TasWater minimises odours at Hobart

With Calix's ACTI-Mag and Netco Pumps.

Flora Leonetti \ November 12, 2019
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ACTI-Mag eliminates odours at TasWater, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.

case study summary

Challenges
  • Magnesium hydroxide liquid product was constantly blocking the peristaltic pumps and dosing lines causing headaches for the operators.
  • Highly-viscous with a low surface area and slow reactivity time.
  • Once blocked in the lines it was a time consuming and painful job to chip the hardened, cement like material out of the pipework.
Objective
  • Manage H2S odour levels.
  • Save on chemical and maintenance costs.
  • Reduce blockages and improve operational efficiency.
Solution

Download Success story

TasWater minimises odours with Calix’s ACTI-Mag and Netco Pumps.

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Benefits of ACTI-Mag

Higher neutralising value per kilo when compared with caustic while being significantly safer to handle than other traditional alkalis.

Very safe and cost competitive option for hydrogen sulphide gas (H2S) control in wastewater treatment.

Introduction

Formed through the merger of three Tasmanian water and sewage corporations, TasWater is Tasmania’s water and sewage utility. TasWater is responsible for providing drinking water across the state as well as collecting and treating sewage.

With a vision to be a trusted and respected provider of essential services that makes a positive difference to Tasmania, TasWater aims to efficiently provide water and sewerage services to customers in the most cost-effective manner, encourage water conservation, and deliver sustainable returns to its members.

Challenges

TasWater was experiencing issues with the magnesium hydroxide liquid product it was using at a Southern Wastewater Treatment Plant, the product was constantly blocking the peristaltic pumps and dosing lines causing headaches for the operators.

The product they were using was a standard type of MHL, highly-viscous with a low surface area and slow reactivity time. Once blocked in the lines it was a time consuming and painful job to chip the hardened, cement like material out of the pipework.

Solution

TasWater engaged with Netco Pumps to explore different options and after speaking with a lot of industry contacts Netco ran a trial at the treatment plant of ACTI-Mag product by Calix. This immediately proved successful as the product had a much finer molecular structure and was more viscous, overall it proved much easier to pump and handle as well as having a good reactivity time. ACTI-Mag is a concentrated stabilised suspension of magnesium hydroxide, an inorganic compound with the chemical formula Mg(OH)2, the method by which Calix calcinates the raw product results in a product with a much higher surface area which has multiple benefits.

A few months later TasWater were experiencing odour issues in the Hobarts Eastern Shore network where stations were being injected with Oxygen. TasWater decided to engage Netco again to run a trial using ACTI-Mag dosing at 4 stations over the summer months to treat the odour and measure results. Netco Pumps installed and commissioned 4 somewhat crude dosing packages at the 4 sites identified and the result was spectacular with H2S measurement at the receiving treatment plant down to almost zero. The dosing units were operating on a simple timer based dosing method which is not optimal, however the results spoke for themselves and 4 years later 3 of the 4 sites are still dosing whilst the 4th site was decommissioned as the retention effect from the upstream station made it unnecessary.

Netco general manager Nathan Cruickshank comment was – “the Calix’s ACTI-Mag ticked all our boxes for TasWater. While the dosing units were only supposed to be temporary, they are still in place today albeit a few upgrades to make them more functional. The combination of an excellent product coupled with our unique delivery and maintenance service has resulted in a very painless experience for TasWater and its operators, at the same time solving odour issues and protecting their assets from the stations through to the treatment plant”

ACTI-Mag has a higher neutralising value per kilo when compared with caustic while being significantly safer to handle than other traditional alkalis, making it a very safe and cost competitive option for hydrogen sulphide gas (H2S) control in wastewater treatment.

With a chemistry similar to the antacids used in our human digestive systems, ACTI-Mag can also safely and cost-effectively remove phosphorus from the wastewater discharge, which improves the wastewater quality.

Netco Pumps recommends ACTI-Mag because it is less viscous, has a high surface area, which means it reacts quicker, and is a 60 per cent concentrated solution resulting in less of the product being required to treat the same problem.

 

Calix’s ACTI-Mag is a safe, environmentally-friendly solution that effectively maintains our odour and asset protection. Likewise, Necto Pumps provides us with a seamless service to deliver, run and maintain our dosing system in a problem-free way. We are thrilled with our experience using ACTI-Mag.

Benefits

The success story between Netco, TasWater and Calix continued and now there is a total of 14 ACTI-Mag dosing sites across TasWater sites of various sizes. Netco Pumps designs and builds MHL dosing packages and believe their attention to detail and service is what has built a successful partnership. Some of the dosing sites are situated at Wastewater Treatment Plants where the ACTI-Mag solution proves its ability to boost alkalinity in the process for nitrification and denitrification. Calix has also proved the ability of the product to tackle more than just odour – ACTI-Mag’s unique molecular structure creates a negative electrical charge which attracts fat, oil and grease (FOGs) and reduces phosphorous, TasWater have boosted dosing at one site to help tackle the increased loading of FOG’s coming into a station downstream which has been historically problematic.

With a lot of experience under their belt now Netco believes the ACTI-Mag product is one of the key ingredients to the success of the program and being able to provide a a problem-free implementation of the solution.

Within five years of use, only two blockages have occurred and both have been caused by foreign objects such as broken plastic. Netco Pumps has also introduced a blanket policy to use minimum 20mm peristaltic pumps on their dosing packages to minimise even the possibility for this.

The partnership with Netco Pumps also greatly benefits TasWater as Netco Pumps takes care of the maintenance so that TasWater can get on with its core function.

related customer stories

ACTI-Mag for Odour Control

ACTI-Mag has a higher neutralising value per kilo when compared with caustic while being significantly safer to handle than other traditional alkalis, making it a very safe
and cost competitive option for hydrogen sulphide gas (H2S) control in sewers.

Download the Solution Spec Sheet

Related articles

“The Calix’s ACTI-Mag ticked all our boxes for TasWater. While the dosing units were only supposed to be temporary, they are still in place today albeit a few upgrades to make them more functional. The combination of an excellent product coupled with our unique delivery and maintenance service has resulted in a very painless experience for TasWater and its operators, at the same time solving odour issues and protecting their assets from the stations through to the treatment plant.”

Netco General Manager Nathan Cruickshank

Find Netco website

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