​Changzhou University uses technology to turn waste into wealth

Changzhou University in Changzhou, East China's Jiangsu province has been exploring technologies that can turn regenerative organic substances or solid waste into useful resources and help businesses achieve more sustainable operations.

As biomass utilization is a multidisciplinary and emerging sector, the university has built a team comprising academicians from the Chinese Academy of Engineering and talents from a variety of fields, including petrochemistry, environmental science and materials.

The university has also established an alliance comprising over 40 enterprises and more than 20 institutes like Tsinghua University and the Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion of Chinese Academy of Sciences. The alliance focuses on recycling urban and rural solid waste to support the country's agricultural development.

In 2019, the alliance solved critical technological bottlenecks and developed an additive that can help process straws into fodder for Xi'an Xintiandi Grass Industry Co in Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi province.

Changzhou University has also built a vertical farming project for Muyuan Foods, a pig farming and meat processing company in Central China's Henan province. The project can raise 30 times more pigs in the same amount of space than before, generate 14 million kilowatt-hours of electricity with firedamp every year, and reduce carbon emissions by 47,000 metric tons every year.