Sewage Has $30m Stink
From The West Australian in Perth, Australia
http://www.thewest.com.au/20020514/news/perth/tw-news-perth-
home-sto56343.ht
ml
Sewage has $30m stink
By Michael Southwell
A NEW sewage treatment plant which cost WA taxpayers $30 million does not
work as promised and has been partly shut.
The Enersludge plant at the Water Corporation's Shenton Park wastewater
facility was touted as a green alternative to existing sewage treatment,
promising to convert dried sewage sludge to oil, which would be used to
power the plant's diesel electricity generators.
But the quality of the oil produced by the plant is too poor to be used in
generators. So the sludge-to-oil converter has been shut after less than
four months of full operation.
Dried sewage pellets produced in the early stages of the process are being
taken by truck to be spread on a farm in Moora as fertiliser.
Some of the partly dried sludge produced by the process is dumped in a
landfill site at Cardup, near Byford.
Trucking the pellets and sludge off-site costs more than $200,000 a year.
In 1996, the Court government accepted a tender from Environmental Solutions
International to supply the Enersludge plant, which was built by Clough
Engineering.
ESI managing director Denis Glennon is a member of the Environmental
Protection Authority. The process was expected to generate savings for the
Water Corporation of about $700,000 a year from power generation and was due
to be operational by 1998.
But technical problems delayed the project and the first stages were not
completed until December 2000, with the sludge-to-oil converter commissioned
in April last year. The converter was not fully operational until July and
was shut by November.
Water Corporation wastewater general manager Keith Cadee admitted the
converter had not produced the expected results but said the rest of the
plant was working as expected. The converter had cost $2.3 million.
Mr Glennon said the problem was that the oil contained high levels of solids
and water, which made it unsuitable for diesel engines.
Work was proceeding on a process to further refine the oil and on finding an
alternative fuel engine which would run on the oil to generate electricity.
He expected these additions to cost no more than $250,000, and said ESI
would fund the extra equipment required.
"This notion of the plant not working is a narrow view. The bulk of the
plant, 90 per cent of it, works and is working," Mr Glennon said.
WA Conservation Council vice-president Sue Graham-Taylor said the Water
Corporation should have kept the community informed about problems with the
sludge-to-oil project, which was widely promoted in its early stages.
http://www.thewest.com.au/20020514/news/perth/tw-news-perth-
home-sto56343.ht
ml
Sewage has $30m stink
By Michael Southwell
A NEW sewage treatment plant which cost WA taxpayers $30 million does not
work as promised and has been partly shut.
The Enersludge plant at the Water Corporation's Shenton Park wastewater
facility was touted as a green alternative to existing sewage treatment,
promising to convert dried sewage sludge to oil, which would be used to
power the plant's diesel electricity generators.
But the quality of the oil produced by the plant is too poor to be used in
generators. So the sludge-to-oil converter has been shut after less than
four months of full operation.
Dried sewage pellets produced in the early stages of the process are being
taken by truck to be spread on a farm in Moora as fertiliser.
Some of the partly dried sludge produced by the process is dumped in a
landfill site at Cardup, near Byford.
Trucking the pellets and sludge off-site costs more than $200,000 a year.
In 1996, the Court government accepted a tender from Environmental Solutions
International to supply the Enersludge plant, which was built by Clough
Engineering.
ESI managing director Denis Glennon is a member of the Environmental
Protection Authority. The process was expected to generate savings for the
Water Corporation of about $700,000 a year from power generation and was due
to be operational by 1998.
But technical problems delayed the project and the first stages were not
completed until December 2000, with the sludge-to-oil converter commissioned
in April last year. The converter was not fully operational until July and
was shut by November.
Water Corporation wastewater general manager Keith Cadee admitted the
converter had not produced the expected results but said the rest of the
plant was working as expected. The converter had cost $2.3 million.
Mr Glennon said the problem was that the oil contained high levels of solids
and water, which made it unsuitable for diesel engines.
Work was proceeding on a process to further refine the oil and on finding an
alternative fuel engine which would run on the oil to generate electricity.
He expected these additions to cost no more than $250,000, and said ESI
would fund the extra equipment required.
"This notion of the plant not working is a narrow view. The bulk of the
plant, 90 per cent of it, works and is working," Mr Glennon said.
WA Conservation Council vice-president Sue Graham-Taylor said the Water
Corporation should have kept the community informed about problems with the
sludge-to-oil project, which was widely promoted in its early stages.
posted by Sludge at 6:28 AM
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