Siemens membranes to pretreat Perth II plant

Siemens is to provide a 95 MGD (360,000 m³/d) pressurized membrane treatment system for Water Corporation’s Southern Seawater desalination plant in Binningup, south of Perth, Australia.

Ten Seablock membrane filtration units will be supplied, each consisting of 912 hollow-fiber membrane modules.

The Southern Seawater Joint Venture (Worley Parsons, Valoriza Agua, Tecnicas Reunidas and AJ Lucas) chose Siemens’ Memcor membrane technology for its reduced system footprint, simplicity of operation, ability to treat feed without coagulant addition, lower energy cost and improved feed water quality for the downstream reverse-osmosis system when compared with conventional technology. The equipment is manufactured by Siemens in Australia, with technical engineering design and service support provided locally.

When completed, the 40-MGD (151,000 m³/d) plant will produce approximately 15% of Perth’s water supply. The existing Perth Seawater Desalination Plant currently provides 17% of Perth’s water supply, and when the Southern Seawater Desalination Plant is commissioned in 2011, a total of approximately 30% of Perth’s water will be supplied from climate-independent sources.

Siemens says that Seablock systems are typically 30% smaller in footprint than other membrane systems. With a verifiable barrier rated at 0.04 microns, the membranes ensure superior SDI values compared with conventional technologies without the need for feed coagulation or downstream cartridge filters.