The project "Transforming Wastewater into Value" comes from Zhongyuan Environmental Protection and the Zhengzhou Xinqu Wastewater Treatment Plant in China. The awards were presented at the gala in Glasgow, as the IWA reported on October 7, 2026. In addition, the project also received gold in the category "Market-changing Water Technology and Infrastructure."
Among 320 applications from 65 countries, an independent jury selected 23 finalists from six categories before the Zhengzhou project emerged as overall winner. According to the IWA, the award has existed since 2006 and is intended to demonstrate that urgent challenges can be addressed through creative water solutions.
How wastewater becomes surface water class III
Zhengzhou, a metropolis of 13 million residents, has, according to Yunfei Tan of Zhongyuan Environmental Protection, per capita water resources of only 97.6 cubic meters, less than one-twentieth of the Chinese average. China as a whole consumes the world's largest amount of water while having per capita water availability of only 35 percent of the global average, according to Tan. The Zhengzhou New District Sewage Treatment Plant treats wastewater serving an area of 328 square kilometers and can handle sewage from 3.89 million people, with a daily capacity of 1 million tons. According to Tan, the Zhengzhou New District Sewage Treatment Plant has been in operation since 2016, with its transformation underway since 2021.
Energy from sludge and wastewater heat
The facility operates, according to Tan, China's largest project for pyrolysis and gasification of wastewater sludge with a capacity of 1,000 tons daily, which recovers combustible gas and heat, while total sludge treatment has a capacity of 1,300 tons per day at 80 percent moisture content.
In the half-year report of Zhongyuan Environmental Protection, among other things, the biogas power plant of the Xinqu treatment plant and an activated coke regeneration project were explicitly noted as still under construction as of the report date, while a photovoltaic system at the Shuangqiao treatment plant was already operating commercially.
Comparison: China's first Grand Innovation Award according to Zhang Yifei
According to a report from Science and Technology Daily, a concept treatment plant in Yixing transformed a conventional facility, removed existing fencing, and connected an accessible green space with a resource recovery facility. Zhang Yifei called the project, according to the same report, the first Chinese initiative to receive the IWA Grand Innovation Award. He also described the connection of energy conservation, carbon reduction, and shared efficiency gains as a new task for Chinese water technology companies. At the 2026 edition, according to the IWA, 320 applications from 65 countries resulted in 23 projects selected for gold, silver, or bronze awards, with the Zhengzhou project receiving the Grand Innovation Award.
For the facility itself, Tan expects that in the future more than 40 percent of its own electricity needs will come from green energy.