Northern Water Plant, Australia

The Northern Water Plant (NWP) is a A$94m (approximately $100m) water recycling facility being constructed in northern Geelong, Victoria, Australia.

The new facility will recycle two billion litres of water yearly, which is equivalent to 5% of the region's drinking water. Most of the recycled water will be used by Shell Australia's Geelong Refinery.

The NWP is located next to the refinery in Corio, Geelong.

The NWP project was announced in December 2008. Construction began in March 2011 and is expected to be completed by mid-2012. First water supply is expected in early 2013. Earthworks were almost complete by August 2011. Construction of civil structures and buildings is currently underway. The project will generate around 150 new jobs during construction.

The plant will be owned and operated by Barwon Water Authority, Victoria's largest urban water corporation. It is responsible for providing water, sewerage and recycled water services.

Purpose of Northern Water Plant project

Construction of the NWP was undertaken to treat the growing volumes of sewage in the region and also reduce drinking water consumption. The project will help in improving Shell's water management programme. The plant will recycle domestic sewage and industrial waste from northern Geelong, including the Shell Geelong Refinery.

The NWP will supply approximately two billion litres of Class A recycled water annually to the refinery. This will save an equal amount of drinkable water that Shell draws for use in the refinery processes. Class A standard recycled water cannot be used for drinking, bathing or swimming, but is fit for human contact.

The plant will recycle about 95% of the sewage water of the refinery. The plant will also deliver irrigation quality water to the Stead Park sports complex and for other community facilities. The plant will improve the water quality in the region by reducing the amount of wastewater discharge into the local river systems.

Treatment of the wastewater

Wastewater will first be channelled to the plant's inlet works for screening of solids. The screened sewage will then be merged with wastewater produced by Shell Geelong Refinery. The combined sewage will then undergo a biological treatment to produce class C standard recycled water. In this process, naturally-grown bacteria are used to decompose the waste matter.

In the next step, solids and pathogens are removed by an ultra-filtration (UF) system. Leftover viruses will be killed with the chlorination of the water. The resultant water will be class A standard. The chlorinated water will further be processed by reverse osmosis (RO) membranes to remove remaining salts.

Technology used at the water recycling facility

The state-of-the-art water recycling facility will be equipped with modern treatment technologies including a biological treatment process, UF system and RO membranes. The plant will also incorporate the latest technology to minimise energy utilisation, noise and odour.

In early 2010, a pilot plant at the Oyster Cove pump station at North Shore was commissioned to test the technology to be used at the NWP. The pilot plant was built to make sure the main plant can deal with two different wastewater streams and produce class A recycled water.

Key players involved in the Australian project

Construction of the NWP is being undertaken by Barwon Water in partnership with Shell Australia.

The project is being coordinated by Victorian Government through the Department of Sustainability and Environment.

In 2009, a design-build and commissioning contract was awarded to a consortium of John Holland, Kellogg Brown & Root and Montgomery Watson Harza. The project is being financed by the Australian Government, Victorian Government, Shell Australia and Barwon Water.

Shell is contributing $47.5m, which is almost half of the project cost. The Australian Government and Victorian Government are contributing $20m and $9m, respectively. Barwon Water will provide $17.5m.

Barwon Water's other Geelong projects

Barwon has undertaken four major water projects in Geelong to secure the water needs of the region. The $900m projects include the Angelsea borefield, the Melbourne to Geelong pipeline and the Black Rock recycled water plant, in addition to the Northern Water Plant.