The Division of Industrial Wastewater Treatment, “Wastewater Treatment Division” for short, have their research directions in the fundamental research and technology development and applications in the industrial water usage and saving, wastewater generation processes, industrial wastewater recycling, pollution control and resource recovery. Their research focuses include: The development of innovative water utilization schemes, and water saving measures, technologies and theories for resource recovery from high-strength industrial wastewaters; The evaluation of pollution generation process and its environmental impacts; The exploration of new principals for pollution control; and technology industrialization.

To date, the division has 8 faculty members, include 6 full professors, 1 associate professor and 1 senior engineer. The division has been granted >50 national and regional research projects from the Key Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Key Technology R&D Program, the National High Technology Research and Development Program, the National Key Projects on Water Pollution Control and Management, the Key Program for Science and Technology Development of the Guangdong Province, etc. >300 SCI papers has been published in highly ranked international journals, e.g. Environmental Science & Technology, Water Research, Environmental Pollution, Science of the Total Environment, Chemosphere, Bioresource Technology, with >50 patent granted. The division has been awarded 15 science and technology development awards at provincial and ministerial levels and above, includes 1 National Science and Technology Advances Award (second prize, 2009), 1 National Outstanding Patent Award (2010), 1 Science and Technology Advances Award of the Guangdong Province (second prize, 2007) and 1 Technology Innovation Award of the China Light Industry Council (first prize,2016).

Many students mentored in this division have won the National Scholarship, the Zhongtao Environmental Protection Scholarship, the Excellent Graduation Thesis Award, the Excellent Graduate Student Award, the Excellent National College Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program Award, the Provincial Golden Prize of the “Challenge Cup” National College Student Business Plan Competition, etc. The division aims at training innovative and enterprising talents, with a focus on the developments and advances in industrial wastewater treatment theory, technology, and applications. Relevant courses and practice and internship bases have been set up. Over these years, the division uphold a vision of theory and practice integration, and research and engineering combination, making contributions to industrial wastewater treatment in the entire nation, especially the “Peal triangle” area. The division has received high reputations from the wastewater treatment industry and academia.