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We have learnt a thing or two about decentralised wastewater treatment plants

Posted on 09 July, 2010 in Stornoway Water News

Running biological wastewater treatment plants is a complex art. Add advanced treatment technology for water recycling and the remoteness of many regional communities and resources projects and it becomes a whole lot more difficult.

No one knows this more than Stornoway Water, a company that has been supplying advanced water and wastewater treatment systems to regional and remote populations up to 2500 people for the past five years.

Stornoway’s managing director Tim Gardner said that in the course of the company’s work, anything that could go wrong had gone wrong at some time or another.

“The trick has been to resolve the problems as they arise, learn from them, and provide feedback into our designs and procedures,” Mr Gardner said.

“Thanks to that experience and learning, we’ve been able to develop treatment systems and field support that reflect the needs of remote area operation.”

Over time, Stornoway has developed a number of key learning areas – ‘adequate front end planning and engineering’, ‘operator capability and commitment’, ‘commissioning’ and ‘ongoing service and maintenance’.

The first learning area – adequate front end planning and engineering – refers to the expectation that an off-the-shelf system will generally be suitable for remote area use, often resulting in a system that is not fit for purpose. Stornoway believes that involving the supplier in the planning and design phase greatly increases the chance of project success, allowing preliminary designs to be developed, jointly reviewed and properly costed before large capital commitments are made.

The second area – operator capability and commitment – refers to the common assumption that correct plant design is all you need to ensure successful plant performance when in fact one of the biggest determinants of plant performance is the capability and commitment of its operator. All too often decentralised systems end up in the hands of operators with inadequate experience and competence, particularly when it comes to advanced treatment. A commitment to comprehensive training and ongoing operator support is therefore vital.

The two remaining learning areas – commissioning, and ongoing service and maintenance – refer to the regular checks and maintenance required to ensure the biological health of a system, ensuring all the process components are functioning.

“There is often an unrealistic expectation that a wastewater treatment plant can switched on and performing within days,” Mr Gardner said. “However, with a biomass to grow, teething issues to be resolved and operator understanding to be developed, it can take a number of months to get a plant fully commissioned and consistently performing to specification. In the meantime, there’s a need for patience.

“Operator support services, remote SCADA monitoring and a routine service program by a skilled tradesperson is essential to maintaining the functioning of all the plant components and therefore the overall performance of the plant.”

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