The commissioning of a $5 million water recycling plant and reticulation system at the Nyrstar Port Pirie smelter will establish an additional water source for the site.
This project is partially funded through Nyrstar and the Port Pirie Regional Council and the Australian Government’s Water for the Future initiative through the National Water Security Plan for Cities and Towns program.
The water will also be used for initiatives such as dust suppression, cleaning and revegetation which are directly liked to “Ten for them” the city’s blood lead reduction program.
Recycling the sites industrial process wastewater will produce up to 1.6 Megalitres per day (1.6ML/d) or the equivalent of 235 Olympic sized swimming pools per year of high quality water for use by Nyrstar as well as by the Port Pirie Council for the irrigation of ovals in parks.
Nyrstar currently uses 1,800 ML/pa water per annum however utilising water generated by the recycling plant will reduce it’s reliance on the River Murray by 26 per cent which will have an obvious positive environmental benefit.
Osmoflo, the successful tender will design the plant based on the use of reverse osmosis technology and incorporate green initiatives such as energy recovery to maximise the efficiency of the treatment process.
Concentrate produced by the recycling plant containing the removed salts and other materials will be disposed of via the existing Process Effluent Treatment and Storage (PETS) system as per EPA licence conditions.
The plant is expected to be commissioned in early January 2012.
[Image courtesy Osmoflo.]