Veolia Water, in the Gold Coast Desalination Alliance with John Holland, SKM and Cardno, designed, built, and is now operating and maintaining the 125 million litres per day South East Queensland Desalination Plant on the Gold Coast on behalf of WaterSecure.
The plant helps to provide a safe, reliable, long term water supply to South East Queensland.
It was the first large scale desalination facility on Australia's eastern seaboard and it now provides drinking water to 650,000 people.
The first desalinated water was produced from the plant in November 2008. The plant is now supplying water to the network to meet the requirements of the Queensland Water Commission.
The plant is a key part of the Queensland Government's South East Queensland Regional Water Strategy which includes the A$9 billion Water Grid. This grid enables water to be transported from surplus areas to those in shortage.
The grid includes new pipelines, dam upgrades, a major water recycling project (the Western Corridor Recycled Water Project) and the South East Queensland Desalination Plant.
Seawater is treated using reverse osmosis which pushes seawater through a membrane. Salt and any other impurities are removed, producing fresh water.
The South East Queensland Desalination Plant is among the most energy efficient in the world, with an average efficiency of 3.58kWh/m³ and dual work exchanger energy recovery devices situated at each reverse osmosis train. These recover approximately 50 per cent of the energy required to convert seawater to permeate. Renewable energy certificates are also purchased to offset the plant's power consumption.
The marine's environments around the plant's inlet and outlet structure are closely monitored to ensure both a healthy ocean environment and to meet the strict environmental licence requirements.
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