Challenge
In September 2007, Waitaki District Council had finished constructing the Oamaru Water Treatment Plant (WTP). The plant had been originally commissioned with two competitor membrane trains. By 2015, the competitor membranes approached their end of life and were no longer able to meet the customer’s capacity requirements. Furthermore, the customer wanted the flexibility to increase the plant’s capacity in the future within the existing footprint. This was not possible with the competitor product.
Solution
Veolia proposed the ZW1000-R1 Rack which provides the most upgrade options for drinking water facilities currently operating non-Veolia membrane systems. The ZW1000-R1 Rack allows for direct replacement, giving customers expanded capacity, increased performance and access to Veolia’s proven service capabilities and people.
The ZW1000-R1 Rack is designed to use Veolia’s ZW1000 modules as its building blocks. The modularity of the rack and the ZW1000 modules allows for various configurations and provides customizable solutions for any existing tank design with minimal changes to the existing hardware.
The customer decided to upgrade the whole plant with two Veolia trains equipped with seven ZW1000R1 Racks each. The upgrade allows the plant to operate at the design capacity that the competitor was unable to attain. Four of the racks are populated with blank modules which can easily be replaced with active modules in the future to increase capacity.
| Description | Original | Upgrade |
|---|---|---|
| Type of Membrane | Competitor | Veolia ZW1000 |
| Module Surface Area, m2 | 28 | 51.1 |
| Total Number of Modules | 504 | 288 |
| Total Surface Area, m2 | 14,112 | 14,717 |
| Maximum Design Capacity | 19 MLDa | 20.5 MLDb |
a Not met at end of membrane life
b Ultimate Design Capacity Competitor = 24 MLD, Veolia = 28.2 MLD (identical footprint)
Along with the installation, Waitaki also chose to add InSight* Pro Consulting Service. This monitoring service provides the plant with a proven means of automatically collecting water process and quality data from their membrane system. This data is then converted into graphical reports and a Veolia process specialist is assigned to work with Oamaru to monitor the data and assist the operators with interpreting the results.
InSight’s reporting tool is easier to understand and has more capabilities than the reporting tool previously used by the customer. The increased functionality of InSight’s reporting tool helps identify possible improvements in the plant’s treatment process.
Result
In October 2015, the first Veolia train equipped with seven ZW1000-R1 Racks was successfully installed in two weeks. The ZW1000-R1 Rack requires considerably less air than the competitor membranes so Veolia upgraded the 37 kW blowers to more efficient 11 kW blowers to reduce energy costs. The second train installation will occur in the coming months.
built with proven technology
The ZW1000 module (Fig. 3) leverages decades of Veolia’s UF membrane expertise.
ZW1000 modules have a proven track record of success over the past 15 years and account for 1.3 billion gallons per day (BGD) of total installed capacity.
If you would like to know how Veolia can solve your water treatment needs, contact your local Veolia representative.