Endress + Hauser Australia have been successful in supplying the majority of the process instrumentation to the Western Corridor Re-Cycled Water Project (WCRWP), in South East Queensland (SEQ), including highly specialised engineered solutions to monitor the water quality through the treatment processes.
The WCRWP is one of a number of state government initiatives aimed at securing a future-proofed, climate-independent water supply for SEQ. The WCRWP will supply purified water to industry, agriculture, two power stations as well as supplementing the water flow into Wivenhoe Dam.
Five separate alliances (JVs) were chosen by Brisbane Water to build the pipelines and the Advanced Water Treatment Plants (AWTPs). Endress + Hauser Australia established a number of project teams that worked directly with the control and instrumentation divisions of the respective alliances to assist and advise on the selection of suitable technologies/products for different applications and provide expert opinion on all aspects of engineering, installation and commissioning.
The treated water from six sewage treatment plants (STPs) at Oxley, Goodna, Bundamba, Wacol, Luggage Point and Gibson Island will be processed further in three state-of-the-art AWTPs at Bundamba, Gibson Island and Luggage Point. Technically, what has excited the industry is the unique combination of technologies used in these AWTPs. The wastewater progresses through micro filtration; reverse osmosis; advanced oxidation; stabilisation and disinfection.
Endress + Hauser Australia supplied over 1,000 devices at a total value in excess of $6 million. This represented over 80 percent of the instrumentation commissioned throughout WCRWP’s wastewater and advanced wastewater treatment plants.
Among the products offered were:
- Electromagnetic flowmeters for water flow measurement
- Thermal dispersion flowmeters for air
- Ultrasonic level devices
- Pressure sensors
- Level switches
- Temperature sensors
Endress + Hauser Australia also custom designed air-conditioned cabinets to store the analysis reagents and internal wet racks to house the analysers, as well as pH, conductivity and turbidity systems. This is an extremely critical stage of the treatment process as potable water must have precisely defined conductivity, pH and turbidity properties.
The nature and design of the advanced water treatment plants in the WCRWP, help these inline analysers feature prominently in Endress + Hauser Australia’s contract. These analysers are however, maintenance intensive, requiring reagents and spare parts that need regular replacement and servicing.
Endress + Hauser Australia was also appointed main instrumentation maintenance contractor for all the plants. They will act as a subcontractor to Veolia Water, the company responsible for operations and maintenance of the WCRWP.
A key factor enabling Endress + Hauser Australia to win the maintenance contract was W@M – its Web-enabled Asset Management tool. Since every Endress + Hauser Australia’s device is uniquely serial numbered at its ’birth’, a vast amount of critical data is automatically stored and made accessible to the operators through W@M’s online portal. This data includes:
- Model details
- Manuals
- Manufacturing certificates
- Calibration certificates
- Original order number
- Hardware and software versions
- Spare parts information
- Service history