Alumni Feature: Dr. LI Yuezhong, Chairman of WELLE Environmental Technology Group

Dr. LI Yuezhong holds a PhD in Environmental Engineering from the TU Clausthal, Germany, and is a senior engineer at professor level. He currently serves as Chairman of WELLE Environmental Technology Group Co., Ltd. and Executive Vice Chairman of the China Alumni Association of the Technical University of Clausthal. Dr. Li is a member of the Expert Pool of China’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development for the municipal public utilities sector and a leading talent under the national “Ten Thousand Talents Program.” He has acted as principal investigator for a national key research project under China’s 13th Five-Year Plan for water-related initiatives.

In addition, Dr. Li holds several prominent positions, including Member of the National Technical Committee for Standardization of Urban Environmental Sanitation, Executive Vice President of the Environmental Chamber of Commerce of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, Vice President of the China Association of Urban Environmental Sanitation, and Member of the Board of Trustees of Tongji University.

Founded in 2003, WELLE Environmental Technology Group Co., Ltd. was successfully listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2011. The Group currently employs nearly 2,000 staff members, including more than 100 professionals holding master’s or doctoral degrees. WELLE is a comprehensive energy-saving and environmental protection enterprise group with strong core technologies and sustained innovation capabilities.

The Group operates across three major business segments: Urban Environment, Industrial Environmental Protection, and Energy Services. In parallel, it has developed innovative resource-oriented business areas such as insect protein and metal recycling.

As the founder of the “WELLE” brand, Dr. LI Yuezhong has led the company to actively participate in the construction of numerous major environmental protection projects across China. The successful implementation of these projects has made significant contributions to local environmental improvement while establishing WELLE’s strong reputation and brand image within the industry. In recent years, Dr. Li has led or participated in more than ten national and provincial scientific research projects, published eight academic papers, co-authored two industry standards, obtained more than 20 invention patents, and received multiple science and technology awards at national, provincial, and municipal levels.

WELLE’s proprietary process technologies are characterized by optimized workflows and stable operation. In the urban environment segment, WELLE has completed nearly 80 food waste and kitchen waste treatment projects, with a total daily processing capacity of 11,000 tons, securing a significant share of the Chinese market. In the leachate treatment field, the Group has delivered more than 400 projects with a total daily treatment capacity of 180,000 tons. These independently developed technologies are now widely applied across China, positioning WELLE as an industry leader in this sector.

Within the industrial environmental protection segment, in addition to conventional industrial wastewater and high-salinity wastewater treatment, WELLE has in recent years focused on wastewater treatment for liquor distilleries. Many well-known Chinese Baijiu producers are among its clients. Treatment capacity for distillery wastewater can reach up to 20,000 tons per day, while zero liquid discharge (ZLD) systems achieve capacities of up to 66,000 tons per day. WELLE’s subsidiary, Nanjing Dule, also possesses proprietary technologies for recovering volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from air and has implemented more than 1,000 reference projects, making it one of the leading enterprises in this field in China.

The Energy Services segment covers the development and operation of biogas and biofuel oil projects, high-efficiency anaerobic treatment of organic waste, alternative fuels, and energy management. To date, more than 350 organic waste resource recovery projects have been completed worldwide, achieving annual greenhouse gas emission reductions of approximately 8 million tons of CO₂ equivalent. In addition, cumulative electricity savings from industrial energy-efficiency projects have exceeded 1.3 billion kilowatt-hours.

Since its establishment in 2003, WELLE has been committed to introducing advanced European environmental technologies into China, adapting them to local market conditions, and continuously improving them through practical project implementation. Over the past decade, the Group has introduced five patents and proprietary technologies related to wastewater treatment and two related to solid waste treatment, for which WELLE serves as the licensed technology holder in China. Strategic partnerships have also been established with leading European environmental equipment manufacturers to introduce mature key equipment and complete systems into the Chinese market, thereby enhancing overall project performance.

WELLE has successfully attracted high-level international professionals from Germany, the United States, and other countries, each with more than 30 years of experience in the environmental sector. The Group maintains long-term cooperation with professors and research teams from the Technical University of Clausthal, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and the Technical University of Berlin. Expert support from these international partners constitutes an important component of WELLE’s global collaboration framework.

In 2015, WELLE established its Overseas Investment Center, WELLE Environment (Luxembourg) Co., Ltd., to expand its international footprint through global and regional cooperation platforms. In the same year, WELLE Environment Service (Thailand) Co., Ltd. was founded to enter the Southeast Asian market. In 2016, European WELLE Co., Ltd. was established to focus on technology introduction and transfer, consulting, and technical services, while seeking long-term strategic partnerships with multinational corporations, international institutions, and global organizations. In 2017, WELLE signed agreements with MYT BU and Hangzhou Environment Group to jointly establish a research and development center aimed at tracking international trends in waste management and technologies, facilitating information exchange, and exploring new technologies, concepts, and models for waste treatment in China. Between 2023 and 2024, the Group further established subsidiaries in Singapore and Laos, significantly accelerating its expansion in the Southeast Asian market.

Today, WELLE faces a range of challenges. Many traditional projects have relied heavily on local government funding, while post-pandemic fiscal constraints have weakened local public finances. Meanwhile, global economic slowdown and geopolitical tensions between multilateralism and unilateralism have introduced additional uncertainties and risks for regional economic development, environmental protection initiatives, and overseas market expansion.

In response, WELLE has proactively implemented a transformation strategy, developing a diversified technological pathway for biomass resource utilization. By applying various conversion technologies, the Group produces a range of products tailored to different market needs, enabling the recovery of carbon and nitrogen resources as well as the high-quality transformation and utilization of waste. Based on the carbon-to-nitrogen (C/N) ratio, WELLE integrates resource recovery from biomass waste with carbon and nitrogen cycles to determine utilization methods and recycling efficiency. This biomass resource conversion pathway forms a closed-loop system driven by carbon and nitrogen circulation.

Guided by this transformation strategy, WELLE will continue to advance steadily, further strengthen international cooperation, deepen collaboration with German universities, innovate partnership models, and actively expand global channels, making new contributions to the development of a greener and more sustainable future.