The National Centre of Excellence in Desalination Australia is proud to present its fourth research workshop, to be held in Adelaide in May 2012.
International and national researchers and industry leaders will present current best practice in seawater intakes and discharges, examine case studies, and consider challenges for future research. Topics will include:
- open, submerged, and seawater well intakes
- brine dilution
- fluid mechanics
- environmental impacts and mitigation.
Who should attend?
The workshop will appeal to people from the following organisations:
- Seawater desal plant designers, constructors and operators
- Universities and Research Organisations
- Federal, State and Local Government
- Water Utilities
- Consultants
- Environmental Regulators
On this page:
- Program
- Keynote speakers and abstracts
- Session speakers and abstracts
- Associated events
- Venue
- Accommodation
- Register now!
- Questions?
Program
The workshop program is currently being finalised and will be available for download shortly. Confirmed speakers and their abstracts are shown below. The workshop program and speakers are subject to change due to circumstances outside of the control of NCEDA.
Keynote speakers and abstracts
Dr Sabine Lattemann
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia
Sabine Lattemann has over 10 years of experience in environmental research and impact analyses of seawater desalination, offshore wind energy developments, maritime shipping and transportation. She joined the Water Desalination & Reuse Center (WDRC) of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in August 2010 as a part-time research scientist. Her field of activity at the Center is the environmental impact and sustainability assessment of desalination technologies. From 2007-2010 Dr Lattemann participated in the European research project Membrane-based desalination – an integrated approach (MEDINA) and chaired the environmental working group of the World Health Organization Project “Desalination for safe water supply” from 2004-2007.
The greening of SWRO: Focus on intakes and outfalls
Sabine Lattemann, Riaan van der Merwe, and Gary Amy
The desalination processes requires considerable amounts of natural resources, for example, in the form of energy, chemicals, construction materials, or coastal land. Another main resource – seawater – is used as feed water for the desalination process and for dilution of the concentrate. The potential environmental concerns for the marine environment are the impingement and entrainment of organisms at the intakes, and harmful effects in the mixing zone of the concentrate around the outfalls. A review in the Journal Nature described desalination as often “chemically, energetically and operationally intensive, focused on large systems, and thus requiring considerable infusion of capital, engineering expertise and infrastructure” (Shannon et al. 2008). The need for resource-saving, low-impact ‘green’ desalination technologies is therefore evident. The concept of best available techniques (BAT) aims at the identification of state of the art technologies which prevent or reduce waste production and environmental pollution. The presentation will provide a synthesis of the potential environmental concerns of seawater desalination plants, with emphasis on intake and outfall designs, an overview of existing BAT regulations in Europe and the United States, and a ‘green paper’ concept for BAT solutions for SWRO plants which discusses the relative environmental merits of open intakes versus subsurface intakes.
Mr Tom Pankratz
Water Desalination Report
Tom Pankratz is an independent desalination consultant and editor of Water Desalination Report. He first became involved in desal while an application engineer for an intake screening company in the mid-1970’s and visited his first seawater desal facility in Abu Dhabi in 1979 while commissioning the intake screens. He soon became more involved in the process side of desalination as a corporate projects director for USFilter/Veolia and a vice president of CH2M Hill. He has served as a technical and environmental advisor on some of the world’s largest seawater desal facilities.
Seawater intakes and outfalls: An overview
Historically, most large desalination plants have been co-located with electric power plants, with both facilities sharing a common seawater intake and concentrate outfall infrastructure. However, the power industry is moving away from once-through cooling systems and more desalination plants are being developed as stand-alone facilities with purpose-built intakes and outfalls. As seawater desalination is being introduced to areas where it was not previously considered, the plants potential effects on marine biological resources and water quality have also fallen under increased scrutiny. Desalination plant intake and outfalls are the two primary elements of a desalination plant likely to cause adverse environmental impacts. Methods to mitigate this risk must be taken into consideration in their design and operation. These designs, and the modeling, monitoring, and permitting activities that surround them, can have a considerable impact on the cost of the project. This presentation will review seawater intake and concentrate outfall options for membrane desalination facilities that have been employed around the world to suit a variety of physical and environmental issues.
Session speakers and abstracts
Mr Stephen V. Amaral
Alden Research Laboratory, USA
Stephen Amaral is Principal Fisheries Biologist with Alden Research Laboratory in Massachusetts. He has B.S. and M.S. degrees in fisheries biology and 20 years of experience in the design, evaluation, and application of fish protection technologies at water intakes. Mr Amaral performs evaluations for meeting Clean Water Act Section 316(b) requirements and is the author of several comprehensive reports describing the status of fish protection and passage technologies. His recent projects include an independent technical review of intake technologies for protecting fish at a nuclear power plant, a laboratory study of new technology to protect fish eggs and larvae, a review of technologies with to protect ichthyoplankton at offshore intakes, and a field evaluation of underwater sound deterrents.
316(b) and the impingement and entrainment of marine life at seawater intakes
The protection of marine life at desalination intakes is a global environmental concern. The selection of the most cost-effective intake technology that offers the greatest protection against impingement and entrainment is a very important phase in the development of a desalination project. Targets for environmental performance vary globally, with many countries enacting regulations with very conservative performance targets. In the United States, Section 316(b) of the Clean Water Act is a federal regulation that sets impingement and entrainment performance standards for cooling water intakes in the power generation industry. These standards are also generally applied to desalination intakes as well. This presentation will focus on defining impingement and entrainment, reviewing 316(b) intake performance standards in the U.S., describing standard methods for monitoring impingement and entrainment, and identifying state-of-the-art intake technologies with potential to meet conservative environmental goals.
Dr Jason Antenucci
Hatch Associates
Jason Antenucci has a PhD in Environmental Engineering with 15 years experience in surface water resource management, including lakes, reservoirs, rivers, and the coastal ocean for both the public and private sector. He has particular expertise in hydrodynamic and water quality modelling, decision support systems and outfall design and assessment. Dr Antenucci has published over 40 peer-reviewed journal papers, more than 40 conference papers and one book chapter on various topics associated with surface water management from catchment to the coastal ocean.
Field verification of near and far field brine dilution from the Perth Seawater Desalination Plant
Commissioned in November 2006, the Perth Seawater Desalination Plant was the first plant to supply desalinated water to a major Australian city, supplying 125 million litres per day. Brine from the plant is discharged into Cockburn Sound, a shallow, partially closed embayment via a 160m long, 40-port diffuser located approximately 300m from the shoreline in 10m of water. A combination of near-field and far-field experiments were conducted to validate diffuser performance. Near-field experiments focused within 100 metres of the diffuser and quantified the initial mixing under three different discharge flow rates. Two far-field experiments were conducted under calm conditions, whereby fluorescent dye was injected into the diffuser and tracked for several days in Cockburn Sound. These data, along with data collected from seasonal monitoring and high-resolution sampling, were used to validate a comprehensive three-dimensional numerical model of both the hydrodynamics and ecology of Cockburn Sound. The combination of experimental and numerical modelling results demonstrated that the saline discharge is diluted to such an extent by the action of the diffuser and natural environmental mixing processes that the Perth Seawater Desalination Plant has no measurable impact on the oxygen levels in Cockburn Sound.
Mr Gavin Broom
WorleyParsons
Gavin Broom is a Senior Principal Consultant at WorleyParsons. He has been involved in the design and operation of potable water treatment and wastewater treatment processes in Australia and southeast Asia. Mr Broom now specialises in desalination and advanced water treatment processes for municipal applications and process industries. He was the design manager for the 143 ML/day Perth Seawater Desalination Plant during the competitive bid phase and was subsequently the Chief Engineer for the design and construction phase. Mr Broom’s experience lead to WorleyParsons involvement in the Southern Seawater Desalination plant at Binningup that provides 155 ML/day of drinking water into the Perth’s Integrated Water Supply Scheme. He was the Technical Manager for this project that included many innovations and learnings from other desalination projects.
Binningup: Intake system design and construction considerations
Intakes and outfalls are not afforded the first thought when considering what major components make up a large seawater desalination plant. However the design and construction of intakes and outfalls present the one of the major risks to budget and schedule during the delivery phase; and they pose significant problems should they not operate effective during the operational phase. The location and offshore environment for the Perth and Southern Seawater desalination plants will be described with respect to the decision making process that determined the method of construction. Discussion will then focus on the operation of the Southern Seawater plant that experiences wide fluctuations in seawater quality and the impact this has on the intake and outfall. Observations from the operation of the plant will be particularly relevant to the development of other plants that will experience poor seawater quality from an open ocean environment.
Mr Keith Craig
Veolia Water Australia
Keith Craig is Technical Manager of Veolia Water Australia and has over 30 years experience in the water industry. This has included over 20 years in the public sector, initially at the NSW Public Works and then Hunter Water and 14 years at Veolia Water Australia. His activities at Veolia Water include involvement in business development, project implementation, operations management and support and research and development. Mr Craig has been involved in the Gold Coast and Sydney Desalination Projects including pilot plant studies, design review, commissioning, operations support and ongoing R&D.
Gold Coast, Sydney and Sur desalination plant intakes overview
The intakes for large desalination plants are a key part of the infrastructure for such plants. The plant location and intake design can a have a significant effect on the plant cost, seawater quality delivered to the plant and the environment. The intakes for two major plants in Australia and one plant in Oman operated by Veolia Water are reviewed. The two Australian desalination plants reviewed include the 125 ML/day Gold Coast plant and the 250 ML/day Sydney plant. These plants have been operating for approximately 3 and 2 years respectively and have achieved a high level of performance. Both plant intakes use an open intake system to deliver water to the plants. The design, control method for marine fouling and operating results for the plant intakes are reviewed for these plants. The Sur plant in Oman in the Middle East has a capacity of 80 ML/day and is the largest plant worldwide utilising a beach well for the plant intake. Such an intake can provide advantages particularly with seawater quality with filtration through the beach wells providing very high quality seawater to the plant which can provide a benefit to the plant operating performance particularly the pre-treatment and reverse osmosis stages. The Sur beach well design and operating performance and advantages are reviewed for this plant.
Mr Tim Kildea
SA Water
Tim Kildea has over eighteen years experience working on temperate and tropical marine ecosystems, in the capacity of both a research scientist and marine consultant. His skills encompass a broad palette, predominantly focusing on macroalgal and microalgal ecology, water quality and environmental impact assessment. The skills developed have been utilised in a wide range of projects, which have lead to international collaborations in India, New Zealand, Brazil and Taiwan. Mr Kildea’s current focus is assessing and minimising potential impacts associated with the construction and operation of the Adelaide Desalination Plant in South Australia. He has published in journals, technical reports and presented numerous papers at both national and international conferences.
Environmental performance monitoring of SWRO plants – where to from here?
Desalination has come to the fore in Australia as a means of “water proofing” Australian coastal cities against drought. The construction of large desalination plants along the coast has generated considerable public debate, with questions raised by the community about the potential impacts of these plants on the local environment. In response to these concerns detailed monitoring studies have been developed to assess the environmental performance of these plants. These studies have provided a substantial volume of information, which in general is lost in the grey literature of internal reports to regulatory bodies. The presentation will discuss “known knowns and the known unknowns”, suggesting methods for site selection and environmental performance monitoring for the construction and operation of SWRO desalination plants, based on experiences acquired from the Adelaide Desalination Plant. In particular the discussion will focus on validating diffuser performance, ecotoxicology experiments, entrainment and options for long term environmental monitoring.
A/Prof. Adrian Law
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Adrian Law Wing Keung received his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. He was a practicing engineer in the USA for more than 7 years, before joining the academic faculty of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. His current research focuses on using the knowledge of environmental fluid mechanics to improve the design of membrane and desalination systems. He was recognized with the Wesley Horner Award by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and two Outstanding Technical Paper Awards by the Bechtel Corporation, USA. He was also UPS Foundation Visiting Professor at Stanford University, William Mong Research Fellow at the University of Hong Kong, and also Faculty Fellow of the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology. Currently, he is the Executive Committee Member of the International Association of Hydro-environment Engineering and Research (IAHR) Asian Pacific Division, Vice-Chair of the Joint IAHR-IWA Committee on Marine Outfall Systems, as well as in the Editorial Board of two related journals in this area. In Singapore, he is also the co-Director of the DHI-NTU Water and Environment Research Centre under the Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute (NEWRI), as well as an active research member in the Singapore Membrane Technology Centre.
The environmental fluid mechanics of SWRO brine discharge
With increasing world population (7 Billion last year and projected to increase to 9.5 billion in 2050), urbanization and climate change, the need for further water resources is critical. Globally, sea water desalination with Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) is an increasingly popular option implemented to augment the water supply for many coastal cities (e.g. Singapore, Sydney, etc). Significant advancements have occurred in recent years in membrane technology, process control and brine management, and together they have led to a considerable reduction in the water production cost. At the same time, the output capacity of SWRO plants is increasing rapidly to achieve an economy of scale, and the brine flow rate to the sea has also increased correspondingly. At present, the brine is mostly discharged back to the surrounding coastal waters for large scale SWRO plants. In the design of the outfall, it is critical to ensure a good mixing of the brine discharge with the ambient water throughout the flow range. Hence, a good knowledge of the environmental fluid mechanics involved is essential. The talk will cover the physical understandings of the near-field mixing of SWRO brine discharges in open waters, and the outfall design approaches currently being adopted. The available methodology and software that can be used to assist in the analysis will also be reviewed.
Dr Thomas M. Missimer
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia
Thomas Missimer is a visiting professor at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia. He has been involved in the design and construction of subsurface intakes for brackish-water and seawater reverse osmosis facilities since 1977 (over 50 facility designs constructed). He is the author of the book “Water supply development, concentrate disposal, and aquifer storage for membrane water treatment facilities” and six other books. He won the Best Paper Presentation Award from the International Desalination Association in Washington, DC in 1991. Dr Missimer is currently directing research on the development of new subsurface intake designs in the seabed of the Red Sea and on the life-cycle costs of seawater reverse osmosis systems using conventional verses subsurface intakes along with several graduate students.
Subsurface intakes: Feasibility assessment, design and operation, and environmental considerations
Thomas Missimer, Sabine Lattemann
Subsurface intakes for seawater reverse osmosis desalination facilities provide a higher quality raw water quality compared to conventional open-ocean intakes. They can commonly significantly reduce the operational costs of seawater desalination and reduce the environmental impacts by eliminating issues related to impingement and entrainment of marine organisms. There are two classes of subsurface intake types; wells and galleries. Well types include convention vertical wells, horizontal wells, and Ranney or collector wells. Gallery intakes include beach galleries and seabed filters. The feasibility and selection of the intake type is based on the desired feedwater flow volume and the local geology and hydrology of the specific site. Subsurface intakes remove suspended sediments, algae, bacteria, and reduce the concentration of organic molecules that impact the biofouling of seawater RO plants. The processes occurring in the improvement of raw water quality include straining and biologically activity that allows breakdown of organic materials. Typical silt density index measurements on raw water produced from subsurface intakes are below 3 in virtually all cases and commonly are below 1.
Dr Chuyang Tang
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Dr Chuyang Y. Tang is a faculty member in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University. He obtained his PhD degree from Stanford University. Dr Tang’s research focuses on the use of membrane technology for wastewater reclamation, seawater desalination, energy production, and resource recovery. He is also interested in the application of surface and interfacial science and nanotechnology for water and energy applications. Dr. Tang has published more than 60 research papers in international refereed journals.
A positive case for brine discharge
Brine management is a key challenge for seawater desalination. In this presentation, the key issues in brine discharge will be discussed. Novel methods for brine discharge will be examined. In particular, the beneficial use of brine will be explored.
Mr Riaan van der Merwe
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia
Riaan van der Merwe is currently a PhD Candidate at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), supervised by Prof. Gary Amy and Dr Sabine Lattemann. His current research project will generate scientific results on possible environmental impacts, assessing changes in population diversity specific to marine microorganisms in near-field areas of seawater desalination plants. He was awarded an MSc in Environmental Management from the University of the Free State, South Africa (2008). Prior to joining KAUST, he was working as a Senior Environmental Consultant in Al-Khobar for over 4 years. During this time he was responsible for the management of projects and conducted comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) for Saudi Aramco and other principal role players within the Saudi Arabian oil & gas, mining, petrochemical, infrastructure and energy sectors.
Environmental impact and management of concentrate and chemical discharges from seawater desalination plants
Sabine Lattemann, Riaan van der Merwe
A key concern of desalination plants are the concentrate and chemical discharges into the sea. Depending on the composition of the waste product (salinity, oxygen levels, possible residuals from the pretreatment and cleaning processes), the outfall design (open pipe, diffuser, co-discharge with power plant cooling water) and the outfall location (near-shore outfall, submerged offshore outfall), it may be harmful to the marine environment in the discharge location. The presentation will give an overview on the use of chemicals in desalination plants and will discuss potential environmental concerns of the concentrate and chemical discharges into the sea based on case studies from different parts of the world. Emphasis will be given to the management of the concentrate discharge through a combination of toxicity and monitoring studies, hydrodynamic modeling of the discharge, and design and location of the outfall.
Dr Diane Wiesner
During 12 years at Australian Water Association, the last 5 years as Principal Scientist, Diane Wiesner played a major role in setting up the membrane and desalination specialist network and initiated the organisation’s biennial specialist conferences in membranes and desalination, and also in biosolids. She also developed and ran the highly successful one day technical Seminars and two day Master Classes. Prior to her time at AWA, Diane spent 9 years an environmental consultant, and extended period as a Visiting Research Fellow at UNSW during which she also did part time teaching at Sydney University and Open TAFE. Dr Wiesner now works as an independent research scientist and technical writer. She has a PhD, an MSc in environmental science and an MA from Adelaide University.
The environmental performance of the Perth Seawater Desalination Plant concentrate return system after five years of continuous operation
Prior to commencement of operations at the Perth SWRO, a regulatory regime based on hydrodynamic modelling of the dispersal of the saline plume was used to determine a series of monitoring points at which test data could be collected under a regular program. Key environmental criteria on which data was sought were dispersion of the brine using hydrodynamic models to obtain an optimal dilution ratio, dissolved oxygen levels in Cockburn Sound into which the discharge was dispersed, and ecosystem survival: the short and long term health of marine species in Cockburn Sound. The presentation poses four questions that arise with this data: (1) How quickly does the salinity of ambient waters in the Sound return to background levels after brine discharge and should this be a concern in Cockburn Sound? (2) Why focus on dissolved oxygen levels in Cockburn Sound when waters at discharge could be expected to have an elevated dissolved oxygen profile? (3) Should the focus of attention be more on chemical residues contained in a discharge than its salinity – additives such as biocides, disinfectants and even anti-scalants? And (4) How good and reliable is the regime of WET Testing now in place?
Associated events
The following events are being held in association with this workshop:
- GWI Desalination Short School, on Friday May 18, 2012, in association with Global Water Intelligence and ICEWaRM. Online registration will be available soon.
- Wine tour of the McLaren Vale region, 10:00 am to 4:30 pm on Saturday May 19, 2012 (subject to interest). In a deluxe mini-coach, the tour will visit several quality wineries and a chocolate factory. Lunch will be at Woodstock winery consisting of shared regional platters with coffee and cake. The cost is $90 per person. Indicate your interest in the online workshop registration.
Venue
The venue for this workshop is the Learning Centre at SA Water House in central Adelaide, South Australia’s first 6 Star Green Star building.
Accommodation
The Medina Grand Adelaide Treasury and the Hilton Adelaide are both located on Victoria Square and a short walk from SA Water House.
Medina Grand Adelaide Treasury
The Medina Grand Adelaide Treasury offers workshop delegates Premier Studio Rooms at $170 per night or Premier One Bedroom Apartments at $195 per night, subject to availability.
Medina say: “Embrace the stunning elegance of Medina Grand Adelaide Treasury, superbly located in the heart of Adelaide in the historic, heritage-listed former Treasury. Your stay in this friendly city can only be enhanced by the historic charm of Medina Grand Adelaide Treasury, situated at the true heart of the city’s CBD, overlooking Victoria Square and adjacent to the Town Hall. Originally the offices for the State Treasury, Medina has completely restored and rejuvenated its heritage features making it one of the country’s most appealing boutique hotels.”
To book, contact the hotel directly on 08 8112 0000 or email mgat@medina.com.au and refer to the delegate tariff for the “NCEDA Intakes Outfalls workshop” for valid rates.
Hilton Adelaide
The Hilton Adelaide offers workshop delegates Guest Rooms at $185 per night, subject to availability.
Hilton say: “Beautifully located overlooking Victoria Square, the Hilton Adelaide hotel is at the heart of the city’s entertainment, shopping and dining precincts. The Central Market, Chinatown and Gouger Street, Adelaide’s most vibrant dining destinations, are just next to this Adelaide hotel. Catch a tram from outside the hotel to seaside Glenelg or along North Terrace to the Casino, the River Precinct and the Entertainment Center.”
To book, contact the hotel on 08 8217 2000 or book online and specify the “Government” tariff.
Register now!
Places are limited. Registration is $990 (including GST) for the two-day workshop. Centre members (Participating Organisations) are offered a 25% discount on registrations. WSAA and AWA members are offered a 10% discount. Postgraduate students from Centre members can attend for free with their supervisors. Register and pay online with a credit card. Your ticket is your tax invoice.
Questions?
Contact events@desalination.edu.au with any questions.
