Providing condition assessment and recommendations to remote location.
Challenge
Broken Hill has relied on the Menindee Lakes as the town’s main water supply since the 1960’s. The Menindee Lakes is a chain of shallow ephemeral freshwater lakes connected to the Darling River to form a storage system.
In late 2015, due to the drought conditions in the Darling system the capacity of the lake system was close to empty.
This not only limits supply of water but also impact on the quality of water which deteriorates (salinity increases) due to the high evaporation rate. Under these conditions, Broken Hill’s Water Treatment Plant, designed to remove turbidity and organic matter using conventional filtration process, requires an upgrade with the reverse osmosis process to remove the excess salinity.
Therefore the requirement for an RO plant arose, which required completion in a very short time frame - 12 weeks, very careful installation and integration with the continuously operating upstream water filtration plant, along with numerous procedures and measures to comply with from the NSW Public Works who managed the overall project on behalf of Essential Water, the owner and operator of the Broken Hill WTP.
The new RO plant was required to be integrated with the existing water treatment facility on site - successful integration would require close management of the equipment interfaces.
With a 12 week time frame, the project was completed in a very short time frame to all required standards set out by the NSW Public Works.
Challenge
The South Pacific Community (SPC) identified several SWRO plants across the Outer Islands of Kiribati that were performing sub-optimally. As such, Osmoflo was asked to submit a bid and provide its expertise to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Sustainability Environment (MISE), assessing the condition of the Outer Islands water treatment plants in place.
Solution
Due to the organisation's expertise in this field, coupled with the knowledge of the local environment, Osmoflo's technical engineers were best placed to provide impartial recommendations on practical solutions.
Osmoflo, working collaboratively with MISE whilst on deployment to the Outer Islands of Kiribati, gathered information and data critical to ensure the following deliverables were met:
- Standard Operating Procedures
- Asset Management Plan
- Maintenance Schedules
- Whole of Life Cost Analysis
- Condition Assessment and Recommendation Report
Through this project, Osmoflo determined that the main issue was a poor selection of electrical devices (VSDs), resulting in plant failure. In recommending a fit for purpose VSD along with a standard operating procedure to install, Osmoflo and MISE were able to retrofit the test plant successfully.
Result
This positive outcome of the refurbishment of the current plants for MISE saved a complete overhaul of several WTP's for the Outer Islands of Kiribati. As a result, Osmoflo is providing VSD's to the Ministry for imminent installation, resulting in clean fresh drinking water for the local community.
Other solutions
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