Recently, the research project of Academician Peng Yongzhen's team entitled "Key Technology and Process Control of Urban Wastewater ANAMMOX for Low-carbon Nitrogen Removal" was recommended by the Chinese Society of Environmental Sciences, and has been included in the 2022 Innovation China list of green low-carbon pioneering technology. It is the first time that a scientific research project led by the Beijing University of Technology has been included in this list, along with 24 other projects in this field this year.

The Innovation China List was established by the China Association for Science and Technology to meet the industrial needs in six major fields, these being electronic information, biomedicine, equipment manufacturing, advanced materials, green and low-carbon, and industrial foundations. The list identifies advanced pioneering scientific research results nationwide that represent the cutting-edge of their fields, which achieve major breakthroughs for industrial needs, and which can be transferred, transformed, and traded.

Using the resources of the National Engineering Laboratory of Advanced Municipal Wastewater Treatment and Reuse Technology led by the Beijing University of Technology, Academician Peng Yongzhen's team has long been committed to the research of biological nitrogen removal technology for wastewater. They have achieved a series of pioneering results, some at leading international level, of this new technology of low-energy urban sewage denitrification and carbon removal. The team published the first 10 SCI papers in this field worldwide. They assisted Beijing Drainage Group in building and running the world's first five thermal hydrolysis digestive fluid ANAMMOX projects, and additionally developed the world's largest ANAMMOX bacterial strain base. This technology, now included in the Innovation China List, is expected to help solve the global problem of "high carbon emission and high energy consumption" in the process of urban wastewater treatment, making a significant contribution to accelerating the formation of a new paradigm for energy-saving and low-carbon urban sewage treatment, as well as to the realization of low carbon emission standards for both domestic and foreign wastewater treatment industries.