On October 3 the Consulate General of Denmark hosted a reception and Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signing event at its Chicago office. In addition to Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) staff and members of the Board of Commissioners, participants included the Danish Water Technology Alliance represented by the Consulate General of Denmark in Chicago and Aarhus Vand A/S of Denmark (Aarhus Water) who agreed to extend the knowledge exchange program first implemented in 2015.

Since that time, our partnership has flourished, creating a ripple effect of positive change. MWRD staff participated in fact finding exchange programs in Denmark, and Aarhus Vand staff participated in knowledge exchange programs at the MWRD.
Lessons learned include energy neutrality achievements gained by optimization, blower efficiency, and combined heat and power systems to become energy positive and advanced control systems. The MWRD retrofitted existing blowers to new turbo-blowers at both the Hanover Park and Lemont Water Reclamation Plants to achieve electrical energy savings.

“We have achieved remarkable milestones, but there is still much work to be done,” said MWRD President Kari K. Steele. “The challenges and opportunities that lie ahead are boundless. We are excited to share that our future collaborative activities will focus on vital areas such as energy optimization and climate neutrality.”