Project Led by Professor Dai Xiaohu Wins Second Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award

On July 8, the 2025 National Science and Technology Awards were announced. The project "Key Technologies and Applications for Whole-Chain Low-Carbon Treatment and Resource Utilization of Municipal Sludge," led by Professor Dai Xiaohu from the College of Environmental Science and Engineering, won the Second Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award. The project addressed key common challenges in whole-chain low-carbon sludge treatment and resource utilization by elucidating the bio-antidegradation mechanism of multi-component cross-linked sludge, proposing theories and methods for high-solid anaerobic digestion regulation; clarifying the characteristics of sludge moisture occurrence and water retention mechanisms, developing cascade pressure filtration coupled with low-temperature vacuum drying technology and equipment; revealing the precise regulation of energy during thermochemical conversion of sludge and the mechanism for in-situ pollutant prevention and control, overcoming key technologies for clean sludge incineration and directed pyrolysis upgrading; and breaking through technical bottlenecks in end-product quality improvement and multi-pathway resource utilization, establishing a technology and standard system for whole-chain low-carbon treatment and resource utilization tailored to China's sludge characteristics.