Drives specialist Danfoss Drives has won the Environmental and Energy Efficiency Award at the inaugural Motion Control Industry Awards held at the National Conference Centre. The organisers recognised Danfoss Drives for generating surplus power from wastewater treatment.

The project that won Danfoss this prestigious accolade was rolled out in Marselisborg wastewater treatment plant where the focus had shifted from minimising energy consumed to maximising net energy surplus.

Water and wastewater treatment processes are characterised by high load variation during the 24-hour cycle, and seasonally throughout the year. The use of variable speed drives has consistently increased in the last 25 years in order to control motorised equipment and adapt to the changing demand. And as an additional benefit, thanks to the newly installed VLT drives, processes run right at their limit but not beyond it, ensuring safety and security at all stages. This can only be achieved thanks to the outstanding precision control of the VLT drives.

Danfoss VLTs were implemented in virtually every rotating application inside the plant – blowers, pumps, mixers and dewatering equipment – with over 100 VLT frequency converters installed to date. As a result, the plant has had record levels of electricity production, reaching 130% generation in 2015. This is an annual net surplus of 30% after internal consumption and excess heat production of 2.5 GWh/year.