South Australia’s 150-member strong Water Industry Alliance is actively stepping up its international and interstate involvement in the water and wastewater market, according to the alliance’s executive director Malcolm Colgate.
Colgate said a number of alliance members would be out in force signalling to the market their latest product offerings and achievements at the upcoming Ozwater Exhibition, to be held at Canberra on April 2-4. The annual Australian Water Association (AWA) trade exhibition will be held in conjunction with the 19th AWA Federal Convention where more than 120 organisations as exhibitors are expected.
“The alliance is going from strength to strength, with more international and interstate project being won by member companies and more members coming on board,” Colgate told PACE.
Alliance member and exhibitor, the state government-owned SA Water, is on the verge of announcing a West Java project where it will manage the collection, distribution and discharge of water in that province.
Colgate said the governor of West Java was expected soon in this country to sign contracts for the go-ahead of the project.
“For a number of years now (SA Water) have been wooing the governor of West Java to get SA technology into that province – now we’re about to move into that area,” Colgate said.
Alliance’ members had a common interest in developing export and interstate opportunities for the SA water industry. Its main aim was to facilitate collaboration among its members for water and wastewater projects.
SA Water would also at the exhibition draw attention to its new commercial arms, the Australian Water Quality Centre, which provides laboratory services to the water and wastewater industry, and the Trade Services Division, which has expertise in cost-effectively patching and repairing pumps and valves in the field.
The Australian Water Quality Centre’s water management services include sampling, analysis, interpretation of results, specialised scientific advice and research services. The centre also has expertise in water treatment and catchment management.
Member companies United Utilities and O’Donnell Griffin will also be talking about their new contract to deliver a major wastewater plant for a nickel mine at Townsville, Qld. The project will involve cleaning up mine tailings to produce water for reuse in the manufacturing process and for irrigation, using reverse osmosis technology.
O’Donnell Griffin engineers and project managers are involved in designing, fabricating, constructing and commissioning activities in the water and wastewater industry. The company’s expertise is in membrane filtration plants, including reverse osmosis, chemical dosing systems, odour control systems, pumping stations and control systems. It manufactures a range of chemical powder storage and batching systems for powder activated carbon, lime and polymer, packaged membrane plants, and electrical switchboards.
United Water’s activities include the management, maintenance and operation of water and wastewater treatment plants, network systems, design, research and development and customer service.
The alliance’s exhibition co-ordinator, Stan Boath, said there was increasing interest in reverse osmosis technology by minerals processors.
“Desalination using reverse osmosis technology has now advanced to the stage where it is an economic alternative.”
Another viable application for reverse osmosis technology was in the supply of town water, he said.
Acqu-Gas – AVK, another alliance member, will present at the exhibition new water valve products, building on its range of long-life valves for the water, sewerage and gas markets. Aqua-Gas - AVK is the Australian arm of the AVK of Denmark.
Boath said Aqua-Gas - AVK was planning to expand its SA manufacturing base to delivery of a greater range of products to the Australian market.
“They’ll be displaying a stronger presence in the Australian market, from more locally manufactured products to new products,” he said.
Other alliance members to exhibit will be Baleen Filters, Ultraviolet Technologies of Australasia and Glynwed Products.
Biosolids
Biosolid operator and exhibitor Alfa Laval anticipates interest in its dewatering centrifuge technology used in the sewerage process to dewater sludge.
“There is a bit of a trend towards using dry solids machines, which can get the sludge as dry as possible,” said the company’s segment manager – energy and environment, Brad Smith.
Alfa Laval supplies solutions in separation, heat transfer and flow technology in environmental applications. Its products and processes are for treating water and wastewater sludge in industrial and municipal applications. They include centrifuge decanters for dewatering and thickening, rotary screen thickeners, heat exchangers for sludge pre-heating and heat recovery. Other equipment includes polymer dosing systems, solids conveyors, pumps and valves.
Smith said one of the large costs to sewerage treatment was handling biosolids, which often needed to be transported by trucks over long distances. “The lighter it is the more they can get into the truck - that produces lower costs in fuel and transport.”
He said water authorities in the past few years had begun to budget for total operational costs, which included sludge disposal – previously not necessarily costed.
“They’re not just putting in the cheapest equipment they can buy because when they start adding up all these other costs they realise it may well be worthwhile buying more expensive equipment and saving in other aspects of the disposing of sludge,” he said.
Water sampler
Kenelec Scientific’s managing director Peter Langley said it would be showcasing at the exhibition its new wastewater sampler product.
Kenelec Scientific supplies scientific instrumentation, including instrumentation for environmental monitoring and recording. Products include particle counters, weather stations, flow meters, stormwater and wastewater samplers, loggers and water quality sensors including level, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, temperature, pH, ORP and conductivity.
Langley said while it had so far only sold a couple of the samplers, it was getting a lot of calls from water authorities about the product, which could be used to monitor stormwater runoff and water from industrial plants.
“When you’ve had a flood of water and you want to find out what sort of contaminants are in the water, this product will take sample collections at designated times. The sampler is then taken back to a laboratory for analysis.”
He said water authorities were interested in the product as a way of checking that industry was doing the right thing when discharging processed water.
By the same token, it could also be used by industry to check that its processed water output was clean before entering the sewerage system, he said.