Australia’s first Desal Discovery Centre and dedicated national Desal Research Facility have been officially opened by WA Water Minister Bill Marmion at the National Centre of Excellence in Desalination in front of hundreds of visiting international water experts.
NCEDA’s new $5 million national facilities at Murdoch University’s Rockingham campus will now be used by the Centre’s scientists from 13 universities and CSIRO working with industry to improve desalination technologies, and are the result of unique collaboration between state and federal governments.
At Sunday’s ceremony, Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and Urban Water Senator Don Farrell announced that the $20 million federally-funded Centre has offered $3.8 million to fund 11 innovative new desalination research projects across Australia – boosting the number of NCEDA projects to 33.
Substantial commercial industry support for the new NCEDA facilities was honoured with th
anks for new gold sponsorships and donations of $500,000 worth of new plant and equipment.
Murdoch University Vice Chancellor Professor Richard Higgott made a surprise announcement during proceedings, bestowing a rare Honorary Professorship on NCEDA Chief Scientific Officer David Furukawa for his outstanding pioneering contribution to desalination in Australia and worldwide over the past 40 years. It’s only the third such award Murdoch has ever made.
The National Centre of Excellence in Desalination Australia’s CEO, Neil Palmer thanked the WA state government, Australian federal government and Murdoch for their foresight and support in creating the Centre’s new world-class facilities and welcomed the ongoing investment.
“Our Centre scientists collaborate closely with industry to develop new commercially viable solutions. Industry is making significant cash contributions to a number of these projects which is very encouraging,” Mr Palmer said.
“The new state-of-the-art Rockingham Desalination Research Facility will enable scale-up from bench to pilot processes, with potential for full scale commercial solutions. Our unique new Desal Discovery Centre will teach schoolchildren about water science, and how desalination works.”
The Desal Discovery Centre features an Edulab for hands-on water science run by a science educator, and a 3D multimedia conference centre with fly-through visuals of WA’s major desal plants.
NCEDA manages $20 million of research funding over five years from the Australian Government’s National Urban Water and Desalination Plan. The Centre consortium of 13 universities and CSIRO collaborates to improve desalination technology with Australian and international research institutions, private companies, water and power utilities, and government agencies.
Groundbreaking research includes the use of nanotechnology, solar power, developing solutions to increase recycling of desal membranes, and monitoring of marine life. NCEDA is working to increase the number of Australian graduates and postgraduates with specialist skills in desalination, increase the employment of PhD students in desalination organisations, and provide industry training in desalination.
Several of NCEDA’s leading research scientists, including new Murdoch University Honorary Professor David Furukawa, will give presentations at this week’s largest ever IDA World Congress on Desalination Solutions being held in Australia for the first time, at the Perth Convention Centre September 5-9.
Sponsored by the Water Corporation with technical program coordinated by NCEDA CEO Neil Palmer, the Congress features keynote addresses by Sir Richard Branson (via satellite) and Philippe Cousteau Jr: www.idadesal.org
For regular news on NCEDA, Australian desalination and the IDA World Congress in Perth September 5-9 visit: www.desalination.edu.au Follow NCEDA on Twitter: @DiscoverDesal
MEDIA CONTACT: Tanyia Maxted: 0438 645 839, t.maxted@desalination.edu.au.
PHOTOS are available of the facilities, VIPs and event, along with a factsheet on ‘Desalination in Australia’
Minister Bill Marmion and Minister John Day’s joint media release is online at: http://www.mediastatements.wa.gov.au/Pages/Results.aspx?ItemID=143829
Senator Farrell’s media statement: http://www.environment.gov.au/minister/farrell/2011/index.html
| New NCEDA Research Project Title | Principal University | Principal Investigator | Research participants |
| Brine Management Guidelines | Victoria University | Dr Peter Sanciolo | Smart Water Fund, GWMWater and Integrated Elements |
| Assisted Forward Osmosis as a Novel Concept for Energy Savings in Reverse Osmosis Desalination | University of New South Wales | Dr Pierre Le-Clech | University of Nevada and Nanyang Technological University |
| Assessing the Biofouling Role of Microbes in the Desalination System; from the Intake Pipe to the Reverse Osmosis Membranes | Flinders University | Dr Sophie Leterme | SA Water and Singapore Membrane Technology Centre |
| Smart materials for Corrosion Management | Deakin University | Professor Maria Forsyth | Monash University, Ohio State University, AECOM, ASIS Scientific Pty Ltd and AusComposites |
| Evaluation of Non-Chemical Pulsed-Power Technology as an Antifoulding Pre-Treatment for Reverse Osmosis Desalination Membranes | Victoria University | Professor Stephen Gray | AquaMem and SA Water |
| Membrane Adsorption Bioreactor Hybrid System as a Pre-Treatment to Reverse Osmosis Desalination | University of Technology Sydney | Professor Saravanamuth Vigneswaran | Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Singapore Membrane Technology Centre and The University of New South Wales |
| Continuous Silica Removal during Desalination for Increased Water Recovery | Victoria University | Dr Nicholas Milne, Dr Peter Sanciolo and Professor Stephen Gray | Origin Energy |
| Fibre-Optic Sensor for Water Quality Monitoring | Edith Cowan University | Professor Kamal Alameh | — |
| The Optimisation and Improvement of Direct Filtration Pre-Treatment to Reduce both Organic and Bio-Fouling of Reverse Osmosis Membranes | University of Technology Sydney | Professor Saravanamuth Vigneswaran | ProAlliance, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Singapore Membrane Technology Centre, Curtin University and The University of New South Wales |
| Transverse Vibrational Motion Enchanced Submerged Hollow Fibre Membrane Crystallizer | University of New South Wales | Professor Vicky Chen | Singapore Membrane Technology Centre |
| Modelling, Monitoring and Control of Reverse Osmosis Biofouling | Murdoch University | Dr Ralf Cord-Ruwisch | Nanyang Technological University, AquaMem, Valoriza and University of Alicante |
