Recently, led by the Environmental Protection Research Institute of Light Industry, the National Circular Economy Engineering Laboratory “Industrial Wastewater Recycling and Industrial Water Saving” declared by Xi' an Jiaotong University and Shandong Huatai Paper Co., Ltd was approved. This laboratory is the first approved National Circular Economy Engineering of the Environmental Protection Research Institute of Light Industry, marking a new breakthrough in the construction of circular economy platform by the Environmental Protection Research Institute of Light Industry.

Relying on scientific and technological enterprises, universities and scientific research institutes, the laboratory was built into a non-independent legal person institution. It is a scientific research organization that carries out technological innovation activities in the field of circular economy. According to the development of industrial technology and market demand, it carries out experimental research on core technologies and key processes, products and equipment in the field of circular economy. Besides, it conducts research on industrial technological standards, trains innovative talents in engineering technology, provides technical services for the industry, etc. Moreover, it actively carries out technical cooperation and exchanges at home and abroad to promote the application of scientific and technological achievements.

The laboratory focuses on light industry, metallurgy, textile, chemical industry and other industries, and is organized around four directions of “advanced treatment and reuse of wastewater”, “recovery of high value-added resources in wastewater”, “energy treatment of high-concentration organic wastewater” and “comprehensive industrial water saving and emission reduction”. The Environmental Protection Research Institute of Light Industry will take the construction of the laboratory as an opportunity to focus on the prominent problems in the industrial wastewater recycling and industrial water saving in China, and strive to form a series of key common technologies, products, equipment and related standards in the fields of advanced wastewater treatment and reuse, recovery of high value-added resources in wastewater, etc. It will build a technical research and development platform and an engineering technology output platform with remarkable characteristics and important influence at home and abroad, so as to provide scientific and technological support for the construction of circular economy in China’s key industries.