Supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) is a promising technology to deal with organic wastes. Nowadays, we have successfully constructed the first SCWO pilot scale plant of China with a specific reactor configuration and optimized system compositions to treat sewage sludge. In this report, the existing problems and corresponding solutions concerning corrosion, plugging and high running cost in SCWO are introduced systematically. The detailed system components, evident properties, advanced control methods and primary experiment results of the pilot scale plant are described objectively. Moreover, a simple economical comparison with incineration is carried out and subsequently in-depth works are also proposed for further promoting the commercial application of the plant. The information should be helpful for designing and constructing SCWO plant to dispose sewage sludge or other organic wastewaters. (C) 2011 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.