Persistent efforts from DEA lead the U-S-E water project forward

Four months later, our colleagues Lixia Duan and Jingquan Lu have again carried out another series of prosperous workshops in several cities in China with the following host companies:

1. Beijing Capital Water Group, Beijing. 
2. Thunip Corp. Limited, Beijing.
3. Ji'nan Water Bureau, and Municipal Engineering Design Institute, Ji'nan. 
4. Shanghai Chengtou Water Group, Shanghai (NRW)
5. Shenzhen Water Group (NRW)

The workshops were led by the host companies together with Lixia and Jingquan. A simultaneous interpreter ensured smooth two-way communication. Ilse Korsvang, the head of the U-S-E project, participated in all the workshops online with our partner companies: the Danish utility--VCS Denmark; Stjernholm A/S, Leif Koch, Per Aarsleff, Kamstrup, Landia and KD Group. Some member companies also took part locally, such as Hoyer, Landia, Danfoss, AVK, and ULTRAAQUA A/S.  In the first round of workshops, our members Grundfos and Novozymes also took part.  

The host companies are all major players in the Chinese Water industry. The participation of workshops were top management and key technical persons in the companies participated. During the workshops, the Chinese partners were very open-minded and well prepared for presenting the current status of their plants, the challenges they are facing as well as their strategies and focus areas etc. After that, VCS Denmark shared their knowledge, experience and achievements in Danish water utilities, which were highly recognized by the Chinese sides. Furthermore, each Danish participating company had the chance to present their own technology, competitive advantages and cases etc. At last, in-depth discussions about further cooperation on actual projects between China and Denmark went very positive and fruitful.

Highlights:

• Beijing Capital is operating 278 WWTP with a capacity of 8.25 million tons/day.
• Typical challenges in WWTPs include inlet water quality, sludge risks, low efficiency, high energy consumption, data management, process management and high maintenance cost of equipment etc.       
• Typical demand for new technologies includes sludge reduction, process optimization, energy-saving, smart technology as well as resource recovery and utilization from wastewater and sludge.     
• MABR and accurate aeration are also one of BJ Capital’s hotspots; Animox will be future technology development.
• Deriving from Tsinghua University, Thunip entered the environmental protection industry in 1988. The company has 47 water supply and wastewater treatment plants with a capacity of 3.5 mil tons/day. They will focus on ‘Low carbon w.w treatment technology’ and ‘Sustainable urban Drainage Systems (SuDS)’.
• Shandong Province has a total treatment capacity of 20.65 million m³/day, ranking third in the country, second only to Guangdong and Jiangsu. They are facing challenges of imbalanced sewage treatment capacity and improper sludge disposal.
• Other challenges are to improve the network construction and to divert domestic sewage and rainwater from the source.
• Shanghai Chengtou Water Group is one the largest companies in China on urban water treatment capacity, with a daily water supply of 3.9 million tons and a pipeline of 16,000 km at length.

Conclusion:

• With China’s political focus on the environment and the goal of carbon neutrality by 2060, there is a huge potential and demand for the Chinese water companies to go for highly efficient, energy-saving and low carbon transformation.
• Danish water technologies have been well recognized among the Chinese partners, and some big Danish companies/brands have a very good reputation.
• Danish SMEs supplying non-standard equipment or technology seems to be very attractive to the market.
• All hosting companies are very positive about cooperating on upgrading WWTP together in China.

Thanks to the efforts from both the colleagues in the U-S-E project and the Danish participating companies' active participation.

Now we have successfully taken even one more step towards our goal. We will undoubtedly attend to get more information and design specific corporation plans for Danish participating companies with the  Chinese partners. Just contact us if you would like to be one part of the corporation.