The Program delivers three new wastewater treatment plants in Sydney’s North West Growth Centre, providing essential infrastructure to the more than 70,000 new homes planned over the next 20 years.
These include:
- Riverstone WWTP: 14.2 ML/day biological nutrient removal plant using four stage Bardenpho process, tertiary filters and anaerobic digestion of biosolids. The Riverstone WWTP was commissioned January 2019. Since the process plant was commissioned, there has been significant improvements in the quality of effluent discharge, improving the health of the local waterways
- St Marys WRP: 48 ML/day biological nutrient removal plant with 140 t/week biosolids treatment using anaerobic digestion and thermal hydrolysis with energy recovery
- Quakers Hill WRP: 38ML/day aerobic granular sludge plant with 10ML/day of biosolids and sewerage transferred for treatment at St Marys WRP
Collaborative Delivery Model
The program is being delivered under a delivery partner model which is based largely on the delivery approach used for the construction of the London Olympics infrastructure. WSP Australia are engaged as the Delivery Partner in a joint venture with UGL Engineering – this is the first time the Water industry have utilised this collaborative form of delivery model.
WSP is responsible for total program and project management – managing all aspects of projects from concept design through to commissioning and handover.
Putting Sustainability at the Forefront
This program is Sydney Water’s first to pursue an Infrastructure Sustainability (IS) Rating. The primary objective of the IS Rating is to benchmark sustainability performance for a large infrastructure project and use the outcomes to inform future planning and decision making. Energy and greenhouse gas emission (GHG) benchmark and forecast modelling were undertaken during detailed design to support the IS design submission. This work involved detailed estimation of fugitive methane and nitrous oxide emissions, including emissions from N discharges to waterways, methane leakage from anaerobic digestion, and unoxidized methane from the combustion of biogas. Read more here.
Innovation Focus
The program adopted three new innovative wastewater process technologies, including the first installations into Australia. The three new technologies include:
- Thermal Hydrolysis Process (THP) used for biosolids treatment to increase energy recovery from biogas recovery, reduce power consumption via a cogeneration plant and reduce cost of biosolids to landfill due to the improvement of biosolids quality and reduction in volume
- Aerobic Granular Sludge (AGS) used for biological nutrient removal with the benefit of reduced energy consumption, reduced footprint through elimination of secondary clarification and reduction in capital cost
- Mechanical Primary Sedimentation (MPS) used to remove suspended solids from the primary treatment process, with the advantage over traditional primary sedimentation of a reduction in site footprint
