The maximum value of the Scholarship will be $10,000 for one year. The Scholarship will be paid in two instalments, contributing first towards tuition fees and then student stipend, with the second payment being dependent on the successful completion of project milestones. A final payment of $500 will be made on submission of the thesis.

Applications are invited from Honours students in any field of study whose area of research contributes to the knowledge of desalination and aligns with the Research Roadmap.

How to Apply

Please refer to the Guidelines for Applicants.

Applications close 12 noon WST Thursday 14 June 2012.

Scholarships will be offered to highly ranked PhD students that are enrolled full‐time and hold either an Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) or other recognised Commonwealth scholarship for full‐time research leading to the award of a PhD. The maximum value of the Scholarship will be $30,000 over three years, with a maximum payable amount of $10,000 per annum.

Applications are invited from PhD candidates in any field of study whose area of research contributes to the field of desalination and aligns with the Research Roadmap.

How to Apply

Please refer to the  Guidelines for Applicants.

Applications close 12 noon WST Thursday 14 June 2012.

Speaking at the opening of NCEDA’s International Intakes and Outfalls Workshop in Adelaide today, Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and Urban Water, Senator Don Farrell, announced the outcome of the Centre’s fourth round of funding for Australian desalination science.

“Australia now has 44 world class desalination research projects advancing Australian science and ingenuity while safeguarding the national public water interest,” Senator Farrell said.

“Our ongoing commitment to the nation’s water security is also creating opportunities for employment and sustainable growth, while consolidating our place on the international stage in the desalination and water sector.”

Senator Farrell said the 2012 funding allocation highlights the Australian Government’s commitment to a sustainable, climate-resilient water future.

“Many of the fourth round projects address social, economic and environmental issues surrounding desalination,” he said.

“These projects align with the Centre’s mission to optimise desalination technology for use in Australia’s unique circumstances; to develop suitable technology for use in rural and regional areas and to reduce desalination’s carbon footprint.”

CEO Neil Palmer said the Centre was delighted to fund new Australian desalination research. There has been a focus on renewable energy solutions, with one of the projects proposing to use geothermally-heated groundwater to power desalination. Projects funded in previous rounds have included solar-powered desalination and innovative use of waste heat generated from large-scale minerals processing.

“Further reduction of the energy consumption of desal plants and fast-tracking new green technologies will continue to reduce the carbon footprint of the Australian water and desalination industry and make us more competitive internationally,” Mr Palmer said.

A further $4.9 million of in-kind contributions and $535,000 in additional funding from participating organisations and research participants will bring $8.1 million of new investment into Australian desalination research. The Australian Government via its Water for the FutureInitiative has allocated $12.3 million for the Centre’s four funding rounds.

On top of this, total in-kind and industry contributions generated by NCEDA and its scientists of $28.8 million more than doubles the Australian Government’s initial investment to create a total value of $41 million in Australian desal research activity this year.

Two projects already funded through the Centre’s first and second funding round have also been approved for additional investment following review of their commercial potential.

Led by Centre-funded scientists at the University of South Australia and the University of Technology Sydney, these projects will now be able to investigate the feasibility of scale-up and manufacture of pilot scale units and field trials to progress research already undertaken.

The newly funded projects span all of the Centre’s five research theme areas: pre-treatment; reverse osmosis desalting; novel desalting; concentrate management; and social, economic and environmental issues.

Many will address social, economic and environmental issues surrounding desalination and all are aligned to the Centre’s mission to optimise and adapt desalination technology for use in Australia’s unique circumstances; to develop suitable desalination technology for use in rural and regional areas; and to efficiently and affordably reduce the carbon footprint of desalination facilities and technologies.

Round four projects

Media contact

For interviews with NCEDA CEO Neil Palmer or NCEDA-funded researchers, contact Tanyia Maxted on 0438645839 or email: media@desalination.edu.au.

I have been interested to read a couple of articles recently on agriculture and water security. Trade Minister Mr Craig Emerson was reported in The Australian in March saying rising world food demand will provide lucrative opportunities for Australia.

In referring to water, he said: “I am no hydrographer, but I don’t believe that there is not more we can do to better utilise water. When the real price of a product rises, investment projects that might not have been viable at the old price might be viable at the new price. It requires risk-taking.”

In a further March report in The Australian, a survey of 162 senior food executives conducted by corporate law firm Barker and McKenzie reported that half of them identified ‘scarcity of water’ as the greatest challenge to food supply.

Australia has plenty of land, we have lots of seawater and brackish water, lots of sunshine and we are next door to 40% of the world’s population. The opportunity to augment traditional supplies with desalination to provide water security for agriculture is appealing and a firm part of the NCEDA’s vision.

However, a common reaction when I speak to people about this is: ‘desalinated water is too expensive.’ But is it? It represents an input cost like energy, chemicals, labour and transport. As stated by Mr Emerson, if the price of the product is right, investment will follow.

In early March I visited Sundrop Farms, pictured, near Port Augusta in South Australia. Recently featured on ABC Landline, this is a commercial solar-powered greenhouse growing tomatoes, capsicums and cucumbers. The entire water supply comes from a bore which pumps hypersaline water originating from Spencer Gulf. This is an outstanding development of what some might call a risky venture, but shows what is possible with imagination and hard work.

Neil Palmer
0417 996 126
ceo@desalination.edu.au
Follow us on Twitter: @DiscoverDesal

NCEDA International Desalination Intakes and Outfalls Workshop, 16-17 May 2012, Adelaide

We are very proud to announce new speakers from Fukuoka District Waterworks Agency, Japan and Georgia Institute of Technology, USA.

These and other international researchers, engineers and industry leaders will present current best practice in seawater intakes and discharges, examine case studies, and consider challenges for future research.

Keynote speakers are Prof. Gary L. Amy, Director of the Water Desalination and Reuse Research Center at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, and Mr Tom Pankratz, Editor of Water Desalination Report, USA.

Other presenters include Acciona; Alden Research Laboratory, USA; Hatch Associates; Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; The University of New South Wales; SA Water; Valoriza Agua, Spain; Veolia Water Australia; and WorleyParsons.

The cost is $743 for researchers at NCEDA Participating Organisations and $990 for non-members. Postgraduate students at NCEDA POs attend for free with their supervisor. Delegates of the Desalination Short School on 18 May can obtain a 20% discount.

Register now! The workshop program is available for download. For more information or to register go to http://desalination.edu.au/intakesoutfalls.

Earlybird registration ends Friday for GWI Desalination Short School, 18 May 2012, Adelaide

Earlybird discount registration for the Global Water Intelligence Desalination Short School in Adelaide on May 18 ends on Friday 20 April. There is also a double 20% discount for anyone who registers for both this Short School and the Intakes and Outfalls workshop.

This second Australian Desalination Short School provides an opportunity to learn the technical aspects of some high visibility world-class projects. The course offers a highly practical and interactive case-study approach, delivered by two very experienced and well-known practitioners from the desalination industry.

“We’ll be focussing on the practical aspects of seawater desalination using examples from our own first-hand experiences”, says Tom Pankratz, Editor of Water Desalination Report and one of the course experts. “It won’t be just a slide show. We’re fully conversant with all the details of these projects as we’ve actually been involved in their design and delivery”. He promises a lively, in-depth look at how decisions are made and the pitfalls to avoid. The course will cover feasibility and pilot studies, commissioning, testing and the post-completion issues of specific plants, from the Middle East, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas.

Participants will be drawn from contractors, consultants, offtakers, water utilities, suppliers, O&M personnel and researchers – all those looking to gain additional knowledge and an extra edge in the desalination field.

The School is presented in association with the International Centre of Excellence in Water Resources Management. A registration form is available for download.

Science confirms growing water security issues

Three recent high profile scientific reports warn of the serious risks to water security from climate change forecast for Australia, and global arid regions.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, CSIRO in conjunction with the Bureau of Meterology, and the Climate Commission have all issued publications showing that the long term effects of climate change require urgent adaptive planning and solutions.

The IPCC Special Report ‘Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation’ cites changes in climate have the potential to seriously affect water management systems.

Adequate funding and capacity for resilient water infrastructure is advocated, along with new ‘resilience thinking’ and ‘integrated water systems thinking’.

The Climate Commission revealed the science behind south-east Australia’s current wet, showing that long term drying and extreme cyclical droughts would continue despite recent summer rains – as documented in the CSIRO and BOM report.

Read them online:

• IPCC 2012 Special Report
• State of the Climate: CSIRO & Bureau of Meteorology
• Climate Commission: The science behind south-east Australia’s wet cool summer

Comparative modelling finds desal unit cost lowest

A recent National Water Commission investigated comparative costs of water schemes in Queensland. The key objective of this research was to evaluate potable water saving, alternative source demand and present value life cycle unit cost assessment for a traditional infrastructure mix supplemented by:

• desalination plants
• internally plumbed rainwater tanks
• dual-supply of recycled wastewater, and
• a hybrid of dual supply and internally plumbed rainwater tanks.

The NWC commissioned research, led by Griffiths University Associate Professor Rodney A. Stewart, found that desalination plants operating at 66 to 100 per cent capacity had the lowest unit cost of the four different water schemes from a ‘total resource perspective’ covering costs to all stakeholders.

Read the full comparison of all costs of different water supplies.

Centre helps foster international ties

NCEDA encourages research collaborations worldwide and is delighted that Prof. Sunny Jiang from University of California Irvine has become Adjunct Professor at Murdoch University following attendance at the Centre’s first biofouling workshop and nomination by Centre researcher Professor Goen Ho.

Environment Science expert Professor Goen Ho says Prof. Jiang, who investigates prevention of membrane biofouling to reduce desal plant energy consumption, will work with his MU research team on NCEDA-funded projects.

Australian Desalination Research Roadmap review completed

To ensure the ongoing currency of the Australian Desalination Research Roadmap, the Centre formed a Committee led by Chief Scientific Officer Prof. David Furukawa to undertake a review the original Roadmap written in 2009. The industry-focused committee made recommendations for minor changes to the Roadmap to reflect updates to the state-of-the-art in desalination technology and to seek future projects for robust, reliable inland systems and applications for the coal seam gas industry.

Reaching out to Rockingham locals

Following the success of the recent Open Day, NCEDA staff set up a desal information stall at the Rockingham Naragebup Environment Centre at one of its regular film evenings. Run by committed volunteers, the Centre has subsequently expressed interest in touring the Rockingham Desalination Research Facility and NCEDA plans to sponsor another local movie night in next year’s summer season.

AWA Water Future Forum: Boom or Bust? Management of Water in a World of Extremes, 24 May 2012, Perth

This Young Water Professionals’ Perspectives forum will focus on the wide ranging issues that face the water industry. The forum will include presentations from and will be facilitated by West Australian Young Water Professionals, including the NCEDA’s Dr Misty-Lee Palmer who will discuss the Centre’s research program.

See the event flyer for more details, and register your interest at wabranch@awa.asn.au.

Researcher Profile: Dr Marlene Cran

Cleaning guidelines to overcome scaling and fouling issues for desalination membrane users are being developed by researchers at Victoria University to enhance membrane and plant performance.

Dr Marlene Cran, research fellow at the Institute for Sustainability and Innovation at the VU Werribee campus, is leading the NCEDA-funded project which is reviewing current industry cleaning practices.

The project has industry support from Nalco and Integrated Elements, with a team of four primary researchers.

“Adequate pre-treatment for reverse osmosis (RO) membranes is critical for maintaining membrane performance in desalination plants,” Dr Cran says.

“There are a wide range of physical and chemical means of preparing feed water for RO processes including filtration and the use of chemical agents, however biofouling, scale and other foulants can build up on the surface of membranes over time and significantly affect their operation.

“When the performance of a membrane declines to a critical point, cleaning must be undertaken to restore and recover the functionality of the membrane process.

“Timely cleaning is a critical aspect of desalination operations enabling users to maintain the performance of membrane elements over their lifetime.

“Membrane suppliers provide general guidelines for cleaning and sanitisation but often specialised cleaning chemicals and procedures are required for more difficult fouling issues.

“Moreover, there are a range of commercial products available to address many of these cleaning issues.”

Dr Cran says that in addition to a review of the literature, the existing guidelines and cleaning regimes and the current range of commercial cleaning products will be assessed as new clean-in-place guidelines are developed.

Dr Cran has a PhD in polymer science with undergraduate studies in environmental management. Her VU research projects focus on the chemical degradation and wear of membrane materials, membrane integrity monitoring, and reuse applications for end-of-life membranes.

Dr Cran also investigates degradation and biodegradation of polymer materials; membrane synthesis and characterisation; synthesis of fluorescent nanoparticles; active food packaging using natural antimicrobial additives; and development of biocomposite packaging materials.

Links and articles

Presentation by Chief Scientific Officer Prof. David Furukawa at The Future of Water in Southern California, January 2012.

NCEDA CEO speaks out: Desal offers best water and food security insurance for drying Australia, Murdoch University, March 2012.

The new SkyBox water filtration unit as recently launched by SkyJuice Foundation on World Water Day, March 2012.

Jobs boost for WA as second desal plant expansion on track to supply 100 billion litres for Perth, WA Government, April 2012.

NCEDA’s funding body, the Australian Government’s Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, can now be followed on social media. See its new Twitter, Flickr and YouTube feeds.

Gold Industry Sponsors

The NCEDA is grateful for the generous support of our Gold Industry Sponsors.

Following the Intakes Outfalls workshop on May 16-17, Global Water Intelligence are holding the second Australian Desalination Short School in Adelaide on May 18. The first Australian School was held at NCEDA Rockingham after the IDA World Congress in September 2011.

The Desalination Short School provides an opportunity to learn the technical aspects of some high visibility world-class projects. The course offers a highly practical and interactive case-study approach, delivered by two very experienced and well-known practitioners from the desalination industry.

“We’ll be focussing on the practical aspects of seawater desalination and the examples we’ll be profiling will be from our own first-hand experiences”, says Tom Pankratz, Editor of Water Desalination Report and one of the course experts. “It won’t be just a slide show. We’re fully conversant with all the details of these projects as we’ve actually been involved in their design and delivery”. He promises a lively, in-depth look at how decisions are made and the pitfalls to avoid. The course will cover feasibility and pilot studies, commissioning, testing and the post-completion issues of specific plants, from the Middle East, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas.

Participants will be drawn from contractors, consultants, offtakers, water utilities, suppliers, O&M personnel and researchers – all those looking to gain additional knowledge and an extra edge in the desal field.

The School is presented in association with the International Centre of Excellence in Water Resources Management. A 20% discount is available for delegates attending both the Intakes Outfalls Workshop and the Desalination Short School.

A registration form is available for download.

National Centre of Excellence in Desalination Australia CEO Neil Palmer today pays tribute to the environmentally responsible SKYBOX global initiative which will urgently deliver world-class, safe drinking water boxes to the world’s most needy people in developing nations from June.

SkyJuice Foundation Chair Rhett Butler, AM is Chair of NCEDA’s Research Advisory Committee.

Launched this morning at Parliament House in Canberra, each SKYBOX can produce approximately 300-500 litres safe potable water daily – enough to sustain 50 -100 people every day for a minimum of three years.

The non-profit SkyJuice Foundation of Australia will co-ordinate and manage the aid project following its success to provide more than 1200 community based water installations, using SkyHydrant water filters, in 50 countries.

From April SkyJuice will start to raise donations from Australians to contribute the equivalent of a $1 a day to the lifesaving cost of making, supplying and deploying each $365 unit.

Mr Palmer says it is a fine example of Australian industry technological know-how combined with social conscience.

Mr Palmer joins Mr Butler in acknowledging the sad reality of around 4500 children dying every day directly as a result of waterborne disease related to unsafe drinking water – and the fact that safe affordable drinking water is an ongoing global issue.

Unicef reports that there will still be over 780 million people without safe drinking water in 2015, with Africa still being the critical region of need.

Mr Palmer praises the SKYBOX’s sustainable low cost membrane technology which uses no chemicals or energy and relies entirely on gravity to drive the unit.

According to SkyJuice the filter is an ultrafiltration membrane that physically disinfects water, one which is already widely used in the charity’s community-based Skyhydrant systems, removing bacteria and pathogens that are directly responsible for deaths and disease in third world countries.

Mr Palmer thanks SkyJuice for its recent generously donation of a SkyHydrant unit to NCEDA’s Rockingham Facility for public demonstrations of the technology, enabling NCEDA to help raise awareness of what Australian engineers are doing to help those without access to fresh water overseas.

More information on the SkyBox and SkyJuice is available at www.skyjuice.com.au; more information on NCEDA is available at www.desalination.edu.au.

Speaking on World Water Day on March 22, the CEO of Australia’s National Centre of Excellence in Desalination, Neil Palmer, says the arid country’s growing needs for fresh drinkable water in a long term drying climate would be best met by increased investment in desal technology.

“Perth is already reliant on desal plants to meet half of its water needs, and CSIRO research indicates that our drying climate will only increase risks to fresh water availability,” Mr Palmer said.

“Despite the wet summer on the east coast, repeated and extreme cycles of drought are forecast to strain water supplies and in coming years the country’s six major desal plants simply won’t have enough capacity to met anticipated demand.”

Mr Palmer said governments had to plan well in advance to invest in and implement city water security measures, and the food required to feed city residents also used immense volumes of quality rural and regional water forecast to become scarce in the years ahead.

“Desalination is the insurance Australia has to have if we are to secure our urban populations’ water and food supplies against cyclical drought and climate change over the next half century.

“Hopefully we don’t need catastrophic droughts and water shortages here in the first world for people to realise that protecting access to our most basic need of access to clean, fresh water is vital.”

This year Perth is dependent upon seawater desalination and Mr Palmer said that with city groundwater resources at crisis point, WA will soon need to invest in more seawater desalination plants or major recycling schemes to quench its residents’ thirst.

The National Centre of Excellence in Desalination Australia funds research into improvements and innovations in desal technology on behalf of the Australian Government via its Water for the Future initiative.

For more information on NCEDA see www.desalination.edu.au and follow on Twitter @DiscoverDesal.

It was a great delight to read of Rhett Butler’s recognition in the Australia Day honours as a Member of the Order of Australia. In addition to being a very successful businessman, having been a senior sales executive for Siemens Memcor and a tireless contributor as Chair of NCEDA’s Research Advisory Committee, Rhett’s passion has been to develop clever and affordable solutions to humanitarian problems in developing nations. It is worth a look at Skyjuice, the charity he founded, at www.skyjuice.com.au.

It was a pleasure to participate in a two day workshop in Muscat, Oman on 8-9 February where 60 people met to discuss the subject of harmful marine algal blooms. The workshop was organised by the Middle East Desalination Research Centre, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology of Saudi Arabia and NCEDA. It was understood to be the first conference bringing together marine scientists and desalination experts, and a historic meeting of the three research organisations. Harmful algal blooms can cause significant damage to desalination plants, in some cases causing reduced output or even forced shutdowns. The workshop provided clear description of the problems, and practical solutions.

Thanks are due to Ms Shannon McCarthy of MEDRC, Prof Gary Amy of KAUST and Prof. David Furukawa of NCEDA for their great efforts in organising the event. It was also a pleasure to work with Ambassador Ronald Mollinger, Director of MEDRC (pictured) and extend opportunities for Australian researchers to meet with their international peers.

Neil Palmer
0417 996 126
ceo@desalination.edu.au
Follow us on Twitter: @DiscoverDesal

Honoured humanitarian prepares to launch SkyBox water aid initiative

The Chair of NCEDA’s Research Advisory Committee, Rhett Butler, was recently honoured with an Order of Australia Medal.

The mechanical engineer was recognised for his work as Founder and Chairman of the non-profit SkyJuice Foundation which coordinates skilled volunteers and collaborates with aid charities to install emergency water treatment units in developing countries.

Mr Butler, AM, has just donated a Skyjuice Foundation SkyHydrant unit to the Centre and announced that SkyJuice will launch a major water aid initiative on World Water Day 2012.
Mr Butler led the Action for Good session at the IDA World Desalination Congress in Perth last year, and through SkyJuice provides thousands of low-cost water treatment units for poverty-stricken villages and refugee camps in Africa and Asia.

On World Water Day on March 22, SkyJuice and The Hon. Malcolm Turnbull MP will launch details of a major new Australian water aid initiative at Parliament House in Canberra, and endeavour to boost its international humanitarian efforts.

Australians will be asked to donate $365 for a SkyBox or just $1 a day to help supply recycled SkyBox water treatment units into villages in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, enabling up to 2000 small communities to have safe, clean water.

Mr Butler says the life-saving SkyBox units are gravity-fed and use low cost, low pressure membranes recycled from the Australian industry which would otherwise end up in landfill.
He hopes that Australian businesses and organisation’s employee fundraising schemes will support the new aid initiative which encourages village self-sufficiency.

“One Skybox will give 50 African villagers – five to 10 families – a level of dignity by enabling them to directly treat their contaminated and dirty well water. By giving them access to 500 litres of safe water each day, we are dramatically impacting their lives and outcomes,” he said.

“Access to clean water is a basic human right, and one we take for granted here in Australia – yet every day in developing nations tens of thousands of children die of water borne diseases.

“This practical initiative will not only save lives over there, but reduce environmental waste here at home and hopefully encourage more recycling in the water and desalination industries.”

A dedicated SkyBox website will be created for the launch. For more information on SkyJuice visit www.skyjuice.com.au.

First Open Day a success

Curious minds flocked to the Centre’s first public Open Day in February to learn about how Perth’s seawater is turned into drinkable fresh tap water.

Desal Discovery Centre Manager Warren Hays led water taste tests and science demonstrations in the new Edulab, explaining the desalination process using cutaway models of the membranes used in desal plants.

Mr Hays was encouraged by the number of visitors and questions asked by parents, teachers and interested public of all ages.

Also on display was the Centre’s pilot testing facility showing three working portable desalination units, a large educational touchscreen showing Australia’s six major desal plants and the Centre photos and YouTube videos, and the new 3D movie with footage supplied by the Water Corporation.

CEO Neil Palmer demonstrated experimental units using solar power to desalinate water, and a newly installed SkyHydrant which uses recycled Australian membranes to treat contaminated water in developing African and Asian villages to provide them with access to safe, clean water.

Puzzles, crosswords and colouring-in resources for school-aged children on desalination themes were on offer to further capture young imaginations, and these will soon be made available online.

Visitors to the Centre’s Open Day included school teachers, parents and schoolchildren, university staff and students, water industry professionals and interested locals.

More photos from Open Day are in our Flickr gallery.

Red Tides workshop report

In February, the NCEDA co-sponsored with the Middle East Desalination Research Centre, and the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology of Saudi Arabia, an expert workshop on Red Tides and Harmful Algal Blooms in Muscat, Oman. Australian scientists attending, Prof. Peter Steinberg (UNSW), Prof. Gustaaf Hallegraeff (UTas), and Dr Mike Dixon (SA Water), considered it a most stimulating desalination workshop, which brought together for the first time desalination engineers and algal bloom biologists.

Mike Dixon said: “The workshop provided an excellent opportunity for people in the desalination space to meet together and begin a collaborative journey towards solving some of the questions raised by such algal events. The experiences discussed formed pieces of the puzzle to give participants a broader understanding of the key problems and decide which were important and which were non-issues.

“Three breakout workgroups provided the perfect atmosphere to get further questions on the table and prioritise these ideas into research projects that will assist operators in knowing the right actions to take during a bloom, but critically, when to continue operations and when to shut down their plants. The participants came away from the workshop having learnt a great deal and having met the key players that will be essential in solving these issues,” he added.

Chief Scientific Officer, Prof. David Furukawa, summed up the key lessons from the workshop. He said: “It appears that toxins are not the major issue, but rather biomass that affect desalination plant operations. With the many varieties of ‘critters’ involved in the problem, it is a challenge to identify those which are of most interest. Some of the slides of different forms of algal blooms were revealing and surprising. After seeing those, it is no wonder that algal blooms raise havoc with desalination plant operation.

“Some of the clear messages from the workshop are that: (1) industry badly needs a real time monitoring tool that is effective for detecting algal blooms; (2) there is no published data yet on real-life operation of desalination plants during toxin producing algal blooms; (3) Compound transformation during desalination, through the impact of chlorine and flocculants, needs to be defined; and (4) While red tides usually exist on the surface, the bloom can move up and down in the water column, meaning that a deep water intake does not necessarily prevent drawing biomass into a plant.

“I hope this is the first of many workshops and conferences blending microbiology and engineering. It certainly opened my eyes,” he added.

The Red Tides workshop was also reviewed by Water Desalination Report and presentations from the workshop are available on the MEDRC website.

Intakes Outfalls workshop program now available

A draft program is now available for the Centre’s fourth research workshop, to be held in Adelaide on May 16-17.

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.

Keynote speakers are Prof. Gary L. Amy, Director of the Water Desalination and Reuse Research Center at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, and Mr Tom Pankratz, Editor of Water Desalination Report.

Other organisations presenting include Acciona; Alden Research Laboratory, USA; Hatch Associates; Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; SA Water; Scripps Institute, USA; Valoriza Water Australia; Veolia Water Australia; and WorleyParsons.

You can read more information about the workshop on our website at desalination.edu.au/intakesoutfalls.

GWI Desalination Short School

Following the Intakes Outfalls workshop, Global Water Intelligence are holding the second Australian Desalination Short School in Adelaide on May 18. The first Australian School was held at NCEDA Rockingham after the IDA World Congress in September 2011.

The Desalination Short School provides an opportunity to learn the technical aspects of some high visibility world-class projects. The course offers a highly practical and interactive case-study approach, delivered by two very experienced and well-known practitioners from the desalination industry.

“We’ll be focussing on the practical aspects of seawater desalination and the examples we’ll be profiling will be from our own first-hand experiences”, says Tom Pankratz, Editor of Water Desalination Report and one of the course experts. “It won’t be just a slide show. We’re fully conversant with all the details of these projects as we’ve actually been involved in their design and delivery”. He promises a lively, in-depth look at how decisions are made and the pitfalls to avoid. The course will cover feasibility and pilot studies, commissioning, testing and the post-completion issues of specific plants, from the Middle East, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas.

Participants will be drawn from contractors, consultants, offtakers, water utilities, suppliers, O&M personnel and researchers – all those looking to gain additional knowledge and an extra edge in the desal field.

The School is presented in association with the International Centre of Excellence in Water Resources Management. A discount is available for delegates attending both the Intakes Outfalls Workshop and the Desalination Short School. A registration form is available for download.

New Commercialisation Manager appointed

Former Excalibur Steel Operations Manager Tymen Brom has joined the National Centre of Excellence in Desalination as its new Commercialisation Manager.

Mr Brom has over 20 years’ corporate business, legal and scientific experience including successful research and development and commercialisation, and progression of innovative technologies.

He has advised numerous businesses from start-ups to large corporate clients from direct IP advice to corporate strategy and route to market.

Mr Brom has been involved in the negotiation of a number of technology access and distribution agreements between Australian and European or US companies, and is a named inventor of two pending patent applications.

His roles have included Technical Production and IP Manager, Patent Attorney, Metallurgist and Laboratory Scientist for organisations such as Q Technology Group, Watermark, Bradken Mining, West Australia Specialty Alloys, the University of WA and Alcoa of Australia.

He has an understanding of cultural issues in South-East Asia, having worked at Lloyd Wise Hong Kong while on a leave of absence at Watermark to work as a Patent Attorney in the challenging Chinese IP environment.

Mr Brom is a Member of the Institute of Materials Engineering Australia, and has qualifications from Curtin and Murdoch universities, the Institute of Patent and Trademark Attorneys Australia and TAFE.

Contact Mr Brom at t.brom@desalination.edu.au.

Portable CDI desal unit works well in Northern Territory trials

University of South Australia researchers led by Professor Linda Zou have conducted a series of NCEDA-funded trials to evaluate the performance of a portable commercial capacitive deionisation (CDI) unit developed by AQUA EWP, USA (supplied by LT Green Energy) at Wilora, a remote community 250km away from Alice Spring in the Northern Territory.

Project partner Power and Water provided local support in providing a bore water supply site for the CDI testings, and Professor Zou worked with USA researchers Dr Wei Zhang and PhD student Mohamed Mossad.

The trials found that the CDI unit demonstrated sufficient salinity and hardness removal ability at the remote brackish water source. The increased flow rate tend to decrease the overall TDS removal efficiency. However, in terms of energy efficiency, higher flow rate tend to be favourable.

At the current CDI unit configuration and local water conditions, 7L/min is recommended as the optimal operational parameter with an energy consumption of around 1.89kWh/m3 treated water. The total water recovery rate was between 75% and 80%.

Professor Zou says the current portable CDI technique offers a viable alternative solution to brackish water treatment, especially in remote area communities where building large treatment plant such as RO plant is not practical. She says the data and results shown in this work can be used as guidance for the onsite operation using the current technique.

Researcher Profile: Dr Milena Ginic-Markovic

Flinders University Desalination Program Manager Dr Milena Ginic-Markovic is working on NCEDA-funded research to develop a membrane coating that will inhibit biofouling and a universal additive to improve membrane mechanics.

Dr Ginic-Markovic manages Australia’s largest ARC Linkage research into reverse osmosis technology for seawater desalination at Flinders in South Australia, and is collaborating on the three-year NCEDA project with renewable energy company Wind Prospect, the state government utility South Australian Water and Siemens.

She explains that two of the key problems that exist with the current desalination membrane technology are biofouling and mechanical degradation of the membranes.

“Our objective is to develop a coating for commercially available membranes which will inhibit biofouling and/or biofoulant growth or reproduction; and to design and synthesise a ‘universal’ additive, which will improve the mechanical properties of membranes,” Dr Ginic-Markovic said.

“The fabrication of an anti-biofouling, antimicrobial coating on reverse osmosis and pretreatment desalination membranes will result in a minimum of at least four times bio-fouling improvement over commercially available membranes, while still maintaining competitive permeation flux and rejection properties.”

Collaboration with Siemens will be based on supply of hollow fibre samples by Siemens and use of their R&D test facilities, and collaboration with SA Water will involve regular meetings and use of their R&D facilities.

Over the past 11 years at Flinders and University of South Australia, Dr Ginic-Markovic has significantly contributed to research in polymers, nanocomposite materials, separation membranes and their characterisation.

She has co-supervised six PhD students and four honours students, and this group currently comprises of two postdoctoral research fellows, two PhD students, and two Masters students.

Through her ARC Linkage research and developments, Dr Ginic-Markovic has produced an Australian Provisional patent and an international PCT patent for the development of a novel biofouling coating for RO membranes.

Links and articles

‘Brackish groundwater: a viable community water supply option?’, National Water Commission, December 2011.

‘Dam overflows, desal concern grows’, 7.30, ABC, March 2012.

‘D-day for Australia’s home-grown desalters’, Global Water Intelligence, February 2012.

‘Museum of Desalination’, Global Water Intelligence, January 2012.

‘Sydney desal plant ridiculed after heavy rain’, PM, ABC, February 2012.

Nikolay Voutchkov, ‘Overview of Desalination Status & Future Trends’, Water and Energy Exchange 2012 conference, February 2012.

‘Water Corporation: SSDP Expansion’, Business Excellence, January 2012.

Gold Industry Sponsors

The NCEDA is grateful for the generous support of our Gold Industry Sponsors.

The Centre was fortunate to be visited in January by 28 high school students from across Australia who were in Perth as part of the National Youth Science Forum. These students, entering into Year 12, are the among top science students in Australia (photo above courtesy of the Community Newspaper Group).

It was a pleasure to share some of the chemistry and physics of desalination, and the intelligence, courtesy and curiosity of the students was exemplary. One of the objectives of NCEDA is to encourage enquiring minds of all ages, particularly the young, to explore the fascinating world of water and its conversion from salty to fresh.

Hopefully, some of the budding young scientists were inspired by the presentations and will be attracted to study water science and engineering at one of our Participating Organisations in order to make a difference to the world they will soon inherit.

Neil Palmer
0417 996 126
ceo@desalination.edu.au
Follow us on Twitter: @DiscoverDesal

Feature Article: Australia a leader in dealing with climate variability

By Nick Apostolidis, Global Development Leader, GHD

We cannot ‘climate proof’ our infrastructure. We can better understand the risks we face and plan for extreme events such as the millennium drought or the Queensland floods. The latter highlighted the importance of understanding the consequences of building in flood prone areas. Having to cope with such variability poses many challenges for our governments. The investment needed is much greater than other countries with more stable and predictable weather patterns. How do we build climate resilience into water infrastructure, transportation and energy networks, buildings and communication systems?

Read the feature article on desalination.edu.au.

Public Open Day, February 25, 2012

The Desal Discovery Centre will open its doors to the public on Saturday, February 25. This coincides with the local Rockingham Musselfest, and will be held between 1pm and 5pm.

DDC Manager Warren Hays says the Centre has so far hosted tours by schoolteachers from local schools Kolbe Catholic College and Rockingham Montessori, a class from St Judes Catholic Primary, and students from the National Youth Science Forum.

School visits will continue throughout the school year and further public events will coincide with Science Week and Murdoch University’s Rockingham Campus Open Day later in the year.

Schools and organisations interested in visiting the DDC or supporting its science education activities can contact Mr Hays at W.Hays@murdoch.edu.au or on 08 9360 7177.

International Intakes and Outfalls workshop now open for registration

Registrations are now being taken for the Centre’s fourth research workshop, to be held in Adelaide on May 16-17.

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.

See more information about the workshop, or register online now.

Funding Round 4 attracts 38 EOIs

Thirty eight Expressions of Interest have been received from NCEDA Participating Organisations for Funding Round 4 project grants.

The next stage will see EOI evaluation completed by February 17 and shortlisted applicants invited to submit proposals by March 26. Approved FR4 projects will be announced at the end of April.

The Centre’s research activity is funded under the Australian Government’s Water for the Future program.

New resident researcher explores solar desalination

A Victoria University Mechanical Engineering student is now a resident researcher at NCEDA’s Rockingham Facility.

High Distinction-achieving Christina Knorr is evaluating and developing suggestions for improving a commercially available simple solar desalination system which has the potential to provide sustainable and safe drinking water to remote communities and developing nations.

The only female in her VU Mechanical Engineering class, Ms Knorr was successful in her application for a travel bursary which enabled her to work on the solar desalination system based at the Rockingham Desalination Research Facility (RDRF) over the summer period. This topic will now be the subject of her final year project and ongoing literary review.

In line with NCEDA’s aim of providing opportunities for students of Participating Organisations to study desalination in a practical laboratory environment, Ms Knorr is able to meet and work with top researchers, industry leaders and technicians with broad water industry experience at NCEDA. She has also taken opportunities to explain how solar desal works to science teachers and high school students visiting the Centre.

Born in Russia, Ms Knorr studied in Germany before backpacking with her husband-to-be throughout Australia. The couple worked hard to gain entry to universities here to continue their studies, and once she has completed her degree, Ms Knorr intends to move permanently to Rockingham to undertake her PhD studies with Victoria University at the RDRF.

Under the surface of Perth Seawater Desalination Plant

The Water Corporation has recently published underwater vision around the Kwinana desalination plant, showing marine life around the intake and brine discharge from the diffuser.

Watch the video on YouTube.

Media coverage, links and articles

A new vision for desalination, Institute of Chemical Engineers, Dec 21, 2011.

Top science students learn about desalination, Murdoch University News, Jan 23, 2012.

Fact Sheet: Desalination in Australia, NCEDA, Jan 2012.

Gold Industry Sponsors

The NCEDA is grateful for the generous support of our Gold Industry Sponsors.

The newly opened venue for the National Centre of Excellence in Desalination Australia will be offering guided tours during its first public Open Day on Saturday February 25, between 1:00 – 5:00 pm.

Guided tours of the Rockingham Desalination Research Facility will include a 3D presentation on the desalination process, a tour of the pilot testing facility and some ‘hands-on’ science in our new Desal Discovery Centre Edulab.

If you want to learn more about desalination, or if you are just curious to see inside this new facility please visit us during our Open Day.

Location

National Centre of Excellence in Desalination Australia
Murdoch University Rockingham Campus
Dixon Road, Rockingham WA 6168

Telephone: 08 9360 7171
Email: w.hays@murdoch.edu.au

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