Weekend Australian
Saturday 23/2/2008 Page: 7
ONCE viewed as an option of last resort, desalination is being hailed as the saviour of Australia's ongoing water crisis. Until last year Australia had no large-scale desalination plants in operation and until very recently the idea of drinking desalinated water was viewed as outlandish, even outrageous. Today, 17 per cent of Perth's drinking water comes from the country's first desalination plant at Kwinana, south of the city - which will rise to more than 30 per cent when a second plant is opened in 2011. State governments are scrambling to jump on the desalination bandwagon.
Plans are in place for five new plants that will supply drinking water for most of Australia's capital cities by 2012. In Perth alone, Water Corporation boss Jim Gill has mooted the idea of building up to six desalination plants along the coast to combat the long-term decline in rainfall. And Queensland is toying with the idea of having two portable desalination facilities on the Brisbane River.
So how did the seismic shift in thinking about desalination come about? Why is desalination - famously described by former NSW Premier Bob Carr as "bottled electricity" - suddenly in vogue from the west coast to the east? The Australian Water Association, which represents water service providers, attributes the popularity of desalination to extreme drought and increasingly sophisticated technology. Deputy executive director Claude Piccinin says desalination has historically been an expensive, energy-intensive process.
"New technology has seen the price come right down, so suddenly it's become much more attractive," he says. "And more fundamentally, the drought we've had over so many consecutive years is like nothing previously experienced, and I think that's what has got desalination across the line." Western Australia's Water Corporation began thinking about desalination on a large scale in 2001 which CEO Jim Gill describes as the "wake-up" year, when rainfall reached record lows and dams were reduced to mud. Realising it could no longer rely on dams and groundwater, the corporation adopted a diversified approach including recycling, water restrictions and ultimately desalination, described by Gill as "the jewel in the diversity crown."
Designed, built and commissioned in less than two years, the plant was officially opened in April last year. Its energy requirements are substantial - 24 megawatts of electricity per annum, or enough to power 30,000 households - but the Water Corp has offset this by purchasing the equivalent amount of renewable energy from a purpose-built wind farm near Cervantes, north of Perth. The 45 gigalitres of water the plant produces each year reaches around 1.6 million people in the south of the state.
Water Corporation spokesman Phil Kneebone says desalination has meant the city's comparatively lenient water restrictions have not needed tightening and has allowed water to be transferred into the state's dams. "We've not had to go further than the two-day a week watering roster and we've been able to bank 10 billion litres of water into the Canning Dam for future use, he says. "This is the real bonus -- the water produced through desalination that is not needed immediately can be transferred elsewhere and called upon during times of heavy demand." Australian Water Association chief executive Tom Mollenkopf believes desalination has saved Perth. "If not for desalination, Perth's viability as a major urban centre would have been in question," he says.
Even the sceptics have been converted by the success of the new plant. Head of the University of Western Australia's Centre for Water Research Jorg Imberger has been a long-term-critic of the plant, but the centre's 2007 report into its environmental impact on Cockburn Sound found marine life had not been adversely affected. "I'm satisfied that the first one is running well and not doing any harm to the environment," Imberger says.
Perth's desalination plant is now viewed as the national blueprint - and Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and the Gold Coast have now committed to following WA's lead. Having done an astonishing policy backflip on desalination, the NSW Government is now planning a $1.9 billion facility at Kurnell in the city's south. Using the same reverse-osmosis technology as Perth's plant to remove salt and impurities from seawater, the Kurnell plant will also use renewable energy offsets from up to six wind farms across NSW. Water from the plant will be pumped through a pipeline into Sydney's water distribution system and will ultimately reach up to 1.5 million people.
The Victorian Government, also formerly opposed to desalination, is pushing ahead with plan to build Australia's biggest desalination plant, at Wonthaggi, by the end of 2011. The $3.1 billion project will provide up to a third of Melbourne's water supply and will also provide water to Geelong, Western Port and South Gippsland -150 gigalitres a year in total. It includes an 85km pipeline to connect to Melbourne's water system, and the Government hopes it will put an end to the city's water restrictions.
The Wonthaggi plant will consume around 90 megawatts of electricity per annum, also to be purchased from renewable sources. Detractors claim the greenhouse emissions from the plant will be the equivalent of an extra 240,000 cars on the road. Community concern about its impact on the environment have prompted the government to commission an environmental report, but it has warned the report would be unlikely to stop the plant proceeding.
In Adelaide, work has begun on a $10 million pilot desalination plant, the precursor to a $1.4 billion plant to be built at Port Stanvac that will provide about 25 per cent of the city's water needs. Due for completion by 2012, the plant will supply about 50 gigalitres of water per year with the potential for it to double in size, While the Government is still examining energy supply options, it has commissioned a $3 million environmental baseline report to look at the impact on the. Spencer Gulf marine environment. A second major desalination plant is also under serious consideration to service the Olympic Dam mine, Whyalla and the Eyre Peninsula.
Meanwhile, the Gold Coast's $1.2 billion desalination plant at Tugan is due to be completed by late November. It will supply 120 million litres of water a day. The Government has also mooted the idea of two temporary desalination facilities on the Brisbane River and has been examining options for a second permanent desalination plant north of Brisbane. One report, commissioned by the Government in 2006, recommended building the world's biggest desalination plant - capable of producing a staggering 400 million litres a day to service south-east Queensland.
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query desalination. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query desalination. Sort by date Show all posts
Wednesday, 27 February 2008
Monday, 20 August 2007
Perth faces future of desalination plants and wastewater recycling.
West Australian
Monday 20/8/2007 Page: 24
It has already saved WA from stage six water restrictions and by 2020 desalination and wastewater recycling is expected to be the State's only new source of water. Forget dams, bores and rivers - up to six major desalination plants will be built along the coast, from Esperance to Cape Preston, to quench WA's increasing thirst. Countless smaller capacity plants will also be established in remote inland and coastal communities, including Coral Bay, Yalgoo and Hopetoun and up to 50 per cent of "wastewater" will be recycled and drunk.
Water Corporation desalination principal engineer Gary Crisp doesn't need a crystal ball to predict the important role desalination will play in the State's water future. "Only additional water, provided from seawater desalination and wastewater recycling using reverse-osmosis, can sustain WA's growth and save the State from the worst drought this country has ever seen," he said. "It will be our saving grace, without it we would be on full water restrictions only using water to drink, bathe and wash." In fact, Mr Crisp believes desalination technology could not only solve the nation's water crisis, but alleviate pressure in those global regions where water was scarce and populations were growing. "Seawater desalination is a water source of the future, new engineering," he said.
"I believe only cities with a high rainfall and a small population like Darwin and Hobart and countries with an abundance of water like Canada will resist the move. Even London is considering desalination of Thames estuary water. "If it is powered by renewable energy, seawater desalination will become the only renewable, sustainable water source and it will supplement our traditional reserves in coastal cities in and and semi-arid regions." Earlier this year, Premier Alan Carpenter announced a second $1 billion water desalination plant would be built in Binningup by 2011. The first major sea water desalination plant to be built in the southern hemisphere was commissioned at Kwinana, south of Perth, in November.
The $387 million plant will produce 45 billion litres of water annually, or almost 20 per cent of Perth's water needs. In Queensland, the Government recently started building a $1.2 billion desalination plant on the Gold Coast and work on another $2 billion plant in Sydney will start soon. And many Mediterranean countries, including Spain - which built one of the world's first reverse-osmosis plants almost four decades ago - are rapidly turning to the technology. Mr Crisp said WA's pristine coastline boasted "some of the best conditions in the world" for constructing successful desalination plants.
"Our sea water is very clean and is of a high quality - it is totally free of pollutants and its clarity is high," he said. "Perth isn't usually affected by cyclones, which stir up the water and the seawater temperature range is also good for optimal seawater reverse-osmosis plants. "We also have lots of wind to drive a wind farm which provides a renewable energy source to power the desalination plant. "These very favourable conditions have helped us build the world's most advanced desalination plant in Perth." Mr Crisp said water engineers had been coming to terms with the technology since the mid 1990s with the State's first desalination plants on Rottnest Island and in Shark Bay. "Like desalination, the provision of `environmentally-friendly' water and water services is a business of the future and water engineers will always be in demand," he said.
Monday 20/8/2007 Page: 24
It has already saved WA from stage six water restrictions and by 2020 desalination and wastewater recycling is expected to be the State's only new source of water. Forget dams, bores and rivers - up to six major desalination plants will be built along the coast, from Esperance to Cape Preston, to quench WA's increasing thirst. Countless smaller capacity plants will also be established in remote inland and coastal communities, including Coral Bay, Yalgoo and Hopetoun and up to 50 per cent of "wastewater" will be recycled and drunk.
Water Corporation desalination principal engineer Gary Crisp doesn't need a crystal ball to predict the important role desalination will play in the State's water future. "Only additional water, provided from seawater desalination and wastewater recycling using reverse-osmosis, can sustain WA's growth and save the State from the worst drought this country has ever seen," he said. "It will be our saving grace, without it we would be on full water restrictions only using water to drink, bathe and wash." In fact, Mr Crisp believes desalination technology could not only solve the nation's water crisis, but alleviate pressure in those global regions where water was scarce and populations were growing. "Seawater desalination is a water source of the future, new engineering," he said.
"I believe only cities with a high rainfall and a small population like Darwin and Hobart and countries with an abundance of water like Canada will resist the move. Even London is considering desalination of Thames estuary water. "If it is powered by renewable energy, seawater desalination will become the only renewable, sustainable water source and it will supplement our traditional reserves in coastal cities in and and semi-arid regions." Earlier this year, Premier Alan Carpenter announced a second $1 billion water desalination plant would be built in Binningup by 2011. The first major sea water desalination plant to be built in the southern hemisphere was commissioned at Kwinana, south of Perth, in November.
The $387 million plant will produce 45 billion litres of water annually, or almost 20 per cent of Perth's water needs. In Queensland, the Government recently started building a $1.2 billion desalination plant on the Gold Coast and work on another $2 billion plant in Sydney will start soon. And many Mediterranean countries, including Spain - which built one of the world's first reverse-osmosis plants almost four decades ago - are rapidly turning to the technology. Mr Crisp said WA's pristine coastline boasted "some of the best conditions in the world" for constructing successful desalination plants.
"Our sea water is very clean and is of a high quality - it is totally free of pollutants and its clarity is high," he said. "Perth isn't usually affected by cyclones, which stir up the water and the seawater temperature range is also good for optimal seawater reverse-osmosis plants. "We also have lots of wind to drive a wind farm which provides a renewable energy source to power the desalination plant. "These very favourable conditions have helped us build the world's most advanced desalination plant in Perth." Mr Crisp said water engineers had been coming to terms with the technology since the mid 1990s with the State's first desalination plants on Rottnest Island and in Shark Bay. "Like desalination, the provision of `environmentally-friendly' water and water services is a business of the future and water engineers will always be in demand," he said.
Tuesday, 28 August 2007
Teaming up for desal contracts
Water
Saturday 25/8/2007 Page: 84
Two world-leading water companies have formed a partnership to bid for major seawater desalination contracts in Australia. Spanish-based Acciona Agua will team with United Utilities Australia (UUA) to bid for the proposed Melbourne desalination project, the planned second seawater desalination plant for Perth and other largescale seawater desalination projects around Australia. The partnership provides a powerful combination of leading edge technology from Acciona Agua, a company with more than 30 years experience in seawater desalination globally, being teamed with the high-level operations skill and local water industry experience of UUA.
Acciona Agua has built or has under construction more than 70 desalination plants in Spain and internationally with a total capacity of more than 1.6 million megalitres per day (1.6 million tonnes). Earlier this year, Acciona Agua was selected as preferred bidder to build and operate the Carlsbad seawater desalination project in San Diego, California. At 204 ML/d capacity, this will be the largest desalination plant in the United States.
Also in the United States, Acciona Agua is currently carrying out the upgrade of the 109 ML/d Tampa Bay seawater desalination plant in Florida. The company is also building the first large-scale municipal desalination plant in the UK, the 150ML/d Thames Gateway Project. And at Torrevieja (Allicante) in Spain, Acciona Agua is building the largest desalination plant in Europe with a capacity of 240 megalitres per day.
Highlighting Acciona Agua's success on the world desalination stage, earlier this year the business was nominated Desalination Company of the Year, one of the Global Water Awards promoted by the publishers of Global Water Intelligence and Water Desalination Report in association With the International Desalination Association. The Award made special mention of Acciona Agua's belief in sustainability and its deep commitment to excellence in engineering as demonstrated by the its work on the Thames Gateway Project, Tampa Bay and the New Canal de Cartagena facility in Spain.
The Acciona Group is already involved in the Australian utilities and infrastructure sector through Acciona Energy, the world's leading developer, owner and operator of renewable power facilities. Acciona Energy has developed a portfolio of green power projects in Australia and is currently constructing a 192 megawatt wind farm in Victoria.
Acciona Energy's renewable energy portfolio will enable the Acciona Agua and UUA partnership to offer zero carbon electricity to Melbourne Water. United Utilities, through its wholly owned subsidiary, UUA, has been involved in Australia for more than 15 years. It owns and operates water and wastewater infrastructure through Build Own Operate Transfer (BOOT) contracts with public sector utilities in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.
Activity for local government includes the operation and management of wastewater networks and the treatment of effluent to a stage enabling its reuse in the irrigation of vineyards and other crops that generate economic growth.
For further information, contact:
Acciona Agua: elana.reyna.monasteria@acciona.es,
United Utilities Australia: Stan Boath (08) 8408 6528, stanboath@uua.com.au
Saturday 25/8/2007 Page: 84
Two world-leading water companies have formed a partnership to bid for major seawater desalination contracts in Australia. Spanish-based Acciona Agua will team with United Utilities Australia (UUA) to bid for the proposed Melbourne desalination project, the planned second seawater desalination plant for Perth and other largescale seawater desalination projects around Australia. The partnership provides a powerful combination of leading edge technology from Acciona Agua, a company with more than 30 years experience in seawater desalination globally, being teamed with the high-level operations skill and local water industry experience of UUA.
Acciona Agua has built or has under construction more than 70 desalination plants in Spain and internationally with a total capacity of more than 1.6 million megalitres per day (1.6 million tonnes). Earlier this year, Acciona Agua was selected as preferred bidder to build and operate the Carlsbad seawater desalination project in San Diego, California. At 204 ML/d capacity, this will be the largest desalination plant in the United States.
Also in the United States, Acciona Agua is currently carrying out the upgrade of the 109 ML/d Tampa Bay seawater desalination plant in Florida. The company is also building the first large-scale municipal desalination plant in the UK, the 150ML/d Thames Gateway Project. And at Torrevieja (Allicante) in Spain, Acciona Agua is building the largest desalination plant in Europe with a capacity of 240 megalitres per day.
Highlighting Acciona Agua's success on the world desalination stage, earlier this year the business was nominated Desalination Company of the Year, one of the Global Water Awards promoted by the publishers of Global Water Intelligence and Water Desalination Report in association With the International Desalination Association. The Award made special mention of Acciona Agua's belief in sustainability and its deep commitment to excellence in engineering as demonstrated by the its work on the Thames Gateway Project, Tampa Bay and the New Canal de Cartagena facility in Spain.
The Acciona Group is already involved in the Australian utilities and infrastructure sector through Acciona Energy, the world's leading developer, owner and operator of renewable power facilities. Acciona Energy has developed a portfolio of green power projects in Australia and is currently constructing a 192 megawatt wind farm in Victoria.
Acciona Energy's renewable energy portfolio will enable the Acciona Agua and UUA partnership to offer zero carbon electricity to Melbourne Water. United Utilities, through its wholly owned subsidiary, UUA, has been involved in Australia for more than 15 years. It owns and operates water and wastewater infrastructure through Build Own Operate Transfer (BOOT) contracts with public sector utilities in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.
Activity for local government includes the operation and management of wastewater networks and the treatment of effluent to a stage enabling its reuse in the irrigation of vineyards and other crops that generate economic growth.
For further information, contact:
Acciona Agua: elana.reyna.monasteria@acciona.es,
United Utilities Australia: Stan Boath (08) 8408 6528, stanboath@uua.com.au
Monday, 29 January 2007
Coast water plant boost
Geelong Advertiser
Monday 29/1/2007 Page: 7
Geelong's water woes are set to be solved forever with a desalination plant an the ocean coast.
State Water Minister John Thwaites said earlier this month that a $1 billion desalination plant was inevitable to boost Melbourne's shortage of water:, But Mr Thwaites virtually ruled out building such a plant in Port Phillip or Western Port bays, leaving open an ocean site either to the east or west of The Heads. Any site to the west of The Heads would see desalinated water pumped to Melbourne via Geelong.
Barwon Water said last week it supported a state government feasibility study into a desalination plant, and was doing its own work on what it described as a long term source of water for Geelong.
Geelong's surface water supplies have fallen to about 20 per cent full, and Barwon Water is increasingly relying on groundwater to augment supplies. But groundwater is also limited, - with Barwon Water's licence only allowing it to take 80,000 million litres over a 10-year period.
Barwon Water chief executive Dennis Brockenshire said the use of desalination would depend on its economic and environmental sustainability. The one drawback of a desalination plant, apart from the fact that it costs twice as much as surface storages to produce a litre of water, is the power needed, and the resultant effects on greenhouse emissions.
The West Australian Government recently commissioned a $378 million desalination plant at Kwinana which will supply Perth with 17 per cent of its water needs. To produce 45 billion litres of water the Kwinana plants requires 24 million watts of electricity - the amount needed to power 30,000 households.
The West Australian plant draws on the state's power grid for its energy requirement, but the state's water authority has argued that a new windfarm 200 kilometres away puts enough power into the grid to power the desalination plant.
There is one wind turbine on the Bellarine Peninsula near Barwon Water's Black Rock treatment plant. The Kwinana desalination plant would require 35 wind turbines to power it.
Mr Brockenshire said desalination was a technically proven and increasingly attractive strategy worldwide to extend urban water supply. Most desalination plants installed in Australia use reverse-osmosis, where energy drives water mechanically through a membrane filter.
Mr Brockenshire said the suitability of desalination will be evaluated on a sound business case, including capital and ongoing operational costs, environmental and social impacts, and comparison to other new water supply options.
"In order to be cost effective desalination plants need to be in close proximity to existing water distribution infrastructure," he said. "Perth's Kwinana desalination plant became operational in November, 2006, and is now Perth's largest, single source of water, supplying 17 per cent of the city's needs."
Monday 29/1/2007 Page: 7
Geelong's water woes are set to be solved forever with a desalination plant an the ocean coast.
State Water Minister John Thwaites said earlier this month that a $1 billion desalination plant was inevitable to boost Melbourne's shortage of water:, But Mr Thwaites virtually ruled out building such a plant in Port Phillip or Western Port bays, leaving open an ocean site either to the east or west of The Heads. Any site to the west of The Heads would see desalinated water pumped to Melbourne via Geelong.
Barwon Water said last week it supported a state government feasibility study into a desalination plant, and was doing its own work on what it described as a long term source of water for Geelong.
Geelong's surface water supplies have fallen to about 20 per cent full, and Barwon Water is increasingly relying on groundwater to augment supplies. But groundwater is also limited, - with Barwon Water's licence only allowing it to take 80,000 million litres over a 10-year period.
Barwon Water chief executive Dennis Brockenshire said the use of desalination would depend on its economic and environmental sustainability. The one drawback of a desalination plant, apart from the fact that it costs twice as much as surface storages to produce a litre of water, is the power needed, and the resultant effects on greenhouse emissions.
The West Australian Government recently commissioned a $378 million desalination plant at Kwinana which will supply Perth with 17 per cent of its water needs. To produce 45 billion litres of water the Kwinana plants requires 24 million watts of electricity - the amount needed to power 30,000 households.
The West Australian plant draws on the state's power grid for its energy requirement, but the state's water authority has argued that a new windfarm 200 kilometres away puts enough power into the grid to power the desalination plant.
There is one wind turbine on the Bellarine Peninsula near Barwon Water's Black Rock treatment plant. The Kwinana desalination plant would require 35 wind turbines to power it.
Mr Brockenshire said desalination was a technically proven and increasingly attractive strategy worldwide to extend urban water supply. Most desalination plants installed in Australia use reverse-osmosis, where energy drives water mechanically through a membrane filter.
Mr Brockenshire said the suitability of desalination will be evaluated on a sound business case, including capital and ongoing operational costs, environmental and social impacts, and comparison to other new water supply options.
"In order to be cost effective desalination plants need to be in close proximity to existing water distribution infrastructure," he said. "Perth's Kwinana desalination plant became operational in November, 2006, and is now Perth's largest, single source of water, supplying 17 per cent of the city's needs."
Monday, 24 September 2007
Desal drink at 0.03c a glass
Sunday Mail Adelaide
Sunday 16/9/2007 Page: 4
A GLASS of water from an Adelaide desalination plant would cost just 0.03c to produce, says one of Australia's top desalination experts. Former West Australian Water Corporation principal engineer desalination Gary Crisp said, if done right, desalination was cost-effective and environmentally friendly.
Mr Crisp worked on Perth's 144ML desalination plant and is now working on a 125ML plant in Queensland. He said the cost of producing 1kl of desalinated water was about $1.20, so a 250m1 glass of water would cost 0.03c. SA Water charges 50c/k1 up to 125k1, so a 250m1 glass of water costs 0.0125c. However, it then charges $1.16 for every kilolitre above 124k1.
Since Perth's desalination plant opened in November, water bills there have risen by $43 a year. A desalination plant in Adelaide is tipped to push water bills up by about $300. However, Mr Crisp said it was "absolutely" worth building a desalination plant here, which could be up and running in four years. "If you're using wind energy or renewable energy to produce seawater desalination, it's got the smallest environmental footprint of any water source," he said.
Desalination has been criticised for its high energy requirements, which Mr Crisp said were at least three times that of "conventional" water sources such as dams and ground water. He said a 100ML plant would run on 160,000 kilowatt hours a day - enough to power about 25 households for a year. Desalination plants draw water from the ocean, from between 200m and 400m offshore, at a depth of at least 10m.
Screens prevent animals and seaweed from being pulled into the plant and a filter removes smaller particles such as sand and plankton. A high-pressure pump pushes this water through a reverse-osmosis membrane where desalination occurs. "(The pump) is actually what uses all the energy," Mr Crisp said. "That's what puts all the pressure into the water so we get it through the membranes." During reverse-osmosis, about 40 per cent of the water passes through the membrane as fresh water while the remaining 60 per cent salt water flows over the top.
"The fresh water is literally pushed out of the salty water," Mr Crisp said. "The salt can't go through the membrane, the molecules are to big." Once the salt and fresh water are separated, minerals and chemicals including calcium, carbon dioxide, chlorine and fluoride are added to the fresh water, which can then be piped into the city's water supply ready to drink. The salty water is diverted through an energy recovery device to generate power which is put back into the plant.
The brine is returned to the ocean through a pipe, which extends at least 500m-600m from shore, and is dispersed by tides. It is this part of the process which scientists and the fishing industry have concerns with. Mr Crisp said brine was about 5.8 per cent salt while seawater was about 3.5 per cent salt.
Sunday 16/9/2007 Page: 4
A GLASS of water from an Adelaide desalination plant would cost just 0.03c to produce, says one of Australia's top desalination experts. Former West Australian Water Corporation principal engineer desalination Gary Crisp said, if done right, desalination was cost-effective and environmentally friendly.
Mr Crisp worked on Perth's 144ML desalination plant and is now working on a 125ML plant in Queensland. He said the cost of producing 1kl of desalinated water was about $1.20, so a 250m1 glass of water would cost 0.03c. SA Water charges 50c/k1 up to 125k1, so a 250m1 glass of water costs 0.0125c. However, it then charges $1.16 for every kilolitre above 124k1.
Since Perth's desalination plant opened in November, water bills there have risen by $43 a year. A desalination plant in Adelaide is tipped to push water bills up by about $300. However, Mr Crisp said it was "absolutely" worth building a desalination plant here, which could be up and running in four years. "If you're using wind energy or renewable energy to produce seawater desalination, it's got the smallest environmental footprint of any water source," he said.
Desalination has been criticised for its high energy requirements, which Mr Crisp said were at least three times that of "conventional" water sources such as dams and ground water. He said a 100ML plant would run on 160,000 kilowatt hours a day - enough to power about 25 households for a year. Desalination plants draw water from the ocean, from between 200m and 400m offshore, at a depth of at least 10m.
Screens prevent animals and seaweed from being pulled into the plant and a filter removes smaller particles such as sand and plankton. A high-pressure pump pushes this water through a reverse-osmosis membrane where desalination occurs. "(The pump) is actually what uses all the energy," Mr Crisp said. "That's what puts all the pressure into the water so we get it through the membranes." During reverse-osmosis, about 40 per cent of the water passes through the membrane as fresh water while the remaining 60 per cent salt water flows over the top.
"The fresh water is literally pushed out of the salty water," Mr Crisp said. "The salt can't go through the membrane, the molecules are to big." Once the salt and fresh water are separated, minerals and chemicals including calcium, carbon dioxide, chlorine and fluoride are added to the fresh water, which can then be piped into the city's water supply ready to drink. The salty water is diverted through an energy recovery device to generate power which is put back into the plant.
The brine is returned to the ocean through a pipe, which extends at least 500m-600m from shore, and is dispersed by tides. It is this part of the process which scientists and the fishing industry have concerns with. Mr Crisp said brine was about 5.8 per cent salt while seawater was about 3.5 per cent salt.
Thursday, 22 February 2007
Leading the way - desalination in Perth
Engineers Australia
February, 2007 Page: 32
Climate independent water sources are starting to be introduced to secure public water supplies in Australia. One such facility recently coming on stream is the Perth Seawater Desalination Plant commissioned by the Water Corporation of Western Australia. Gold Coast City, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and Gosford- Wyong are among other coastal Australian cities that are considering seawater desalination as an option.
In the face of the driest winter on record, the Perth Seawater Desalination Plant is on track to deliver 45GL/a of drinking water into the Perth Integrated Water Supply Scheme (IWSS).
The plant at Cockburn Sound could be regarded as a world-leading model for future sustainable seawater desalination plants. A six month commissioning program commenced in October, with first water entering into the system in November 2006. At a peak capacity of 144ML/d, the $387 million plant, including the integration works, will be the largest seawater desalination plant outside the Middle East, and Australia's first large scale desalination facility.
It will also hold the title of the largest desalination plant in the southern hemisphere and be the biggest single water source feeding into the IWSS. The plant will provide 17% of Perth's water supplies which is significant given the vast reduction in rainfall over the last 30 years particularly in the southwest of the state and the resultant decline in run-off to the dams supplying the IWSS.
The plant was built by Multiplex-Degremont Joint Venture, in alliance with the Water Corporation and will be operated for 25 years by Degremont in alliance with the Water Corporation. It incorporates two separate streams each capable of producing 72ML/d of drinking water via a two pass seawater reverse-osmosis system. At peak production, the environmentally friendly submerged seawater intake, in about 10m of water 200m offshore, will gravitate 364ML/d of seawater via screens to a wet well. From this point two streams of feed water are pumped through the pretreatment facility, incorporating multimedia pressure filters and cartridge filters, by means of variable speed drive feed pumps.
The seawater is then pressurised to between 6MPa and 6.4MPa via six high pressure pumps and passes through 12 first pass seawater reverse-osmosis membrane racks. The permeate from the first pass system is then pumped through six second pass brackish water reverse-osmosis racks to produce high quality permeate. For every 10L of incoming seawater, the plant will produce 4L of drinking water and 6L of brine discharge at slightly less than twice the salinity of seawater. This fresh water is then passed through a post-treatment system, adding minerals to condition the water prior to being forwarded to a 12ML drinking water tank from which it is pumped into the IWSS.
The seawater concentrate is discharged 470m offshore via a 160m long, 40-port diffuser to ensure comprehensive mixing within 50m of the diffuser. Extensive modelling and monitoring has and will occur to ensure that there are no adverse affects resulting from this discharge.
An associated package of works includes 26km of large diameter pipelines and a 250ML/d pump station to transport water to the distribution network. The plant will also be greenhouse neutral as its energy requirements will be met from an 82MW wind farm north of Perth, from which the Water Corporation will purchase the 185GWh/a required to operate the plant.
The Emu Downs wind farm, developed by Griffin Energy and Stanwell Corporation, is Western Australia's second biggest wind farm and is located 30km east of Cervantes. It consists of 48 wind turbines and is part of the state program to meet the 6% renewable energy target for WA'S main electricity grid by 2010.
Sourcing the energy from the wind farm will make the Perth Seawater Desalination Plant the world's largest desalination plant using renewable energy. The Water Corporation said that coupling this energy with the low specific energy consumption achieved from the plant's novel design, incorporating isobaric energy recovery devices supplied by ERI, ensures that the plant is environmentally friendly.
The 10 processes of desalination:
February, 2007 Page: 32
Climate independent water sources are starting to be introduced to secure public water supplies in Australia. One such facility recently coming on stream is the Perth Seawater Desalination Plant commissioned by the Water Corporation of Western Australia. Gold Coast City, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and Gosford- Wyong are among other coastal Australian cities that are considering seawater desalination as an option.
In the face of the driest winter on record, the Perth Seawater Desalination Plant is on track to deliver 45GL/a of drinking water into the Perth Integrated Water Supply Scheme (IWSS).
The plant at Cockburn Sound could be regarded as a world-leading model for future sustainable seawater desalination plants. A six month commissioning program commenced in October, with first water entering into the system in November 2006. At a peak capacity of 144ML/d, the $387 million plant, including the integration works, will be the largest seawater desalination plant outside the Middle East, and Australia's first large scale desalination facility.
It will also hold the title of the largest desalination plant in the southern hemisphere and be the biggest single water source feeding into the IWSS. The plant will provide 17% of Perth's water supplies which is significant given the vast reduction in rainfall over the last 30 years particularly in the southwest of the state and the resultant decline in run-off to the dams supplying the IWSS.
The plant was built by Multiplex-Degremont Joint Venture, in alliance with the Water Corporation and will be operated for 25 years by Degremont in alliance with the Water Corporation. It incorporates two separate streams each capable of producing 72ML/d of drinking water via a two pass seawater reverse-osmosis system. At peak production, the environmentally friendly submerged seawater intake, in about 10m of water 200m offshore, will gravitate 364ML/d of seawater via screens to a wet well. From this point two streams of feed water are pumped through the pretreatment facility, incorporating multimedia pressure filters and cartridge filters, by means of variable speed drive feed pumps.
The seawater is then pressurised to between 6MPa and 6.4MPa via six high pressure pumps and passes through 12 first pass seawater reverse-osmosis membrane racks. The permeate from the first pass system is then pumped through six second pass brackish water reverse-osmosis racks to produce high quality permeate. For every 10L of incoming seawater, the plant will produce 4L of drinking water and 6L of brine discharge at slightly less than twice the salinity of seawater. This fresh water is then passed through a post-treatment system, adding minerals to condition the water prior to being forwarded to a 12ML drinking water tank from which it is pumped into the IWSS.
The seawater concentrate is discharged 470m offshore via a 160m long, 40-port diffuser to ensure comprehensive mixing within 50m of the diffuser. Extensive modelling and monitoring has and will occur to ensure that there are no adverse affects resulting from this discharge.
An associated package of works includes 26km of large diameter pipelines and a 250ML/d pump station to transport water to the distribution network. The plant will also be greenhouse neutral as its energy requirements will be met from an 82MW wind farm north of Perth, from which the Water Corporation will purchase the 185GWh/a required to operate the plant.
The Emu Downs wind farm, developed by Griffin Energy and Stanwell Corporation, is Western Australia's second biggest wind farm and is located 30km east of Cervantes. It consists of 48 wind turbines and is part of the state program to meet the 6% renewable energy target for WA'S main electricity grid by 2010.
Sourcing the energy from the wind farm will make the Perth Seawater Desalination Plant the world's largest desalination plant using renewable energy. The Water Corporation said that coupling this energy with the low specific energy consumption achieved from the plant's novel design, incorporating isobaric energy recovery devices supplied by ERI, ensures that the plant is environmentally friendly.
The 10 processes of desalination:
- Seawater intake - An 8m-diameter cylindrical structure positioned on the seabed 11m below sea level, 220m offshore in Cockburn Sound.
- Chemical dosing - The seawater is shock-dosed at the intake with: sodium hypochlorite, sodium metabisulphite, ferric chloride and sulphuric acid coagulant aid.
- Pretreatment - The pretreatment uses 24 horizontal pressure filters. Each filter has a surface area of 52m2 and has a nominal flow rate of 15ML/d.
- Reverse-osmosis - first pass - The reverse-osmosis system consists of two passes, which means that all or some of the desalinated product from the first pass is relayed to a second pass for further desalination to ensure that the desired drinking water quality is achieved. The average total dissolved salts (TDs) achieved from the first pass is less than 300mg/L.
- Reverse-osmosis - second pass - The average TDS achieved from the second pass is less than 40mg/L.
- Remineralisation and disinfection - A stabilisation dosing system is essentially a chemical mixing system for lime water and carbon dioxide. Lime dosing involves 6t/d of lime while about 2t/d of CO will be injected into the system.
- Drinking water storage and water pumping - The drinking water storage tank holds 12.5ML of water and the associated pumping station contains systems to transfer water 11km to Thomson Reservoir.
- Process wastewater treatment - The seawater desalination plant has several wastewater streams handled through processes and disposal means that are environmentally acceptable.
- Liquid wastewater disposal - The plant discharges to the ocean through an 1800mm pipeline extending 470m into Cockburn Sound. The final 160m of the pipeline incorporate 40 diffuser nozzles.
- Integrated water supply - The drinking water is transferred 11km to Thomson Reservoir through a 1200mm-diameter mild steel concrete-lined pipeline.
Thursday, 26 October 2006
Forward planning should keep future water problems at bay
Australian Financial Review
Thursday 26/10/2006, Page: 16
Western Australia has a right to feel smug about its groundbreaking water-supply efforts.
Damned for decades as one of the driest capital cities in Australia, Perth is today basking in its status of being near drought-proof thanks to a $1 billion "water safety net".
While other mainland cities scramble to bolster shrinking water supplies, there is a smugness in the west which will reach new heights early next month when one of the world's biggest desalination plants is switched on.
Built at a cost of $400 million, the 45 billion-litre-a-year seawater processing facility located at Kwinana, about 50 kilometres south of Perth, will account for an estimated 17 per cent of the city's annual water needs. It is part of a threepronged strategy aimed at ensuring that water restrictions, which are constraining residents in other parts of the country, are eliminated from life in Perth.
"It means that we'll get nothing worse than the current restrictions, which is two sprinkling days a week," The Water Corporation chief executive Jim Gill says.
"That's managed to keep Perth and the south of the state green and we'll get nothing worse than that." As well as investing in the biggest desalination plant in the southern hemisphere, Gill's department is planning a $617 million water boring and piping exercise to extract another 45 billion litres of water a year from one of the world's great underground aquifers. In addition, it will launch a water-trading operation with south-west irrigation operator Harvey Water.
Combined, the three new water sources will add an estimated 107 billion litres a year to Perth's water supply, which was once based on a series of dams in the hills to the east and south but which is increasingly reliant on alternative sources. That change is a direct result of drier winters, and the fact that the dam system is only 32 per cent full, close to a record low.
The underground-water tapping plan is based on a deep geological rock trap known as the Yarragadee Formation. It is being designed as a major expansion of an existing borewater supply, but is yet to be approved by the West Australian government's environmental agency.
If it is rejected, plans are already being drawn up for a second desalination plant. "The [second desalination] project is considered a contingency plan for our preferred south-west Yarragadee aquifer option," Gill said in last month's annual report of The Water Corporation.
There is no doubt Perth's first desalination plant will garner significant interest, largely because of the way it has chosen to address the thorny issue of using energy to extract salt from sea water.
Rather than simply book the Kwinana plant up to the state power grid, the giant reverse-osmosis plant (which involves pushing seawater through a series of fine filters) has a dedicated alternative power supply in the form of a new wind farm being built at Emu Downs, north of Perth.
The wind farm is a nifty retort to environmentalists who question the green qualities of desalination and its big energy requirement. But while the uniquely efficient combination of wind and water will have the West Australian Premier, Alan Carpenter, crowing loudly, his next job is to decide whether to double-up by building a second desalination plant or to approve the Yarragadee project.
For Perth residents worried mainly about a regular supply of drinking water, plus having enough left over to keep their gardens green, the choice of desalination or aquifer is not a political hot potato.
Carpenter is yet to reveal his hand, but close observers of the government believe the preference will be for the Yarragadee project, simply because it adds another layer of drought-proofing protection. A second desalination plant will only follow after the first has proved itself to be reliable and cost-efficient.
Moving early on a variety of water sources is a direct result of Perth's traditional water shortage, and a heated political debate which claimed the career of former opposition leader Colin Barnett at last year's state election.
It was Barnett who championed a 3000 kilometre canal from Western Australia's water-rich Kimberley region to the drier, and more heavily populated, south-west. A lack of detailed costing, and questions over the engineering and design requirements, turned the canal proposal into a liability. However, it did serve to make water a high priority on the political agenda - and there it remains.
Last month, Gill returned water to the political centre stage when he suggested that the Kwinana desalination plant could be sold as part of a process of drawing private operators into Perth's water supply system.
"We would take a very open attitude to admitting the private sector to ownership and operation of water sources in the future," Gill said.
Within hours that proposal had been stomped on by Gill's government masters who dismissed the privatisation proposal. Water Resources Minister John Kobelke said Gill's comments were wrong and The Water Corporation's assets were not for sale.
But Gill's failing is widely seen as one of timing. The West Australian government has just completed the dismemberment of its electricity agency, Western Power, and is not yet ready to address the question of private participation in the water industry. When it is, there will be a surprising number of possibilities in a part of the country once criticised for its poor system of water supply.
Early adoption of the desalination option means that a second seawater treatment plant will face fewer political hurdles. Tapping the Yarragadee, which contains a massive 1,200,000 gigalitres of water and recharges at a rate of 374 gigalitres a year (compared with the first stage plan to take just 45 million gigalitres a year), will make expanded extraction easier in the future.
If all that fails, there might even be a return to "Colin's Canal", as the Kimberley proposal was dubbed in the heat of an election campaign. It remains a potential future water supply in the long-term drought proofing of Perth.
Thursday 26/10/2006, Page: 16
Western Australia has a right to feel smug about its groundbreaking water-supply efforts.
Damned for decades as one of the driest capital cities in Australia, Perth is today basking in its status of being near drought-proof thanks to a $1 billion "water safety net".
While other mainland cities scramble to bolster shrinking water supplies, there is a smugness in the west which will reach new heights early next month when one of the world's biggest desalination plants is switched on.
Built at a cost of $400 million, the 45 billion-litre-a-year seawater processing facility located at Kwinana, about 50 kilometres south of Perth, will account for an estimated 17 per cent of the city's annual water needs. It is part of a threepronged strategy aimed at ensuring that water restrictions, which are constraining residents in other parts of the country, are eliminated from life in Perth.
"It means that we'll get nothing worse than the current restrictions, which is two sprinkling days a week," The Water Corporation chief executive Jim Gill says.
"That's managed to keep Perth and the south of the state green and we'll get nothing worse than that." As well as investing in the biggest desalination plant in the southern hemisphere, Gill's department is planning a $617 million water boring and piping exercise to extract another 45 billion litres of water a year from one of the world's great underground aquifers. In addition, it will launch a water-trading operation with south-west irrigation operator Harvey Water.
Combined, the three new water sources will add an estimated 107 billion litres a year to Perth's water supply, which was once based on a series of dams in the hills to the east and south but which is increasingly reliant on alternative sources. That change is a direct result of drier winters, and the fact that the dam system is only 32 per cent full, close to a record low.
The underground-water tapping plan is based on a deep geological rock trap known as the Yarragadee Formation. It is being designed as a major expansion of an existing borewater supply, but is yet to be approved by the West Australian government's environmental agency.
If it is rejected, plans are already being drawn up for a second desalination plant. "The [second desalination] project is considered a contingency plan for our preferred south-west Yarragadee aquifer option," Gill said in last month's annual report of The Water Corporation.
There is no doubt Perth's first desalination plant will garner significant interest, largely because of the way it has chosen to address the thorny issue of using energy to extract salt from sea water.
Rather than simply book the Kwinana plant up to the state power grid, the giant reverse-osmosis plant (which involves pushing seawater through a series of fine filters) has a dedicated alternative power supply in the form of a new wind farm being built at Emu Downs, north of Perth.
The wind farm is a nifty retort to environmentalists who question the green qualities of desalination and its big energy requirement. But while the uniquely efficient combination of wind and water will have the West Australian Premier, Alan Carpenter, crowing loudly, his next job is to decide whether to double-up by building a second desalination plant or to approve the Yarragadee project.
For Perth residents worried mainly about a regular supply of drinking water, plus having enough left over to keep their gardens green, the choice of desalination or aquifer is not a political hot potato.
Carpenter is yet to reveal his hand, but close observers of the government believe the preference will be for the Yarragadee project, simply because it adds another layer of drought-proofing protection. A second desalination plant will only follow after the first has proved itself to be reliable and cost-efficient.
Moving early on a variety of water sources is a direct result of Perth's traditional water shortage, and a heated political debate which claimed the career of former opposition leader Colin Barnett at last year's state election.
It was Barnett who championed a 3000 kilometre canal from Western Australia's water-rich Kimberley region to the drier, and more heavily populated, south-west. A lack of detailed costing, and questions over the engineering and design requirements, turned the canal proposal into a liability. However, it did serve to make water a high priority on the political agenda - and there it remains.
Last month, Gill returned water to the political centre stage when he suggested that the Kwinana desalination plant could be sold as part of a process of drawing private operators into Perth's water supply system.
"We would take a very open attitude to admitting the private sector to ownership and operation of water sources in the future," Gill said.
Within hours that proposal had been stomped on by Gill's government masters who dismissed the privatisation proposal. Water Resources Minister John Kobelke said Gill's comments were wrong and The Water Corporation's assets were not for sale.
But Gill's failing is widely seen as one of timing. The West Australian government has just completed the dismemberment of its electricity agency, Western Power, and is not yet ready to address the question of private participation in the water industry. When it is, there will be a surprising number of possibilities in a part of the country once criticised for its poor system of water supply.
Early adoption of the desalination option means that a second seawater treatment plant will face fewer political hurdles. Tapping the Yarragadee, which contains a massive 1,200,000 gigalitres of water and recharges at a rate of 374 gigalitres a year (compared with the first stage plan to take just 45 million gigalitres a year), will make expanded extraction easier in the future.
If all that fails, there might even be a return to "Colin's Canal", as the Kimberley proposal was dubbed in the heat of an election campaign. It remains a potential future water supply in the long-term drought proofing of Perth.
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
Using the sea a tempting answer
Weekend Australian
Saturday 8/11/2008 Page: 6
THE worst drought in a century, especially in Australia's most populated and fastest growing regions, has forced state governments to make expensive, and in some quarters unpopular, decisions to secure water supply. As rainfall dwindles, new dams are a less-than- promising prospect, so governments have looked to the boundless resource surrounding us the sea for an answer. Their solution: desalination.
Last year was Australia's sixth warmest on record. It was the warmest in the Murray-Darling Basin and in South Australia, NSW and Victoria. The south-west and south-east continue to suffer long-term low rainfall. The Bureau of Meteorology, in its annual climate statement for 2007, reported that south-east Australia has now missed out on the equivalent of an average year's rainfall in the past 11 years, making the current drought one of Australia's most severe on record. The current drought is notable for its record high temperatures and record low inflows to water storages. The statement warns of a drying trend in the decades ahead.
Four states Western Australia, Queensland, South Australia and NSW either have working desalination plants or are planning to build them. Opponents say that producing the large amount of electricity required to run a desalination plant hastens climate change, which may be the culprit behind Australia's drying trend. The scientific jury is still out.
Some governments have countered or appeased those arguments by building wind farms to offset the power needs of their desalination plants. In Queensland, Premier Anna Bligh has challenged energy companies to come up with the best way to power a planned desal plant at Tugun on the Gold Coast using only renewable sources.
She said recently: "I want industry to come to us with their best ideas it could be solar or wind-generated power for example, it could be carbon offsetting, or it could be a combination. Making the plant carbon neutral will save 207,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year which is equivalent to emissions from 46,000 cars."
Western Australia was first off the mark with a large-scale plant. Its Kwinana plant opened in November 2007. Now it provides about 45 gigalitres of water per year, about 17 per cent of Perth' s needs. It is powered by a wind farm at Emu Downs, although the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission recently found that statements by the Perth Water Corporation that the plant was carbon neutral were misleading, and told it not to make similar claims in the future. The corporation is now calling for tenders for a new plant at Binningup, 155km south of Perth (see box).
Victoria is building a plant at Wonthaggi in Gippsland which will supply about 150 billion litres a year, roughly one third of Melbourne's water. The Victorian Government says it has already included the price of using renewable energy into the cost of the project.
Sydney's desalination plant is being built at Kurnell on Botany Bay. The state government hopes to have it pumping 90 gigalitres of potable water per year from late 2009. To offset the power needs the state is building, with a private partner, a wind farm at Bungendore, east of Canberra. The 63-turbine farm is projected to have a capacity of 132 megawatts, about eight times greater than NSW's existing installed and accredited wind energy.
Stung by public criticism of the plant's power needs, the state government says that renewable energy certificates earned from the wind farm will provide clear public evidence that the desalination plant is powered by 100 per cent renewable energy.
The pioneer of desalination was South Australia, albeit small-scale. Since 1999 a plant at Penneshaw on Kangaroo Island has been providing with 300 kilolitres of fresh water every day. The island has no natural fresh water. In Coober Pedy, salty underground water is treated. At Marion Bay on the Yorke Peninsula a plant produces 60 kilolitres of water each day more cheaply than carting in fresh water.
Now the state is going upscale, and has plans to build a plant at Port Stanvac that will initially supply a quarter of Adelaide's water. The 50 gigalitre plant is expected to cost about $1.1 billion. Desalination plants work by drawing in sea water and passing it through a porous membrane, which filters salt and impurities. The water is then treated with lime, chloride and fluoride to bring it up to drinking standard. Last, it is blended with fresh water from other catchment sources. What is left over, super salty brine, is returned to the sea.
Not everyone is happy with desalination. Community groups have sprung up in each state where a plant is planned to oppose them on environmental and finance grounds. In South Australia, the Save Our Gulf Coalition says the planned plant at Port Stanvac presents many problems. Coalition chairman Peter Laffan says for one, the site is a contaminated former oil refinery.
Our chief concern is the brine in the Gulf St Vincent because it is very slow moving water and we have unusual phenomena in dodge tides; every two weeks there is no tidal movements for a day or so." That, together with the fact that flushing takes three to six months, means there is a significant threat that the brine will not disperse. Laffan says brine builds up in low oxygen slugs that can create "dead" zones. And he questions the plant's renewable energy credentials.
Saturday 8/11/2008 Page: 6
THE worst drought in a century, especially in Australia's most populated and fastest growing regions, has forced state governments to make expensive, and in some quarters unpopular, decisions to secure water supply. As rainfall dwindles, new dams are a less-than- promising prospect, so governments have looked to the boundless resource surrounding us the sea for an answer. Their solution: desalination.
Last year was Australia's sixth warmest on record. It was the warmest in the Murray-Darling Basin and in South Australia, NSW and Victoria. The south-west and south-east continue to suffer long-term low rainfall. The Bureau of Meteorology, in its annual climate statement for 2007, reported that south-east Australia has now missed out on the equivalent of an average year's rainfall in the past 11 years, making the current drought one of Australia's most severe on record. The current drought is notable for its record high temperatures and record low inflows to water storages. The statement warns of a drying trend in the decades ahead.
Four states Western Australia, Queensland, South Australia and NSW either have working desalination plants or are planning to build them. Opponents say that producing the large amount of electricity required to run a desalination plant hastens climate change, which may be the culprit behind Australia's drying trend. The scientific jury is still out.
Some governments have countered or appeased those arguments by building wind farms to offset the power needs of their desalination plants. In Queensland, Premier Anna Bligh has challenged energy companies to come up with the best way to power a planned desal plant at Tugun on the Gold Coast using only renewable sources.
She said recently: "I want industry to come to us with their best ideas it could be solar or wind-generated power for example, it could be carbon offsetting, or it could be a combination. Making the plant carbon neutral will save 207,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year which is equivalent to emissions from 46,000 cars."
Western Australia was first off the mark with a large-scale plant. Its Kwinana plant opened in November 2007. Now it provides about 45 gigalitres of water per year, about 17 per cent of Perth' s needs. It is powered by a wind farm at Emu Downs, although the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission recently found that statements by the Perth Water Corporation that the plant was carbon neutral were misleading, and told it not to make similar claims in the future. The corporation is now calling for tenders for a new plant at Binningup, 155km south of Perth (see box).
Victoria is building a plant at Wonthaggi in Gippsland which will supply about 150 billion litres a year, roughly one third of Melbourne's water. The Victorian Government says it has already included the price of using renewable energy into the cost of the project.
Sydney's desalination plant is being built at Kurnell on Botany Bay. The state government hopes to have it pumping 90 gigalitres of potable water per year from late 2009. To offset the power needs the state is building, with a private partner, a wind farm at Bungendore, east of Canberra. The 63-turbine farm is projected to have a capacity of 132 megawatts, about eight times greater than NSW's existing installed and accredited wind energy.
Stung by public criticism of the plant's power needs, the state government says that renewable energy certificates earned from the wind farm will provide clear public evidence that the desalination plant is powered by 100 per cent renewable energy.
The pioneer of desalination was South Australia, albeit small-scale. Since 1999 a plant at Penneshaw on Kangaroo Island has been providing with 300 kilolitres of fresh water every day. The island has no natural fresh water. In Coober Pedy, salty underground water is treated. At Marion Bay on the Yorke Peninsula a plant produces 60 kilolitres of water each day more cheaply than carting in fresh water.
Now the state is going upscale, and has plans to build a plant at Port Stanvac that will initially supply a quarter of Adelaide's water. The 50 gigalitre plant is expected to cost about $1.1 billion. Desalination plants work by drawing in sea water and passing it through a porous membrane, which filters salt and impurities. The water is then treated with lime, chloride and fluoride to bring it up to drinking standard. Last, it is blended with fresh water from other catchment sources. What is left over, super salty brine, is returned to the sea.
Not everyone is happy with desalination. Community groups have sprung up in each state where a plant is planned to oppose them on environmental and finance grounds. In South Australia, the Save Our Gulf Coalition says the planned plant at Port Stanvac presents many problems. Coalition chairman Peter Laffan says for one, the site is a contaminated former oil refinery.
Our chief concern is the brine in the Gulf St Vincent because it is very slow moving water and we have unusual phenomena in dodge tides; every two weeks there is no tidal movements for a day or so." That, together with the fact that flushing takes three to six months, means there is a significant threat that the brine will not disperse. Laffan says brine builds up in low oxygen slugs that can create "dead" zones. And he questions the plant's renewable energy credentials.
Using the sea a tempting answer
Weekend Australian
Saturday 8/11/2008 Page: 6
THE worst drought in a century, especially in Australia's most populated and fastest growing regions, has forced state governments to make expensive, and in some quarters unpopular, decisions to secure water supply. As rainfall dwindles, new dams are a less-than- promising prospect, so governments have looked to the boundless resource surrounding us the sea for an answer. Their solution: desalination.
Last year was Australia's sixth warmest on record. It was the warmest in the Murray-Darling Basin and in South Australia, NSW and Victoria. The south-west and south-east continue to suffer long-term low rainfall. The Bureau of Meteorology, in its annual climate statement for 2007, reported that south-east Australia has now missed out on the equivalent of an average year's rainfall in the past 11 years, making the current drought one of Australia's most severe on record. The current drought is notable for its record high temperatures and record low inflows to water storages. The statement warns of a drying trend in the decades ahead.
Four states Western Australia, Queensland, South Australia and NSW either have working desalination plants or are planning to build them. Opponents say that producing the large amount of electricity required to run a desalination plant hastens climate change, which may be the culprit behind Australia's drying trend. The scientific jury is still out.
Some governments have countered or appeased those arguments by building wind farms to offset the power needs of their desalination plants. In Queensland, Premier Anna Bligh has challenged energy companies to come up with the best way to power a planned desal plant at Tugun on the Gold Coast using only renewable sources.
She said recently: "I want industry to come to us with their best ideas it could be solar or wind-generated power for example, it could be carbon offsetting, or it could be a combination. Making the plant carbon neutral will save 207,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year which is equivalent to emissions from 46,000 cars."
Western Australia was first off the mark with a large-scale plant. Its Kwinana plant opened in November 2007. Now it provides about 45 gigalitres of water per year, about 17 per cent of Perth' s needs. It is powered by a wind farm at Emu Downs, although the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission recently found that statements by the Perth Water Corporation that the plant was carbon neutral were misleading, and told it not to make similar claims in the future. The corporation is now calling for tenders for a new plant at Binningup, 155km south of Perth (see box).
Victoria is building a plant at Wonthaggi in Gippsland which will supply about 150 billion litres a year, roughly one third of Melbourne's water. The Victorian Government says it has already included the price of using renewable energy into the cost of the project.
Sydney's desalination plant is being built at Kurnell on Botany Bay. The state government hopes to have it pumping 90 gigalitres of potable water per year from late 2009. To offset the power needs the state is building, with a private partner, a wind farm at Bungendore, east of Canberra. The 63-turbine farm is projected to have a capacity of 132 megawatts, about eight times greater than NSW's existing installed and accredited wind energy.
Stung by public criticism of the plant's power needs, the state government says that renewable energy certificates earned from the wind farm will provide clear public evidence that the desalination plant is powered by 100 per cent renewable energy.
The pioneer of desalination was South Australia, albeit small-scale. Since 1999 a plant at Penneshaw on Kangaroo Island has been providing with 300 kilolitres of fresh water every day. The island has no natural fresh water. In Coober Pedy, salty underground water is treated. At Marion Bay on the Yorke Peninsula a plant produces 60 kilolitres of water each day more cheaply than carting in fresh water.
Now the state is going upscale, and has plans to build a plant at Port Stanvac that will initially supply a quarter of Adelaide's water. The 50 gigalitre plant is expected to cost about $1.1 billion. Desalination plants work by drawing in sea water and passing it through a porous membrane, which filters salt and impurities. The water is then treated with lime, chloride and fluoride to bring it up to drinking standard. Last, it is blended with fresh water from other catchment sources. What is left over, super salty brine, is returned to the sea.
Not everyone is happy with desalination. Community groups have sprung up in each state where a plant is planned to oppose them on environmental and finance grounds. In South Australia, the Save Our Gulf Coalition says the planned plant at Port Stanvac presents many problems. Coalition chairman Peter Laffan says for one, the site is a contaminated former oil refinery.
Our chief concern is the brine in the Gulf St Vincent because it is very slow moving water and we have unusual phenomena in dodge tides; every two weeks there is no tidal movements for a day or so." That, together with the fact that flushing takes three to six months, means there is a significant threat that the brine will not disperse. Laffan says brine builds up in low oxygen slugs that can create "dead" zones. And he questions the plant's renewable energy credentials.
Saturday 8/11/2008 Page: 6
THE worst drought in a century, especially in Australia's most populated and fastest growing regions, has forced state governments to make expensive, and in some quarters unpopular, decisions to secure water supply. As rainfall dwindles, new dams are a less-than- promising prospect, so governments have looked to the boundless resource surrounding us the sea for an answer. Their solution: desalination.
Last year was Australia's sixth warmest on record. It was the warmest in the Murray-Darling Basin and in South Australia, NSW and Victoria. The south-west and south-east continue to suffer long-term low rainfall. The Bureau of Meteorology, in its annual climate statement for 2007, reported that south-east Australia has now missed out on the equivalent of an average year's rainfall in the past 11 years, making the current drought one of Australia's most severe on record. The current drought is notable for its record high temperatures and record low inflows to water storages. The statement warns of a drying trend in the decades ahead.
Four states Western Australia, Queensland, South Australia and NSW either have working desalination plants or are planning to build them. Opponents say that producing the large amount of electricity required to run a desalination plant hastens climate change, which may be the culprit behind Australia's drying trend. The scientific jury is still out.
Some governments have countered or appeased those arguments by building wind farms to offset the power needs of their desalination plants. In Queensland, Premier Anna Bligh has challenged energy companies to come up with the best way to power a planned desal plant at Tugun on the Gold Coast using only renewable sources.
She said recently: "I want industry to come to us with their best ideas it could be solar or wind-generated power for example, it could be carbon offsetting, or it could be a combination. Making the plant carbon neutral will save 207,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year which is equivalent to emissions from 46,000 cars."
Western Australia was first off the mark with a large-scale plant. Its Kwinana plant opened in November 2007. Now it provides about 45 gigalitres of water per year, about 17 per cent of Perth' s needs. It is powered by a wind farm at Emu Downs, although the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission recently found that statements by the Perth Water Corporation that the plant was carbon neutral were misleading, and told it not to make similar claims in the future. The corporation is now calling for tenders for a new plant at Binningup, 155km south of Perth (see box).
Victoria is building a plant at Wonthaggi in Gippsland which will supply about 150 billion litres a year, roughly one third of Melbourne's water. The Victorian Government says it has already included the price of using renewable energy into the cost of the project.
Sydney's desalination plant is being built at Kurnell on Botany Bay. The state government hopes to have it pumping 90 gigalitres of potable water per year from late 2009. To offset the power needs the state is building, with a private partner, a wind farm at Bungendore, east of Canberra. The 63-turbine farm is projected to have a capacity of 132 megawatts, about eight times greater than NSW's existing installed and accredited wind energy.
Stung by public criticism of the plant's power needs, the state government says that renewable energy certificates earned from the wind farm will provide clear public evidence that the desalination plant is powered by 100 per cent renewable energy.
The pioneer of desalination was South Australia, albeit small-scale. Since 1999 a plant at Penneshaw on Kangaroo Island has been providing with 300 kilolitres of fresh water every day. The island has no natural fresh water. In Coober Pedy, salty underground water is treated. At Marion Bay on the Yorke Peninsula a plant produces 60 kilolitres of water each day more cheaply than carting in fresh water.
Now the state is going upscale, and has plans to build a plant at Port Stanvac that will initially supply a quarter of Adelaide's water. The 50 gigalitre plant is expected to cost about $1.1 billion. Desalination plants work by drawing in sea water and passing it through a porous membrane, which filters salt and impurities. The water is then treated with lime, chloride and fluoride to bring it up to drinking standard. Last, it is blended with fresh water from other catchment sources. What is left over, super salty brine, is returned to the sea.
Not everyone is happy with desalination. Community groups have sprung up in each state where a plant is planned to oppose them on environmental and finance grounds. In South Australia, the Save Our Gulf Coalition says the planned plant at Port Stanvac presents many problems. Coalition chairman Peter Laffan says for one, the site is a contaminated former oil refinery.
Our chief concern is the brine in the Gulf St Vincent because it is very slow moving water and we have unusual phenomena in dodge tides; every two weeks there is no tidal movements for a day or so." That, together with the fact that flushing takes three to six months, means there is a significant threat that the brine will not disperse. Laffan says brine builds up in low oxygen slugs that can create "dead" zones. And he questions the plant's renewable energy credentials.
Wednesday, 29 May 2013
THE Desert Kingdom; desalination from oil power to solar power?
www.saudigazette.com.sa
15 Apr 2013
Saudi Arabia finds itself in an interesting economic cleft stick. While blessed with oil that it can currently sell at around $104 per barrel on the world market, it is compelled to burn a sizable proportion of that potential income to produce desalinated water. Cost of production of water fluctuates, but a fair guess is between 40 and 90¢ a barrel, depending on fuel price.
To produce water, the Kingdom uses approximately 1.5 million barrels of oil a day across its 30 or so desalination plants to meet the demand for domestic and industrial water. Little of this water--if any is used for agriculture. The water for agriculture--some 85 to 90% of the total water use in the Kingdom--comes from non-replaceable resources, underground aquifers that are drying out rapidly. For every 100 liters per annum withdrawn, only one liter or less finds itself back into the aquifer.
The government has wisely decided that food security, once an unquestionable shibboleth of policy, is no longer worth the use of resources and has taken up the idea of virtual water. This refers to the hidden flow of water if food or other commodities are traded from one place to another.
Virtual water is best defined as "the volume of freshwater used to produce the product, measured at the place where the product was actually produced". It refers to the sum of the water use in the various steps of the production chain. It is 'virtual' for when the product arrives at its destination, the water is no longer contained in it, and was used only to produce it. An example of the saving of such imports is wheat, which takes 1,600 tons of water on average to produce one ton of grain.
It has resolved that the Kingdom will rely entirely on imports for food by 2016. Starting in 2008, the government has been reducing wheat purchases from local farmers by 12.5% a year and plans eventually to withdraw all agricultural subsidies to these farmers. Having addressed the issue of water supply and use and effectively engaged the biggest user of water, agriculture, positively, desalination for the balance of life in the Kingdom remains a huge challenge on several levels.
A major issue, the use of expensive oil that could produce income for making water, has spawned a slew of projects based on solar power for water production. The Kingdom might, and probably is, considering nuclear power as another option, but this introduces the political aspect of the importation of nuclear fuels and technology to the region, which is already under the baleful gaze of the West.
Happily, Saudi Arabia is one of the sunniest places on earth, averaging between 200 and 300 hours per month. Solar power therefore is an environmentally friendly, infinitely renewable (well, for the next seven billion years or so and the earth will have dried out and life gone in 3.5 billion) and very available alternative. Moreover it is harmless, both politically and environmentally.
The Kingdom seems to have opted so far for the expensive option of photovoltaic cell electricity generation to run the new solar desalination plants rather than the simpler, longer lasting and lower maintenance Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) alternative. Commercially viable CSP plants are already in operation in California, France and Spain--all with lower sunshine hours--and are feeding electricity into the grid.
The government is tackling the building of desalination capacity actively and has allocated $6.4 billion for water and sanitation projects in 2013.
Saline Water Conversion Corp. SWCC, (which supplies 50% of the municipal water in the Kingdom and produces 18% of the global total) for example plans to build the world's largest water desalination plant in Rabigh and will have the ability to pump 600,000 cubic meters of desalinated water per day. The conventionally fueled plant should be completed by 2018. State-owned National Water Co, plans to spend $66 billion on plants and upgrades over the next 10 years.
In October 2012, Abdul Rahman Al-Ibrahim, governor of SWCC announced plans to establish three new solar-powered desalination plants in Haqel, Dhuba and Farasan in addition to the one under construction in Khafji.
The Khafji solar desalination project will be the first large-scale solar-powered seawater reverse-osmosis (SWRO) plant in the world. It was due for completion at the end of 2012 and designed with a capacity of 30,000 cubic meters of water per day for the 100,000 customers.
The Khafji desal plant is the first step in King Abdullah City for Science and Technology's solar power program to reduce desalination costs. Phase two of the project is the construction of a new plant to produce 300,000 cubic meters of water per day is planned by 2015, and phase three will involve Haqel, Dhuba and Farasan by 2018.
The Kingdom is not alone in the search for a clean, effective and cheap means of producing water. The UN classifies around 700 million people in 43 countries as suffering from water scarcity today. By 2025 the figure is forecast to rise to 1.8 billion.
With the global population expected to reach nine billion by 2050 and the US secretary of state openly discussing the threat of water shortages leading to wars, the production of desalinated water has never been more important.
15 Apr 2013
Saudi Arabia finds itself in an interesting economic cleft stick. While blessed with oil that it can currently sell at around $104 per barrel on the world market, it is compelled to burn a sizable proportion of that potential income to produce desalinated water. Cost of production of water fluctuates, but a fair guess is between 40 and 90¢ a barrel, depending on fuel price.To produce water, the Kingdom uses approximately 1.5 million barrels of oil a day across its 30 or so desalination plants to meet the demand for domestic and industrial water. Little of this water--if any is used for agriculture. The water for agriculture--some 85 to 90% of the total water use in the Kingdom--comes from non-replaceable resources, underground aquifers that are drying out rapidly. For every 100 liters per annum withdrawn, only one liter or less finds itself back into the aquifer.
The government has wisely decided that food security, once an unquestionable shibboleth of policy, is no longer worth the use of resources and has taken up the idea of virtual water. This refers to the hidden flow of water if food or other commodities are traded from one place to another.
Virtual water is best defined as "the volume of freshwater used to produce the product, measured at the place where the product was actually produced". It refers to the sum of the water use in the various steps of the production chain. It is 'virtual' for when the product arrives at its destination, the water is no longer contained in it, and was used only to produce it. An example of the saving of such imports is wheat, which takes 1,600 tons of water on average to produce one ton of grain.
It has resolved that the Kingdom will rely entirely on imports for food by 2016. Starting in 2008, the government has been reducing wheat purchases from local farmers by 12.5% a year and plans eventually to withdraw all agricultural subsidies to these farmers. Having addressed the issue of water supply and use and effectively engaged the biggest user of water, agriculture, positively, desalination for the balance of life in the Kingdom remains a huge challenge on several levels.
A major issue, the use of expensive oil that could produce income for making water, has spawned a slew of projects based on solar power for water production. The Kingdom might, and probably is, considering nuclear power as another option, but this introduces the political aspect of the importation of nuclear fuels and technology to the region, which is already under the baleful gaze of the West.
Happily, Saudi Arabia is one of the sunniest places on earth, averaging between 200 and 300 hours per month. Solar power therefore is an environmentally friendly, infinitely renewable (well, for the next seven billion years or so and the earth will have dried out and life gone in 3.5 billion) and very available alternative. Moreover it is harmless, both politically and environmentally.
The Kingdom seems to have opted so far for the expensive option of photovoltaic cell electricity generation to run the new solar desalination plants rather than the simpler, longer lasting and lower maintenance Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) alternative. Commercially viable CSP plants are already in operation in California, France and Spain--all with lower sunshine hours--and are feeding electricity into the grid.
The government is tackling the building of desalination capacity actively and has allocated $6.4 billion for water and sanitation projects in 2013.
Saline Water Conversion Corp. SWCC, (which supplies 50% of the municipal water in the Kingdom and produces 18% of the global total) for example plans to build the world's largest water desalination plant in Rabigh and will have the ability to pump 600,000 cubic meters of desalinated water per day. The conventionally fueled plant should be completed by 2018. State-owned National Water Co, plans to spend $66 billion on plants and upgrades over the next 10 years.
In October 2012, Abdul Rahman Al-Ibrahim, governor of SWCC announced plans to establish three new solar-powered desalination plants in Haqel, Dhuba and Farasan in addition to the one under construction in Khafji.
The Khafji solar desalination project will be the first large-scale solar-powered seawater reverse-osmosis (SWRO) plant in the world. It was due for completion at the end of 2012 and designed with a capacity of 30,000 cubic meters of water per day for the 100,000 customers.
The Khafji desal plant is the first step in King Abdullah City for Science and Technology's solar power program to reduce desalination costs. Phase two of the project is the construction of a new plant to produce 300,000 cubic meters of water per day is planned by 2015, and phase three will involve Haqel, Dhuba and Farasan by 2018.
The Kingdom is not alone in the search for a clean, effective and cheap means of producing water. The UN classifies around 700 million people in 43 countries as suffering from water scarcity today. By 2025 the figure is forecast to rise to 1.8 billion.
With the global population expected to reach nine billion by 2050 and the US secretary of state openly discussing the threat of water shortages leading to wars, the production of desalinated water has never been more important.
Thursday, 6 June 2013
Carnegie Wave Energy formally awarded A$1.27M seawater desalination plant grant
www.proactiveinvestors.com.au
22 Apr 2013
Carnegie Corporation Wave Energy has been formally awarded the A$1.27 million AusIndustry grant to support its CETO Seawater desalination Demonstration Pilot Plant at Garden Island, Western Australia. The grant, which is half the $2.5 million cost, will support design and construction of the seawater desalination plant.
Carnegie Corporation's plant will be directly powered by CETO hydraulic energy from an offshore CETO system to demonstrate that wave energy driven seawater desalination has the potential to significantly and sustainably reduce the amount of electricity consumed by seawater desalination.
The CETO desalination pilot will be co-located with Carnegie Corporation's Perth Wave Energy Project (PWEP) on Garden Island, integrating off-the-shelf reverse-osmosis desalination technology with the PWEP infrastructure.
Key initial tasks ahead of construction include completing detailed design, securing environmental approvals, negotiation of a water sales agreement and, if possible, the integration of the construction and commissioning of the desalination pilot with the delivery of PWEP.
22 Apr 2013
Carnegie Corporation Wave Energy has been formally awarded the A$1.27 million AusIndustry grant to support its CETO Seawater desalination Demonstration Pilot Plant at Garden Island, Western Australia. The grant, which is half the $2.5 million cost, will support design and construction of the seawater desalination plant.Carnegie Corporation's plant will be directly powered by CETO hydraulic energy from an offshore CETO system to demonstrate that wave energy driven seawater desalination has the potential to significantly and sustainably reduce the amount of electricity consumed by seawater desalination.
The CETO desalination pilot will be co-located with Carnegie Corporation's Perth Wave Energy Project (PWEP) on Garden Island, integrating off-the-shelf reverse-osmosis desalination technology with the PWEP infrastructure.
Key initial tasks ahead of construction include completing detailed design, securing environmental approvals, negotiation of a water sales agreement and, if possible, the integration of the construction and commissioning of the desalination pilot with the delivery of PWEP.
Thursday, 29 July 2010
Carnegie rides CETO wave
West Australian
Saturday 24/07/2010 Page: 66
Renewable energy hopeful Carnegie Corporation Wave Energy has secured Government cash to fund a pilot project to test the success of its CETO technology in powering desalination plants. Carnegie Corporation, founded by one-time Fremantle inventor Alan Burns, has been testing its underwater wave energy technology for use as a zero emissions energy source at its Fremantle facility and this year began building a 5MW pilot plant at Garden Island with $12.5 million from the State Government.
It has also flagged the potential for the technology to be used in desalination projects. Now it has been formally given the go-ahead to prove that potential through the Rockingham based National Centre for Excellence in desalination, a joint State-Federal Government research institute launched by the Minister for Climate Change Penny Wong last night.
Speaking after the ribbon-cutting, Carnegie Corporation managing director Mike Ottaviano said the $500,000 project - jointly funded by Carnegie Corporation and the NCED - was an important first step in shoring up the CETO technology. "Having our initial project located in WA means we're well-placed to capitalise on desalination opportunities locally and then export this expertise globally", Dr Ottaviano said.
The CETO technology generates power through buoys anchored on the ocean floor that use the motion of passing waves to drive pumps to deliver pressurised water to shore. Under the desalination project, the water would be pushed into the incoming seawater being pumped into a traditionally designed desalination plant.
"There are a lot of desal plants already in operation today that are powered by fossil fuels... and about 40% of the bottom line of a desalination plant is energy (cost)!' he said. "So if you can remove that... you've got massive cost savings and greenhouse gas savings as well". Carnegie Corporation is among tenderers on the short list for the proposed Binningup desalination plant.
Saturday 24/07/2010 Page: 66
Renewable energy hopeful Carnegie Corporation Wave Energy has secured Government cash to fund a pilot project to test the success of its CETO technology in powering desalination plants. Carnegie Corporation, founded by one-time Fremantle inventor Alan Burns, has been testing its underwater wave energy technology for use as a zero emissions energy source at its Fremantle facility and this year began building a 5MW pilot plant at Garden Island with $12.5 million from the State Government.
It has also flagged the potential for the technology to be used in desalination projects. Now it has been formally given the go-ahead to prove that potential through the Rockingham based National Centre for Excellence in desalination, a joint State-Federal Government research institute launched by the Minister for Climate Change Penny Wong last night.
Speaking after the ribbon-cutting, Carnegie Corporation managing director Mike Ottaviano said the $500,000 project - jointly funded by Carnegie Corporation and the NCED - was an important first step in shoring up the CETO technology. "Having our initial project located in WA means we're well-placed to capitalise on desalination opportunities locally and then export this expertise globally", Dr Ottaviano said.
The CETO technology generates power through buoys anchored on the ocean floor that use the motion of passing waves to drive pumps to deliver pressurised water to shore. Under the desalination project, the water would be pushed into the incoming seawater being pumped into a traditionally designed desalination plant.
"There are a lot of desal plants already in operation today that are powered by fossil fuels... and about 40% of the bottom line of a desalination plant is energy (cost)!' he said. "So if you can remove that... you've got massive cost savings and greenhouse gas savings as well". Carnegie Corporation is among tenderers on the short list for the proposed Binningup desalination plant.
Wednesday, 20 June 2007
Victorians look to Perth desalination example
AAP Newswire
Tuesday 19/6/2007
Victoria may soon boast Australia's largest desalination plant, but Perth is already drawing from the nation's first. Perth residents began drinking water from the Indian Ocean late last year via a $387 million seawater desalination facility at Kwinana, south of the city.
The plant was built to supply 17 per cent of the city's water at full capacity and the Western Australian government has since announced plans for a second desalination facility. The existing plant was built as part of a joint venture between Multiplex Group and French-based water treatment specialist, Degremont. It was the largest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere and the third largest of its kind in the world at the time it started operating. It is powered by electricity generated by the Emu Downs Wind Farm near Cervantes on the western WA coast.
The Perth plant is expected to produce 45 gigalitres of water per year or 130 million litres per day, making it the largest single water source feeding into Perth's Integrated Water Supply. The Victorian plant will be built in the Wonthaggi region, south-east of Melbourne, at a cost of $3.1 billion, Premier Steve Bracks announced today. It is expected to provide 150 billion litres of water per year for Melbourne, Geelong, Westernport and Wonthaggi.
The NSW government is planning to build a desalination plant at Kurnell in Sydney's The Queensland government also plans to build a desalination plant, along with two new dams, and introduce recycled drinking water.
The second plant planned for Perth will cost almost $1 billion and will be powered by renewable At Binningup, 130km south of Perth, the plant will provide at least 45 gigalitres of water a Wheatbelt and the Goldfields when it comes on line by 201 1. More than 30 per cent of Perth's water will then come from desalination, cutting dependence on dams and the strained Gnangara mound, Perth's main water source.
Tuesday 19/6/2007
Victoria may soon boast Australia's largest desalination plant, but Perth is already drawing from the nation's first. Perth residents began drinking water from the Indian Ocean late last year via a $387 million seawater desalination facility at Kwinana, south of the city.
The plant was built to supply 17 per cent of the city's water at full capacity and the Western Australian government has since announced plans for a second desalination facility. The existing plant was built as part of a joint venture between Multiplex Group and French-based water treatment specialist, Degremont. It was the largest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere and the third largest of its kind in the world at the time it started operating. It is powered by electricity generated by the Emu Downs Wind Farm near Cervantes on the western WA coast.
The Perth plant is expected to produce 45 gigalitres of water per year or 130 million litres per day, making it the largest single water source feeding into Perth's Integrated Water Supply. The Victorian plant will be built in the Wonthaggi region, south-east of Melbourne, at a cost of $3.1 billion, Premier Steve Bracks announced today. It is expected to provide 150 billion litres of water per year for Melbourne, Geelong, Westernport and Wonthaggi.
The NSW government is planning to build a desalination plant at Kurnell in Sydney's The Queensland government also plans to build a desalination plant, along with two new dams, and introduce recycled drinking water.
The second plant planned for Perth will cost almost $1 billion and will be powered by renewable At Binningup, 130km south of Perth, the plant will provide at least 45 gigalitres of water a Wheatbelt and the Goldfields when it comes on line by 201 1. More than 30 per cent of Perth's water will then come from desalination, cutting dependence on dams and the strained Gnangara mound, Perth's main water source.
Friday, 20 April 2007
Salting it away for non-rainy day
Australian
Thursday 19/4/2007 Page: 2
AUSTRALIA'S driest capital yesterday officially opened the nation's first desalination plant, as the West Australian Government committed hundreds of millions of dollars to building at least one more in the near future. Premier Alan Carpenter said the "rainfall-independent" water supply would provide 17 per cent of Perth's needs, 144 million litres of drinking water each day.
Although the other states were bickering over options to address their growing water crises, Mr Carpenter said he was certain Western Australia would build more desalination plants in the near future. "There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that we will have another desalination plant, at least of this scale, on the coast north or south of Perth in the not too distant future, and in the longer term we will have several," Mr Carpenter said at the opening of the $387 million Kwinana plant, 40km south of Perth.
The Government was also in the process of assessing the environmental impact of tapping the South-West Yarragadee aquifer. Water Corporation chief executive Jim Gill has warned the Government needed to make a decision on Yarragadee by the end of next month to ensure severe shortages were not experienced in 2009.
Questioned on the cost of water from the desalination plant, Mr Carpenter said West Australians had to get used to the fact the days of cheap water were over. "The days when we were getting water for virtually nothing from dams overflowing from rainfall and run-off would appear to be over," he said. "Every other option is considerably more expensive. Water prices are going to continue to rise." He said water from dams cost about 16c per kilolitre compared with about $1.15 per kilolitre for desalinated water.
The Kwinana desalination plant is the third biggest in the world behind two massive plants in Israel and the United Arab Emirates. It is the largest desalination plant in the world to be powered by renewable energy the plant buys its power from the Emu Downs Wind Farm 245km north of Perth.
Federal Water Resources Minister Malcolm Turnbull was also spruiking water plans in Perth yesterday. Mr Turnbull announced $6.19 million in funding for a water-sensitive urbandevelopment project slated to save two billion litres of water a year. The development will include 15,000 new housing lots southeast of Perth and will use stormwater capture and groundwater for non-drinking purposes such as gardens, toilets and washing machines.
Comparing the project to Perth's new desalination plant, Mr Turnbull said it was low energy, low-cost and sustainable.
Thursday 19/4/2007 Page: 2
AUSTRALIA'S driest capital yesterday officially opened the nation's first desalination plant, as the West Australian Government committed hundreds of millions of dollars to building at least one more in the near future. Premier Alan Carpenter said the "rainfall-independent" water supply would provide 17 per cent of Perth's needs, 144 million litres of drinking water each day.Although the other states were bickering over options to address their growing water crises, Mr Carpenter said he was certain Western Australia would build more desalination plants in the near future. "There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that we will have another desalination plant, at least of this scale, on the coast north or south of Perth in the not too distant future, and in the longer term we will have several," Mr Carpenter said at the opening of the $387 million Kwinana plant, 40km south of Perth.
The Government was also in the process of assessing the environmental impact of tapping the South-West Yarragadee aquifer. Water Corporation chief executive Jim Gill has warned the Government needed to make a decision on Yarragadee by the end of next month to ensure severe shortages were not experienced in 2009.
Questioned on the cost of water from the desalination plant, Mr Carpenter said West Australians had to get used to the fact the days of cheap water were over. "The days when we were getting water for virtually nothing from dams overflowing from rainfall and run-off would appear to be over," he said. "Every other option is considerably more expensive. Water prices are going to continue to rise." He said water from dams cost about 16c per kilolitre compared with about $1.15 per kilolitre for desalinated water.
The Kwinana desalination plant is the third biggest in the world behind two massive plants in Israel and the United Arab Emirates. It is the largest desalination plant in the world to be powered by renewable energy the plant buys its power from the Emu Downs Wind Farm 245km north of Perth.
Federal Water Resources Minister Malcolm Turnbull was also spruiking water plans in Perth yesterday. Mr Turnbull announced $6.19 million in funding for a water-sensitive urbandevelopment project slated to save two billion litres of water a year. The development will include 15,000 new housing lots southeast of Perth and will use stormwater capture and groundwater for non-drinking purposes such as gardens, toilets and washing machines.
Comparing the project to Perth's new desalination plant, Mr Turnbull said it was low energy, low-cost and sustainable.
Friday, 12 October 2007
Cape Jervis idea for new desalination plant
Islander
Thursday 4/10/2007 Page: 5
Cape Jervis has been put forward as a possible location for SA's future desalination plant. The call for consideration of the Cape has come from the Member for Finniss, Michael Pengilly, who told State Parliament the deep flowing water in Backstairs Passage and the proximity to the Starfish Hill wind farm made Cape Jervis worthy of consideration. "Waters around the Cape are deep and fast flowing which will allow for the brine that is a by-product of the plant to be broken up, minimising harm to the environment," Mr Pengilly said.
As well as a green expansion of the Starfish Hill wind farm to generate power for the plant, he also advocated harnessing wave power. His speech to Parliament followed an announcement last week by the Premier, Mike Rann, that a 50-gigalitre desalination plant to serve Adelaide was among his government's plans to shore up water security for the state. Three weeks earlier the Liberal Party launched a 19-point plan to achieve the same water security. This included a pledge to build a desalination plant.
Since March a Desalination Working Group has investigated possible locations for the plant. According to a government spokeswoman, the group has looked at a number of possible locations, including Pelican Point, Point Stanvac and several spots along the South Coast. This is believed to include Cape Jervis. The group is expected to hand down its report next month and Cabinet should sign off on it in November. Mr Pengilly said building the plant at Cape Jervis would have a number of spinoffs for the region. "The distance from the Cape to the reservoir (at Myponga) is about 40km and building this pipeline would ensure the supply of water for smaller communities along the way, like Cape Jervis, Rapid Bay and Second Valley," he said.
He told Parliament it could also be used to sure up the water supply for the rapidly growing southern suburbs and south coast region. "If you put the desal plant at Cape Jervis in what is very deep water - 300 feet just off Cape Jervis - you do not have a problem with the brine because of the exceptional flow up and down Backstairs Passage," Mr Pengilly told Parliament. "It also has the environmental advantage of Starfish Hill Wind Farm, which could be used and which could be expanded to augment the power for the desalination plant. "The option of using wave power generated through Backstairs Passage may be an option." Mr Rann said the construction of a desalination plant was a complex undertaking. He indicated the government would look for a site that would enable the plant to be doubled in size if necessary in future years. He said there was concern about the impact the plant might have on the significant commercial fishery in Gulf St Vincent.
Thursday 4/10/2007 Page: 5
Cape Jervis has been put forward as a possible location for SA's future desalination plant. The call for consideration of the Cape has come from the Member for Finniss, Michael Pengilly, who told State Parliament the deep flowing water in Backstairs Passage and the proximity to the Starfish Hill wind farm made Cape Jervis worthy of consideration. "Waters around the Cape are deep and fast flowing which will allow for the brine that is a by-product of the plant to be broken up, minimising harm to the environment," Mr Pengilly said.
As well as a green expansion of the Starfish Hill wind farm to generate power for the plant, he also advocated harnessing wave power. His speech to Parliament followed an announcement last week by the Premier, Mike Rann, that a 50-gigalitre desalination plant to serve Adelaide was among his government's plans to shore up water security for the state. Three weeks earlier the Liberal Party launched a 19-point plan to achieve the same water security. This included a pledge to build a desalination plant.
Since March a Desalination Working Group has investigated possible locations for the plant. According to a government spokeswoman, the group has looked at a number of possible locations, including Pelican Point, Point Stanvac and several spots along the South Coast. This is believed to include Cape Jervis. The group is expected to hand down its report next month and Cabinet should sign off on it in November. Mr Pengilly said building the plant at Cape Jervis would have a number of spinoffs for the region. "The distance from the Cape to the reservoir (at Myponga) is about 40km and building this pipeline would ensure the supply of water for smaller communities along the way, like Cape Jervis, Rapid Bay and Second Valley," he said.
He told Parliament it could also be used to sure up the water supply for the rapidly growing southern suburbs and south coast region. "If you put the desal plant at Cape Jervis in what is very deep water - 300 feet just off Cape Jervis - you do not have a problem with the brine because of the exceptional flow up and down Backstairs Passage," Mr Pengilly told Parliament. "It also has the environmental advantage of Starfish Hill Wind Farm, which could be used and which could be expanded to augment the power for the desalination plant. "The option of using wave power generated through Backstairs Passage may be an option." Mr Rann said the construction of a desalination plant was a complex undertaking. He indicated the government would look for a site that would enable the plant to be doubled in size if necessary in future years. He said there was concern about the impact the plant might have on the significant commercial fishery in Gulf St Vincent.
Monday, 12 February 2007
Wind is the key: expert
Geelong Advertiser
Friday 9/2/2007 Page: 5
WATER and wind - the two staples of Geelong's coastline could be married in a bid to solve the region's drought woes, according to experts.
As the Surf Coast shapes as a likely home to Victoria's potential desalination plant, engineers have warned a new energy source would need to power the project, prompting renewed discussion about wind technology.
Engineer Brian Radford said wind farm power would be an ideal source for the desalination plant as there would be little point building a plant which used environmentally unfriendly power to drive it.
"(Desalination) is horses for courses essentially and it has issues associated with getting rid of brine - concentrated salt - now that has to be done in an environmentally sustainable way," said Mr Radford, Earth Tech engineering and consulting general manager.
"My personal opinion on wind farms is anything that helps reduce greenhouse emissions is a good thing." He said any such development would need to pass a triple bottom line test to ensure it was socially, economically and environmentally viable.
To indicate how power hungry desalination plants are, a recently commissioned plant for Western Australia will use enough energy to power 30,000 household. The $378 million desalination plant at Kwinana- will supply Perth with 17 per cent of its water needs and while it draws on the state's power grid for energy, the state's water authority has argued a new wind farm 200 kilometres away puts enough power into the grid to power the project.
Mr Radford said the Surf Coast would have the room for a wind farm without necessarily impacting on residential areas. He said it would come down to a debate but "there is no point in not having the debate".
Another water expert, Geelong-based GHD senior civil engineer Brian Ashworth, agreed a desalination plant would have to generate a new power source to prevent additional carbon discharge. But he said the community's objection to wind farms may be a problem in pursuing the concept.
"For a desalination plant, you're talking a lot of wind (turbines) not just one or two scattered over a few kilometres of the countryside," Mr Ashworth said. He said the wind farm would still need to be backed up by an alternative power source.
Friday 9/2/2007 Page: 5
WATER and wind - the two staples of Geelong's coastline could be married in a bid to solve the region's drought woes, according to experts.
As the Surf Coast shapes as a likely home to Victoria's potential desalination plant, engineers have warned a new energy source would need to power the project, prompting renewed discussion about wind technology.
Engineer Brian Radford said wind farm power would be an ideal source for the desalination plant as there would be little point building a plant which used environmentally unfriendly power to drive it.
"(Desalination) is horses for courses essentially and it has issues associated with getting rid of brine - concentrated salt - now that has to be done in an environmentally sustainable way," said Mr Radford, Earth Tech engineering and consulting general manager.
"My personal opinion on wind farms is anything that helps reduce greenhouse emissions is a good thing." He said any such development would need to pass a triple bottom line test to ensure it was socially, economically and environmentally viable.
To indicate how power hungry desalination plants are, a recently commissioned plant for Western Australia will use enough energy to power 30,000 household. The $378 million desalination plant at Kwinana- will supply Perth with 17 per cent of its water needs and while it draws on the state's power grid for energy, the state's water authority has argued a new wind farm 200 kilometres away puts enough power into the grid to power the project.
Mr Radford said the Surf Coast would have the room for a wind farm without necessarily impacting on residential areas. He said it would come down to a debate but "there is no point in not having the debate".
Another water expert, Geelong-based GHD senior civil engineer Brian Ashworth, agreed a desalination plant would have to generate a new power source to prevent additional carbon discharge. But he said the community's objection to wind farms may be a problem in pursuing the concept.
"For a desalination plant, you're talking a lot of wind (turbines) not just one or two scattered over a few kilometres of the countryside," Mr Ashworth said. He said the wind farm would still need to be backed up by an alternative power source.
Thursday, 29 March 2007
BHP roll out desalination plans
Whyalla News
Monday 26/3/2007 Page: 3
BHP Billiton rolled out its plans for the Olympic Dam Expansion and a desalination plant at Point Lowly to residents at the Left Hand Club on Tuesday night. The plans were presented with an emphasis that it was a proposal and not a formal project.
But the need for a supply of fresh water for the expansion, the advanced nature of the plans and the imminent start up of a pilot plant run by Veolia, left little doubt that the project was full steam ahead. The expansion of Olympic Dam is dependent on a reliable supply of fresh water that is sustainable for the next 40 years. With the River Murray in trouble and the water in the Artesian Basin dropping, desalination seems the only viable alternative.
Point Lowly offers a number of unique features for a desalination plant, such as its proximity to Roxby Downs and a deep channel with good currents in the gulf to disperse the salty return water. The plan is to site the desalination plant opposite Santos at Point Lowly. Seawater would be gently drawn in from False Bay to minimise marine lire intake, filtered and put through a reverse-osmosis plant to create fresh water.
This water would be mineralised to make it useable and pumped north to Roxby Downs. For every three litres of water drawn in at False Bay (feedwater), one litre would be made into fresh water and the remaining saltier two litres (concentrate) would be oxygenated by passing it over waterfalls and discharged into the deep channel east of Point Lowly lighthouse.
If the plant works as projected, the oxygen rich concentrate should be rapidly dispersed in the deep channel reaching a concentration within 10 per cent of seawater 100 metres from the outlet, ensuring minimal impact on marine life. However, to be on the safe side, BHP Billiton is testing the effects of saltier water on various fish found in the gulf such as giant cuttlefish, Tiger and Western King Prawns, sardines, Yellow Tail Kingfish, sea urchin and Pacific oysters.
BHP Billiton also indicated that it intends to buy green energy from renewable sources such as solar or wind power to run the plant, thus reducing the carbon output into the atmosphere and minimising the global warming effects of this plant using renewable energy, this plant looks like a real environmental winner. It has a small environmental footprint and has the potential to reverse some of the environmental damage done by overuse of water in the past.
For Whyalla, this plant means a few more jobs but no water from the BHP Billiton side of the desalination plant. However, it was pointed out that, if SAWater were to join BHP Billiton and build a much larger desalination plant, then all of the water needs for Whyalla, Port Augusta and Port Pirie could be supplied from this plant and water could be pumped in the reverse direction in the pipeline.
Using desalinated water in Whyalla is going to cost more but most people now realise that our ability to rely on the Murray River for cheap reliable water is far from certain and may be drawing to a close. This is an opportunity that our region should not let pass by and deserves community support. A reliable Water supply is the key to our future.
Monday 26/3/2007 Page: 3
BHP Billiton rolled out its plans for the Olympic Dam Expansion and a desalination plant at Point Lowly to residents at the Left Hand Club on Tuesday night. The plans were presented with an emphasis that it was a proposal and not a formal project.
But the need for a supply of fresh water for the expansion, the advanced nature of the plans and the imminent start up of a pilot plant run by Veolia, left little doubt that the project was full steam ahead. The expansion of Olympic Dam is dependent on a reliable supply of fresh water that is sustainable for the next 40 years. With the River Murray in trouble and the water in the Artesian Basin dropping, desalination seems the only viable alternative.
Point Lowly offers a number of unique features for a desalination plant, such as its proximity to Roxby Downs and a deep channel with good currents in the gulf to disperse the salty return water. The plan is to site the desalination plant opposite Santos at Point Lowly. Seawater would be gently drawn in from False Bay to minimise marine lire intake, filtered and put through a reverse-osmosis plant to create fresh water.
This water would be mineralised to make it useable and pumped north to Roxby Downs. For every three litres of water drawn in at False Bay (feedwater), one litre would be made into fresh water and the remaining saltier two litres (concentrate) would be oxygenated by passing it over waterfalls and discharged into the deep channel east of Point Lowly lighthouse.
If the plant works as projected, the oxygen rich concentrate should be rapidly dispersed in the deep channel reaching a concentration within 10 per cent of seawater 100 metres from the outlet, ensuring minimal impact on marine life. However, to be on the safe side, BHP Billiton is testing the effects of saltier water on various fish found in the gulf such as giant cuttlefish, Tiger and Western King Prawns, sardines, Yellow Tail Kingfish, sea urchin and Pacific oysters.
BHP Billiton also indicated that it intends to buy green energy from renewable sources such as solar or wind power to run the plant, thus reducing the carbon output into the atmosphere and minimising the global warming effects of this plant using renewable energy, this plant looks like a real environmental winner. It has a small environmental footprint and has the potential to reverse some of the environmental damage done by overuse of water in the past.
For Whyalla, this plant means a few more jobs but no water from the BHP Billiton side of the desalination plant. However, it was pointed out that, if SAWater were to join BHP Billiton and build a much larger desalination plant, then all of the water needs for Whyalla, Port Augusta and Port Pirie could be supplied from this plant and water could be pumped in the reverse direction in the pipeline.
Using desalinated water in Whyalla is going to cost more but most people now realise that our ability to rely on the Murray River for cheap reliable water is far from certain and may be drawing to a close. This is an opportunity that our region should not let pass by and deserves community support. A reliable Water supply is the key to our future.
Wednesday, 16 May 2007
Carpenter backs $1bn desal plant, scraps aquifer plan
Australian
Wednesday 16/5/2007 Page: 7
SEAWATER will provide a third of Western Australia's fresh water within four years following the Carpenter Government's decision to spend almost $1 billion building a second desalination plant south of Perth. Premier Alan Carpenter announced yesterday that he had dumped a plan by government utility Water Corporation to make the massive South West Yarragadee aquifer the state's next major water source.
Citing climate change and environmental concerns about the plan to tap the aquifer, Mr Carpenter announced that a $955 million desalination plant would be built near Binningup, about 150km south of Perth. More desalination plants were possible in the future. Like the existing wind-powered desalination plant 41km south of Perth the third-largest in the world the new plant will be powered by renewable energy and will provide 45 gigalitres of fresh water a year enough for 150,000 homes when it opens. And it will have the capacity to provide up to 100 gigalitres of fresh water a year as demand increases.
Western Australia's integrated water scheme at present supplies 270 gigalitres of water a year to the southwest, wheatbelt, Goldfields and metropolitan areas. Mr Carpenter, who recently assembled a panel of experts to consider projects to reduce the state's greenhouse gases, said the new desalination plant could be powered by geothermal energy. "There is a very exciting prospect with geothermal energy technology potentially being available for base-load power in the southwest of Western Australia in coincidence with the time lines we are talking about here (for the new plant)," he said.
He said that 30 years ago, 90 per cent of the state's fresh water came from dams, but that had fallen to 25 per cent. The percentage of recycled water in the integrated system had increased from 2.6 per cent in 2001 to 13.6 per cent. Mr Carpenter said new water sources, recycling and demand management had delivered an extra 180 gigalitres a year. "Western Australia is now recognised across Australia, even by the federal Government, as the nation's leader in water management, to the extent that Perth is the only major capital city where people can use sprinklers through the summer," he said.
Mr Carpenter defended his decision to shelve the tapping of the aquifer in the southwest. "A lot more work needs to be done on assessing the full impact of climate change before we entertain utilising South West Yarragadee in the way that was proposed," he said. "Rainfall is declining, it continues to decline and we don't know if it will continue to decline." A sum of $750 million towards the cost of building and connecting the desalination plant has been paid out of this year's surplus. A further $205 million would be set aside next year.
Opposition Leader Paul Omodei said he was delighted at the decision to take the Yarragadee option off the agenda and he cautiously welcomed the desalination plant. Any decision that will stop the Government taking water from the southern Yarragadee is a good decision and we will take some credit for that." he said.
Wednesday 16/5/2007 Page: 7
SEAWATER will provide a third of Western Australia's fresh water within four years following the Carpenter Government's decision to spend almost $1 billion building a second desalination plant south of Perth. Premier Alan Carpenter announced yesterday that he had dumped a plan by government utility Water Corporation to make the massive South West Yarragadee aquifer the state's next major water source.
Citing climate change and environmental concerns about the plan to tap the aquifer, Mr Carpenter announced that a $955 million desalination plant would be built near Binningup, about 150km south of Perth. More desalination plants were possible in the future. Like the existing wind-powered desalination plant 41km south of Perth the third-largest in the world the new plant will be powered by renewable energy and will provide 45 gigalitres of fresh water a year enough for 150,000 homes when it opens. And it will have the capacity to provide up to 100 gigalitres of fresh water a year as demand increases.
Western Australia's integrated water scheme at present supplies 270 gigalitres of water a year to the southwest, wheatbelt, Goldfields and metropolitan areas. Mr Carpenter, who recently assembled a panel of experts to consider projects to reduce the state's greenhouse gases, said the new desalination plant could be powered by geothermal energy. "There is a very exciting prospect with geothermal energy technology potentially being available for base-load power in the southwest of Western Australia in coincidence with the time lines we are talking about here (for the new plant)," he said.
He said that 30 years ago, 90 per cent of the state's fresh water came from dams, but that had fallen to 25 per cent. The percentage of recycled water in the integrated system had increased from 2.6 per cent in 2001 to 13.6 per cent. Mr Carpenter said new water sources, recycling and demand management had delivered an extra 180 gigalitres a year. "Western Australia is now recognised across Australia, even by the federal Government, as the nation's leader in water management, to the extent that Perth is the only major capital city where people can use sprinklers through the summer," he said.
Mr Carpenter defended his decision to shelve the tapping of the aquifer in the southwest. "A lot more work needs to be done on assessing the full impact of climate change before we entertain utilising South West Yarragadee in the way that was proposed," he said. "Rainfall is declining, it continues to decline and we don't know if it will continue to decline." A sum of $750 million towards the cost of building and connecting the desalination plant has been paid out of this year's surplus. A further $205 million would be set aside next year.
Opposition Leader Paul Omodei said he was delighted at the decision to take the Yarragadee option off the agenda and he cautiously welcomed the desalination plant. Any decision that will stop the Government taking water from the southern Yarragadee is a good decision and we will take some credit for that." he said.
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