Executive Summary

With decreasing reservoir levels and an ever increasing population Sydney is facing an
uncertain

future regarding their potable water supply. The Metropolitan Water Plan published in 2010
only

safeguards Sydney‟s potable water supply up until 2030. Hence, consideration needs to be
made

with regards to safeguarding Sydney‟s potable water supply beyond 2030. A variety of options
to

overcome this issue have been reviewed and it has been concluded the most feasible solution is
a

Next Generation Desalination Plant that backs up their natural drinking water resources. This is

the same operation conditions that the current plant operates under.

Currently the largest Desalination plant is located in Kurnell and has the capability to produce

5x105 m3/day of potable water. The Kurnell Plant is due to cease production at the end of its

operating contract in 2030. Therefore, a Next Generation Desalination Plant is required to

continue this potable water supply at a greater quantity from the point of Kurnell closure. With

population growth projections and the consideration of global warming effects the theorised

capacity of this next generation plant would be 9.9x105 m3/day. This would enable, at a
maximum

capacity, to supply Sydney with 50% of its daily potable water requirement.

There are many desalination methods either currently used or under development, however on
this

large scale there are only two viable options using the available technologies. These are:

Multi-Stage Flash Distillation (MSFD)

Reverse Osmosis (RO)

On having considered both the advantages and disadvantages for both processes Reverse
Osmosis

was chosen due to the following reasons:

Lower combined power requirements

Larger scope for environmental sustainability

 Organic and inorganic impurities can be removed

Less susceptible to loss of process integrity

The process was designed to have both as low an environmental impact as possible and an

efficiency that would ensure the project‟s financial viability whilst producing the high quality
and

necessary quantity of output. The key design features were:

A pioneering intake system that incorporates low environmental impact with a large

capacity.

Desalination: Group 3 Executive Summary

ii

Author: Group

Micro-screening units coupled with Ultrafiltration membranes that provide unrivalled

treatment to protect RO membrane function.

A Split Partial Second Pass RO system so as to provide sufficient impurity removal

whilst ensuring financial feasibility, supported by an energy recovery system.

Disinfection to adhere to stringent water quality standards.

A raised outlet system enabling use of gravitational flow to transport the discharged

waste sustainably as reliance on pumps is reduced.

A 210 turbine wind farm will offset the plant‟s power requirements deeming it a

sustainable development.

The main site has been raised to 6.25m above sea level to accommodate the large amount

of spoil produced as a result of tunnelling required for the inlet, outlet and distribution

infrastructure, This aids in mitigating against a rise in sea level and protects the site for

future expansion.

To fully determine the feasibility of introducing a Next Generation Desalination Plant into the

Sydney area, based on the findings of the inception report, this report will analyse the
following:

The type of desalination technology to be used.

 The most suitable site available for such a plant.

The stages of the desalination treatment process.

The method by which the sea water will be extracted and discharged back into the

Tasman Sea.

How the treated water will be delivered to the drinking water network.

The overall plant design including the site layout and the interaction with the surrounding
area.
 How the plant will be powered and maintained in a sustainable manner.
 The impact of such a plant on the surrounding ecosystems.
 How the plant will impact the surrounding communities
 The financial and technical feasibility of such a plant, compared to other currently
available schemes.

reverse osmosis is a process in which a pressure greater than the

osmotic pressure is applied to a saline solution causing pure water to flow from a more
concentrated saline solution through a semi-permeable membrane and into a less concentrated
region, thus leaving behind salt and impurities on the pressure side of the membrane. A reverse
osmosis (RO) desalination plant consists of three main phases namely; pre-treatment, reverse
osmosis (using RO membranes) and post-treatment.(Bell & et.al, 2010) This section of the report
however, deals mainly with the design of the reverse osmosis stage of the desalination process.
Figure 11- A 1 -Pass, 1-stage Reverse Osmosis (RO) System
Source: (Self drawn)
The reverse osmosis phase is said to be the heart of the desalination process since most of the
salts
that are dissolved in the water (seawater or brackish water) are removed in this stage of the
entire
process. Figure 11 above, is a simple schematic of a basic 1 -pass, 1-stage reverse osmosis system
that incorporates an energy recovery system. As shown in the figure above, the water from the
pre-treatment phase is pumped to high pressures before it passes through the RO membranes.
High pressure operation is essential so as to overcome the natural occurrence of osmosis, which
would otherwise occur as a result of the concentration difference across the semi permeable
membrane. In other words, in an RO system, the feed water is raised to pressures between 50 to
80 bar (Khawaji et al., 2008) so as to overcome the osmotic pressure which causes the solution to
pass from a low solute concentration to a high solute concentration. Thus, in order to reverse
the
natural flow of the solute and hence prevent the penetration of water into the region of high
solute
concentration from a region of low solute concentration, a feed pressure, which in excess of the
osmotic pressure, is applied to the region of high solute concentration (Khawaji et al., 2008). The
typical design pressures (maximum operating limit) of most RO membranes are approximately
between 70 to 80 bars. Operating at pressures higher than the maximum specified would
eventually result in membrane malfunction. The high pressure reject concentrate, shown in