice question, but a mandatory one.
Huadian Zibo Thermal Power Co., Ltd. is the core power source point of Zibo's southern power grid, and also undertakes the function of a centralized heating source for the urban area, with an installed capacity of 700 MW and enormous daily water demand. A staff member involved in project coordination described it this way: "The power plant's water demand is like a well that can never be filled." Against the backdrop of increasingly tightening conventional water source quotas, finding a stable "second water source" for it has become a key link in ensuring regional energy security and industrial operation.
II. Project Overview Crossing the City: RMB 1.3亿, 8.9 Kilometers, 5万 Cubic Meters/Day
The reclaimed water supply project completed this time is undertaken by Zibo Water Group. The core project parameters are as follows:
- Total investment — RMB 1.3亿.
- Transmission distance — newly built reclaimed water transmission pipelines of 8.9 kilometers.
- Design scale — daily water supply capacity of 5万 cubic meters, with sufficient water supply scale and complete supporting facilities.
- Allocation mode — adopting "allocation on demand, margin reserved": prioritizing the guarantee of 3万 cubic meters of production water demand per day for Huadian Zibo Thermal Power, while reserving a daily water supply margin of 2万 cubic meters to meet the future water demand expansion of industrial projects in the eastern area of Zibo's central urban district.
The water source end is taken from urban sewage that has undergone multiple stages of advanced purification treatment, with stable water quality meeting standards and satisfying industrial reuse standards; the reclaimed water is precisely delivered to the industrial plant area through dedicated water transmission pipelines, replacing traditional water sources for industrial cooling production, which not only breaks the bottleneck of enterprise production water use, but also displaces and releases high-quality conventional water resources.
III. Construction Difficulties: "Pulling Teeth from a Tiger's Mouth"
The reclaimed water from the water source end to the user end is not a straight line. The pipelines need to start from the sewage treatment plant, cross urban expressways, avoid existing underground pipelines, and span multiple administrative districts, and every section is not easy. Among them, the section at the intersection of Changguo Road and Zhenxing Road in Zhangdian District, Zibo, is the most troublesome — the construction area is located below the roadbed of an urban expressway, with dense traffic flow and heavy traffic load, and the stability of the road structure is directly related to the safety of citizens' travel.
A on-site construction manager described it this way: "Construction below an expressway is like pulling teeth from a tiger's mouth, not even a millimeter off is acceptable." The requirement repeatedly emphasized by the engineering team is: earthwork backfilling must strictly comply with municipal road construction specifications, eliminating quality problems such as uneven backfilling, inadequate compaction, and substandard settlement, ensuring that the road restoration standard is not lower than the original design. Ultimately, through refined management and control, this key node was successfully completed, clearing obstacles for the entire line to be put into water supply on schedule. The core period of project construction coincided with the high temperatures of midsummer, and the builders faced the dual test of scorching sun and frequent rainfall.
IV. Benefits: More than 700 Million Tons of Reclaimed Water Replacement Annually, Regional Industrial Reclaimed Water Scale Increased by 48%
After the project is officially put into operation, for Huadian Zibo Thermal Power it means a fundamental change in the production water use pattern — reclaimed water becomes the main water source for the circulating cooling system, and the enterprise can achieve an optimized utilization volume of more than 700 million tons of reclaimed water annually; from the regional level, it can replace more than 1000 million cubic meters of conventional water sources annually, greatly reducing the intake of fresh water resources.
More noteworthy is the driving effect: with the support of this project, the scale of industrial reclaimed water utilization in Zibo City is expected to increase by 48% compared with 2025年, the regional water reuse rate will be significantly improved, and the water resource allocation structure will be continuously optimized. This closed loop of "municipal wastewater treatment plant produces water — industrial users consume it — fresh water resources are replaced" is precisely the most realistic solution for water-scarce industrial cities.
V. Policy Background: Shandong's Goal of Reaching 60% Urban Reclaimed Water Utilization Rate by 2030年
This project is not an isolated case, but part of Shandong Province's systematic water-saving layout. The Action Plan for Comprehensively Building a Water-Saving Institutional and Policy System in Shandong Province (2026—2030年) has incorporated the development and utilization of unconventional water into the unified allocation of water resources and the layout of modern water network construction, and has established a reserve database of key projects for unconventional water development and utilization.
- Quantified targets — By 2030年, the province's urban reclaimed water utilization rate will reach 60%, and unconventional water utilization will reach more than 25亿 cubic meters.
- Production-transport linkage — Promote close linkage between upgrading and renovation of wastewater treatment plants and the allocation and utilization of reclaimed water, improve production and transmission facilities, and increase the allocation of reclaimed water to chemical industrial parks, high water-consuming enterprises, and other users.
- Priority use — Urban greening, municipal miscellaneous use, ecological landscapes, and other uses shall give priority to reclaimed water that meets standards.
- Price mechanism — Promote pricing of unconventional water according to the principle of "high quality, high price", with pricing negotiated between supply and demand parties under government coordination; and issue an implementation plan for seawater desalination utilization, and implement the action for the development and utilization of mine water in the Yellow River Basin.
- Financial support — Promote green financial products such as "water-saving loans" and "water intake loans", and encourage the application of contract-based water-saving management in all scenarios.
VI. TIANYI TECH's Viewpoint
TIANYI TECH believes that the value of the Zibo case lies in fully articulating the commercial closed loop of reclaimed water projects: stable large industrial users (consuming more than 700 tons per year) provide the base load, the pipeline design with "reserved capacity" leaves interfaces for future incremental industrial customers, and the participation of fiscal and social capital provides support at the policy and assessment levels. For industrial enterprises, reclaimed water is no longer an "environmental cost", but a second water source and competitive factor for ensuring production capacity; for service providers, extending from "building plants" to "building pipeline networks + long-term water supply operations" is the truly sustainable model for the reclaimed water business.
About TIANYI TECH (TIANYI LIMITED)
TIANYI TECH focuses on the fields of wastewater treatment, reclaimed water reuse, and water resource recycling, providing one-stop services from process consulting, scheme design, equipment integration, engineering implementation, to smart operation and maintenance. The company is committed to promoting wastewater resource recovery through technological innovation, helping industrial enterprises and municipal customers achieve multiple goals of water saving and carbon reduction, compliant discharge, and sustainable development.
Source: Water-Saving China / Shandong Provincial Department of Water Resources (2026年9月30日), China.com Shandong "Zibo: The 'Green Breakthrough' of a Reclaimed Water Pipeline" (2026年9月3日), and the Action Plan for Comprehensively Building a Water-Saving Institutional and Policy System in Shandong Province (2026—2030年), compiled and organized
