As an internationally recognised technology leader, The Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology is actively involved in domestic and industrial water recycling and wastewater projects.
We will generally prioritise consulting work and contract R&D within our areas of expertise, which include high-strength nutrient removal, industrial wastewaters, solids handling, process modelling, and microbial diversity. Services that we provide include, but not limited to expert reviews, process simulation and analysis, conceptual designs and design reviews of greenfield processes, and industrial R&D.
Case study
South East Water Upgrades the Mt Martha Biosolids Treatment Train
The Centre has provided South East Water (SEW) support in upgrading their Mt Martha wastewater treatment plant digesters. These digesters are now in the order of 20 years old, and have become capacity limited. Rather than replacing the digesters, SEW decided to upgrade them by implementing temperature-phased anaerobic digestion. This process has been investigated extensively at ACWEB, and was found to increase the performance substantially in exactly the application SEW is considering. Dr Damien Batstone assisted Adjunct Prof Ken Hartley in evaluating the existing SEW digesters and providing expected performance outcomes. A subsequent laboratory scale investigation provided information needed to further optimise design of the process.
“Having ACWEB (formerly AWMC) in Australia provides an important research service that we can easily access, but their core research that is also highly relevant, provides us with additional process options, and reduces costs associated with process uncertainty.”, Mr Terry Anderson from SEW corporate strategy.
Personnel: A/Prof Damien Batstone, Dr Paul Jensen and Adjunct Prof Ken Hartley
Consultants
SeweX
SeweX is a consulting business based at ACWEB, and is operated under UniQuest Pty Ltd, the commercial arm of UQ. SeweX provides consulting services on the management of sulfide related odour problems in sewer systems to industry. The SeweX (Sewer Transformation) model, which has been developed by the Centre’s strong and internationally leading research team on sewer systems in the past seven years, is primarily used for identifying the problems and investigating options for their mitigation. SeweX also offers strong expertise and tools for offline and online measurement of wastewater characteristics in sewer systems. SeweX has successfully completed a number of consulting projects for water utilities across Australia. Allconnex Water (Gold Coast), Unity Water (Moreton Bay) and South East Water (Melbourne) have all benefited from SeweX services in the past.
The SeweX model is a mathematical model describing the physical, chemical and biological processes in sewers. The model also predicts the formation and emission of methane, a potent green house gas, in sewer networks. The SeweX model won the 2008 International Water Association’s Project Innovation Award (East Asia and Pacific Region) and the 2008 Excellence Award in Research, Development and Innovation of Engineers of Australia (Queensland Division). The model is under continuous enhancement under the Sewer Corrosion and Odour Research (SCORe) project.
For further information, please contact the SeweX Business Manager Mr. Shaun Corrie or visit www.sewex.com.au.
Cloevis
Cloevis is a new, low cost and effective way of preventing sewer corrosion and odours caused by hydrogen sulfide. An estimated US$14B is spent on sewer corrosion every year in the US. Current chemical treatments target the hydrogen sulfide and therefore require continuous dosing leading to high operating costs. Cloevis is a two part solution, a patent pending chemical mix that is able to effectively kill sulfate-reducing bacteria and a software modelling tool used to optimise dosing. This delivers a lower cost solution than existing treatments.
Cloevis is based on technologies developed at the Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology at The University of Queensland and comes from over 10 years of research sponsored by most of the major Australian water utilities. Cloevis is being managed by UniQuest Pty Ltd, one of Australia's leading technology transfer companies. Cloevis has been exclusively licensed to USP Technologies.