On August 13, 2009, an interim workshop was held in Harbin for Task 3 “Key Technologies and Demo Plants for Clean Operation of Pollutant-emitted Industries in Songhuajiang Area of Key Technologies and Demos for Water Pollution Prevention and Treatment and Water Quality Safety in Songhuajiang Area—one of major projects supported by National Water Body Pollutions Control and Treatment Special Program. The workshop invited Professor Yeyao Wang, Deputy Director of China National Environment Monitoring Station, Mr Xuliang Zhuang, Director of Dept of Ecology & Environment, Resources & Environment Bureau of CAS, and Mr Sen Liu, director of Dept of Science & Technology, Environmental Protection Division, Heilongjiang Provincial Government. More than 40 people, including the experts from research institutes, like Environmental Protection Division, Heilongjiang Provincial Government, Heilongjiang Provincial Research Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jilin Provincial Research Institute of Environmental Sciences and IPE CAS, and activists from corporations involved in this project, like Changchun Dacheng, Harbin Pharmaceutical Plant, Beijing Forestry University, China Coal Longhua, Harbin Coal Chemical Industry Co., Ltd., Baotailong Coal Chemicals, Daqing SunMoonStar, Changchun Jiachen, Qitaihe City Environmental Protection Administration, Beijing Insitute of Technology and IPE, were presented in the meeting. .

The workshop aimed to enhance the communications between the scientists and engineers to further down the research study. Professor Hongbin Cao, task leader from IPE, presided over the meeting. Mr Sen Liu, director of Dept of Science & Technology, Environmental Protection Division, Heilongjiang Provincial Government made a warm welcome speech to the attendees. Then, 5 sub-task leaders each reported respectively their progress, main results and future plan for their team while Professor Cao briefed the overall plan and progress of the whole task.

Professor Dongmei Liang, vice president of Jilin Provincial Research Institute of Environmental Sciences, Professor Yun Ma, vice president of Heilongjiang Provincial Research Institute of Environmental Sciences, Professor Qingfen Qiu, Director of Dept of Sciences & Technology of IPE offered their constructive suggestions and requirements after hearing out the reports. The problems remained in the project implementation were carefully reviewed. It was a common consensus that the progress of the task met the scheduled plans. Inspired by the comments by the experts, the task members also had extensive and deep discussions.

In his speech, Mr Sen Liu expressed his hope that the research results would provide better solutions to improve the current situation in Songhuajiang area and provided some suggestions on task improvement.

Mr Xuliang Zhuang’s speech focused on the better understanding of the tasks, how the new combination of industry-academics-research could help the companies to solve their problems and the budget issues. In the end, Professor Yeyao Wang, CNEMS, made a conclusion speech. He affirmed the achievements made by each task group and arranged the works for the next step. Professor Wang pointed out the integrated innovation would be the key to the future development. He encouraged more communications and more new ideas for a successful completion of the whole project.

In the workshop, the achievements had been summarized and exchanged on time and actions for the future are clearly arranged. Opinions and suggestion from the experts would serve as important guideline for a successful project.