The Municipal Engineering Research Institute was established in 2006. The staffcurrentlycomprises of13 full-time teachers, including 5 professors, 5 associate professorsand3 lecturers,as well as6 doctoral supervisors, 12Master’s studentsupervisors, 2 high-end talents, and 1 Rixin talent. An urgent needis recognizedto introduce and train more all-round talents. The Municipal Engineering Research Institute undertakes most of the teaching and research tasks of undergraduates and graduate students in the specialty of water supply and drainage, and has made remarkable achievements in undergraduate teaching, discipline construction, scientific research and talent training, all of which has contributed significantly to the construction and development of the discipline of municipal engineering.

Many professors of the Municipal Engineering Research Institute are well-known experts in theirfield, and have served as directors, committee members, and editorial boardmembersofindustrialsocieties, professional institutions andscientificjournals. Theiracademic reputation and statusare highly recognized,resulting fromaccumulative years ofteaching and research experience,while they have allowedclose cooperationsand exchangeswith many scientific research institutions and well-known environmental protection enterprises.As such, the Municipal Engineering Research Institute has established an innovative and sustainable teaching and research team to address the major issues of the country andof the city ofBeijing in regard to water pollution control and water quality safety assurance, while itfocusseson the frontiers and backbones of China’s municipal engineering discipline, as well as water supply and drainage frontiers.In addition, extensive and in-depth research has been conducted related to the aspects of urban water supply, sewage treatment, pipe networks,andrainwater treatment, complemented withsponge city development, industrial wastewater treatment, sludge treatment and disposal, black and smelly water treatment, water supply and drainage of construction systems, rural water supply and drainage and so on.

The Municipal Engineering Research Instituteis excellently equipped with instruments and technology,either involved in dozens of complex instrumental sets ormore than a hundred regularstand-alonedetection instruments,as well asdozens of experimental devices. Itprovides acomplete scientific researchinfrastructure toperform research based on “Urban sewage advanced treatment and resource utilization technology”as defined by theNational Engineering Laboratory,or“Water Quality Science and Water Environment Restoration Engineering Laboratory”according to theBeijing Key Laboratory. The Institute can furthermore make use oflarge instrumentsusing the localsharingplatform of theUniversityof Bejing.

The Municipal Engineering Research Institute recruits 4 to 8 doctoral and post-doctoral students, and about 30 students holding a Master’s degreeperyear. Many of these studentshave obtainednational scholarshipsorscience and technology innovation awards.A number of our former studentshave become experts, well-known scholars and leaders intheirfield,as exemplified byCheng Jing,who is now Director oftheBeijing Municipal Water Affairs Bureau, Qu Jishui,the current Dean oftheBeijing Municipal Engineering Design and Research Institute,deputy Dean Zhang YunandGeneral Manager Yang Xiangping, both now atBeijing Urban Drainage Group,orDeputy Director Zheng Jiang oftheBeijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau. These outstanding talents have made significant contributions to the construction of the country and the capital.

Research directions

In the long-term practiceofscientific research and applications, the Municipal Engineering Research Institute has developed a number of distinctive and advanced research directions at home and abroad, which are briefly summarized here.

1. Urban water supply treatment and water quality safety assurance technology

The main technologies includethose involved inthe transportation, distribution and purification of source water, pre-oxidation and biological pretreatment, enhanced coagulation decontamination, adsorption and filtration purification, membrane filtration (including but not limited toultrafiltration, nanofiltration,andreverse osmosis), purification and integrated application, water quality safety assurance and integration technologies of water supply system, advanced oxidation decontamination, drinking water safety disinfection and biological safety control, research and development of high-efficiency wastewater treatment technologies, and technologies for the instrumentation and control application of water treatment processes.

2.Theoretical and technological developments for municipal sewage sludge treatment

In this field, the main focus is on developing new theories and technologies for high-efficiency, low-carbon and sustainable sewage treatment. This involves development of novel technologies for nitrogen and phosphorus removal from sewage, and for decentralized treatment of domestic sewage. Technologies include membrane bioreactors and membrane filtration water treatment, as well as treatment of high-concentration ammonia nitrogen wastewater, landfill leachate and high-concentration organic wastewater. The theory and technology for high-efficiency magnetic coagulation and magnetic biological control, advanced oxidized water treatment, and biological treatment of sewage systems based on microbial ecology is also subject of research, as is treatment of sewage, regeneration and reuse processes for developmental and engineering applications, environmental behavior and control technologies of emerging pollutants in sewage treatment systems, as well as digital technologies, sludge reduction technologies, sludge disposal and recycling technologies, and waste biomass recycling technologies that are used during the process of biological sewage treatment.

3. Safety assurance and optimization technology of urban water supply and drainage network

This field mainly includes biological safety assurance technologies of the urban water supply pipe network, optimization of technologies for the urban water supply and drainage networks, assessment of seismic safety of those networks, resilience assessment and identification of improvement possibilities for urban water supply and drainage.

4. Safety technologies and water supply assurance technologies of building water systems

As safety is of utmost important in all our activities, this important field concentrates on safety assurance technologies of building water systems, concentrating on the safety assurance of water supply, and disinfection technologies. Research and development activities further involve building water supply systems with water-saving technology and equipment, greywater treatment and reuse technologies, whereby technologies for using recycled water in a safe manner and optimized design methods for the supply and drainage of building water systems are of key importance.

5. The treatment of black and smelly water and the construction technology of sponge cities

Here, the principles and technologies related to pollution control and restoration of rivers and lakes are at the core of activities, for instance when developing fundamental theories and technologies in regard to urban waterlogging prevention, construction ofa sponge city to maximize water-holding capacity, and at the same time working on urban flood control technologies.

6. Research, development and application of new environment-friendly functional materials

These activities mainly include the modification and application technologies of activated carbon, the development of carbon-based multifunctional materials and their application technologies, optimization and application of technologies that use regular adsorption and filtration materials, and the development and application of new functional materials that can help strengthen the adsorption, degradation andin situregeneration of pollutants.

7. Rural water supply and sewage treatment and application technology

The last field of activities that needs to be mentioned includes treatment technologies of rural decentralized sewage, treatment technologies of rural integrated water supplies, recycling and reuse technologies of rural sewage, and constructed wetland treatment technologies.

Achievements

The Municipal Engineering Research Institute presides over a number of national-, provincial- and ministerial-level research projects and key scientific research projects, including National Water Pollution Control Projects during the 13^thFive-Year Plan, National Key Research and Development Projects during the 13^thFive-Year Plan, National Major Science and Technology Projects during the 11^thand 12^thFive-Year Plans, and National Science and Technology Support Projects during the 11^thand 12th Five-Year Plans. Moreover, past projects include those funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Beijing Municipal Natural Science Foundation, as well as many school-enterprise cooperation projects. Meanwhile, the institute has conducted academic exchanges and scientific research cooperations with a wide array of top universities at home and abroad, such as Stanford University in the United States, University of Tokyo in Japan, University of Dublin in Ireland, Shanghai Jiaotong University, and Harbin Institute of Technology. Scientific research cooperations have been established with many institutions and enterprises, such as Beijing Water Affairs Bureau, Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, Beijing Drainage Group, Beijing Institute of Water Science and Beijing Water Supply Company. The institute has gained multiple innovative research achievements, developed a large number of engineering application technologies, and won many scientific and technological awards. In the past five years, the institute published more than 200 papers in core Chinese academic journals and beyond, including over 120 papers in international Journals included in Science Citation Index (SCI) and Elsevier Index (EI), and more than 60 patents have been declared and authorized. Also, the institute published a number of research monographs and textbooks, and each year supervises 3 to 5 students holding a Ph.D. degree, as well as 30 students holding a Master’s degree.