Elion Chemical Industry Company in Inner Mongolia says it will virtually eliminate its wastewater discharge to the Yellow River using an advanced water reuse and wastewater evaporation system from GE Water & Process Technologies.

"We are extremely proud to be the first PVC manufacturer in China to implement GE's advanced zero-liquid discharge system," said Wang Wenbiao, chairman of China Elion Resources Group. "This project will set new environmental and operational benchmarks for Chinese industry and will help the nation to protect the quantity and quality of our water resources."

Once completed in early-2010, the system will enable Elion to protect water quality in the 5,500-km Yellow River, which suffers from rising wastewater discharge due to rapid economic growth and urban development. The GE water reuse system will also dramatically reduce the amount of water that the chemical plant withdraws from the river, alleviating the persistent decline in the river's water flow from overuse and drought. GE's advanced water technologies will recycle about 90% of the wastewater from Elion, or about 4.45 million cubic meters of water per year.

Over the past several years, Inner Mongolia's gross domestic product has grown by an average of more than 16 percent per year, well above rates in the rest of the country. As water demand in the province continues to rise and place increasing pressure on the Yellow River, GE's broad portfolio will play a major role in helping industries to adequately treat and reuse water.