New Energy Wastewater Treatment: A Hundred-Billion Market Waiting to Be Tapped
The explosive growth of the new energy industry is reshaping the global energy landscape. From lithium batteries to photovoltaic wafers, and from hydrogen energy equipment to wind power components, the birth of every green energy product relies on water resources. However, the high-salt, highly toxic, and high-organic wastewater generated during the production process was once a "stumbling block" restricting industrial development. Today, driven by stricter environmental policies and the deepening concept of resource recycling, this "environmental burden" is being transformed into a hundred-billion-level market opportunity. The wastewater treatment industry is resonating in synergy with the new energy industry, forging a new path of technological innovation and commercial win-win.
I. Foundation of Opportunities: Explosive Growth of New Energy Spawns Rigid Demand
The rapid expansion of the new energy industry has directly ignited the market demand for wastewater treatment, creating an irreplaceable rigid opportunity.
• Continuous Expansion of Market Scale: In 2023, the national industrial wastewater treatment market scale exceeded 150 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of over 8%. Among them, the demand for wastewater treatment in emerging industries such as new energy is growing at a rate of more than 15%, becoming a new growth engine for the industry. In the lithium battery industry alone, the demand for wastewater treatment increased by 40% year-on-year in 2023, and the demand in photovoltaic, hydrogen energy and other fields is also rising rapidly.
• Highly Specialized Treatment Needs: The composition of new energy wastewater is complex and unique. Lithium battery production wastewater contains heavy metals such as nickel and cobalt, as well as refractory organic compounds such as NMP. Photovoltaic wastewater is characterized by high salt, high hardness and high silicon content. Traditional treatment technologies are difficult to meet the requirements, which has spawned an urgent demand for high-end treatment technologies and customized solutions.
• Policy Forces Upgrading and Renovation: The "14th Five-Year Plan for Ecological Environmental Protection" requires the wastewater discharge intensity of key industries to be reduced by more than 10%. The "Implementation Plan for Industrial Wastewater Recycling" clearly states that the reuse rate of industrial water will reach 94% by 2025. Strict standards have forced enterprises to increase investment in wastewater treatment, and policy dividends continue to be released.
II. Core of Opportunities: Two Tracks Open Up New Growth Space
The opportunities in new energy wastewater treatment are concentrated in three core tracks: technological innovation, resource recovery, each of which nurtures huge market potential.
1. High-End Technology Tackling Track: Solving the Problems of "Three Highs" Wastewater
The "high salt, high toxicity, high difficulty" characteristics of new energy wastewater provide a broad stage for technology-oriented enterprises.
• Special Membrane Technology Becomes the Core: The application of special membrane materials such as anti-pollution RO membranes, DTRO membranes, and acid-resistant nanofiltration membranes is becoming increasingly widespread. The performance of domestic membranes is close to the international level, and the price is 30% lower, which greatly reduces the application threshold, and the penetration rate in high-end scenarios has exceeded 40%. The special acid-resistant nanofiltration membrane developed by Yantai Jinzheng Environmental Protection can operate stably in high-concentration acid and alkali environments, directly separating and recovering pure acid, breaking the foreign monopoly.
• Advanced Oxidation Technology Breaks Through: Fenton oxidation, ozone catalysis, low-temperature catalytic wet oxidation and other technologies can effectively degrade refractory organic compounds. Among them, the energy consumption of low-temperature catalytic wet oxidation technology is half that of the traditional high-temperature method, making it the preferred solution for high-COD wastewater treatment.
• Intelligent Technology Landing: The application ratio of the Internet of Things and big data technology in water quality monitoring and equipment operation and maintenance has reached 35%. Through the smart water affairs management system, precise aeration and digital dosing can be realized, which can reduce the operation cost by 15%-20%, and the demand for intelligent transformation continues to grow.
2. Resource Recovery Value-Added Track: Extracting Real Gold from "Wastewater"
Treating wastewater as an "urban mine" and realizing "turning waste into treasure" through resource recovery has become the most commercially valuable track.
• Huge Potential for Precious Metal Recovery: The recovery rate of precious metals such as nickel and cobalt in lithium battery wastewater can exceed 90%. The Tongchuan Longi Green Energy project has achieved a heavy metal recovery rate of ≥90% and a crystalline salt purity of >97% through a four-dimensional technology matrix, saving more than 2.7 million tons of surface water annually, with significant economic benefits.
• Water Resource Recycling: Reclaimed water reuse has become a rigid demand. Wastewater after advanced treatment can be directly reused in production. The wastewater reuse rate of photovoltaic enterprises in Mengsu Economic and Technological Development Zone has reached 95%. A photovoltaic wafer factory in East China reuses 800,000 tons of pure water every year, equivalent to saving an "invisible reservoir".
• Recovery of Salts and Chemicals: Through evaporation crystallization, electrodialysis and other technologies, industrial-grade acids and alkalis, sodium chloride and other product salts can be recovered from high-salt wastewater to realize the resource utilization of pollutants. In 2023, the market scale of industrial wastewater resource utilisation reached 45 billion yuan, with an annual growth rate of over 20%.
III. Long-Term Opportunities: Three New Directions for Future Growth
With the continuous development of the new energy industry and the continuous progress of technology, the opportunities in the wastewater treatment industry will extend to deeper levels and wider fields.
• Deepening Cross-Field Collaboration: Using facilities such as waste incineration plants and cement kilns to co-dispose of sludge, realize the resource utilization of heat energy and ash residue, build a "wastewater-sludge-resource" circulation system, and the market space for co-disposal is gradually opening up.
• Integrated Development of Green Power: The "photovoltaic + sewage plant" model is becoming increasingly mature. The water resources regeneration plant in Mengsu Economic and Technological Development Zone can generate 2.19 million kWh of green power annually, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 715 tons. In the future, wastewater treatment systems driven by green power will become a new hotspot.
• Iteration of Materials and Processes: New materials such as graphene composite membranes have shown high flux and pollution resistance advantages in the pilot test stage. Once mass-produced, they will further reduce treatment costs and promote the overall efficiency improvement of the industry.
The green transformation of the new energy industry cannot be separated from the escort of wastewater treatment; the technological innovation and model innovation of the wastewater treatment industry have also found the biggest growth opportunity in the wave of new energy. From technological tackling to resource recovery, from single-point breakthrough to system upgrading, new energy wastewater treatment is transforming from a simple environmental responsibility into a new starting point for enterprises to reduce costs and increase efficiency, and a new engine for the growth of the environmental protection industry. In this wave of green transformation, whoever can solve technical problems, tap resource value, and innovate business models will be able to seize the opportunity of the hundred-billion market and write a new chapter of green development together with the new energy industry.
