Waste + Water Management Australia V43.4 December 2016

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WASTE + WATER MANAGEMENT AUSTRALIA DECEMBER 2016

V43.4

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Bucher Municipal

Building for a Bright Future


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ABN 85 007 693 138 PO Box 510, Broadford Victoria 3658 Australia Phone: 1300 EPCGROUP (1300 372 476) Int’l: +61 3 5784 3438 Fax: +61 3 5784 2210 www.epcgroup.com Publisher and Managing Editor Anthony T Schmidt Phone: 1300 EPCGROUP (1300 372 476) Mobile: 0414 788 900 Email: ats@epcgroup.com Deputy Editor Rex Pannell Mobile: 0433 300 106 Email: rex@epcgroup.com National Advertising Sales Manager Yuri Mamistvalov Phone: 1300 EPCGROUP (1300 372 476) Mobile: 0419 339 865 Email: yuri@epcgroup.com Advertising Sales - SA Jodie Chester - G Advertising Mobile: 0439 749 993 Email: jodie@gadvertising.com.au Advertising Sales - WA Licia Salomone - OKeeffe Media Mobile: 0412 080 600 Email: licia@okm.com.au Graphic Design Annette Epifanidis Mobile: 0416 087 412

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CIRCULATION 7020 Registered by Australia Post Publication No. 100001890

ISSN 1838-7098

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Editor's Column

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Industry News

December 2016 Volume 43 Number 4

10 Cover Feature: Bucher Municipal 14 Civenex 2017 17

Special Report: SA Nuclear Fuel Findings

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Waste-to-Energy

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20 Recycling Technology 22 Innovative Solutions

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24 Banksia Awards 26 Innovative Solutions 28 Recycled Water 30 Focus On Water 32 Product Focus: Aussie Pump Cutter

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34 Renewable Energy 38 Case Study: VersaFlex Rehabilitating Ageing Concrete WWTP

40 Special Feature: Digital Enablement 44 ACA Corrosion Feature

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About the Cover Hot on the heels of its recent appointment as the exclusive national distributor and service representative for the worldrenowned JHL range of vacuum tankers – a move which includes plans to assemble and eventually manufacture the JHL tankers in Australia – leading waste and environmental equipment specialists Bucher Municipal have also announced the purchase of leading Australian compaction and materials handling equipment company PakMor Waste Equipment Australia Pty Ltd. Turn to Page 10 for the full story.


EDITORS COLUMN

Just because we can... Doesn't mean we should Dear Readers, As the Managing Editor of Waste + Water Management Australia (WWM) magazine, it's hardly surprising that I spend a great deal of my time researching and discussing a wide range of environmental initiatives. What does surprise me - especially after this many years - is that there are still people (individuals and groups) whose main focus is to question the validity of climate change research, global warming, the actual impact of certain activities on the planet and, perhaps most alarmingly, whether it is worth investing in a range of measures to address these issues. Indeed, there are still those that believe that recycling is a complete waste of time, effort and money, it is environmentally irresponsible, and it shouldn’t be done! Perhaps most alarmingly, the apparent key reasoning behind this complete disregard for recycling is often that “…Australia is an extremely large country, with an abundance of space and holes in the ground, into which we could quite easily continue to dispose of waste for many (presumably 100’s) of years to come, without any fear of running out of room.” I put that in quotations as this (and similar statements) have been made to me in person at more than one time! Now, while I feel quite certain that the majority of you are at this point shaking your 2

Waste + Water Management Australia | December 2016

head in disbelief at this line of thinking, there will also, no doubt, be some that agree with it – although I do believe that they will be in the minority. Importantly, while I respect anyone’s right to hold that opinion, I will also reserve my right to vehemently disagree with it. I can't help think that this line of thinking is somewhat ‘missing the point’, viz: “…even if Australia had enough room and holes in the ground to continue throwing all of our waste away for another thousand years, wouldn’t we be better off ‘doing the right thing’ by trying to minimise our impact on the planet on which we all live?” In simpler terms: Just because we can do something, doesn’t mean we should! That is also precisely the point that I’d like to make in relation to the never-ending arguments about ‘climate science’ and exactly how quantifiable matters of cause and effect are between pollution and climate. I believe that the argument is a moot point. Most of us feel confident in the knowledge that pollution is a bad thing – regardless of whether that pollution is in the form of refuse, toxic waste or emissions. With that in mind, does it really matter exactly how much damage CO2 emissions are doing to the atmosphere, or the effect that that is having on global warming and climate change? (Incidentally, for the record, I believe that there is clearly enough evidence

to demonstrate a link between emissions and climate change… but that’s not the point). My point is that even if we could keep on polluting the way we do for the next 1,000 years without completely trashing the planet, why should we? Could we consider it in any way, shape or form to be ‘the right thing’ to do? Let's work on finding and implementing economically viable, ecologically sustainable and practical solutions, rather than arguing about how long we can carry on the way we are going before the damage is irreversible.

Anthony T Schmidt Managing Editor

Tell Us What You Think! We value your opinion and welcome your feedback and input.

Send your thoughts to ats@epcgroup.com


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INDUSTRY NEWS

Search is on for big ideas in global waste management An Australian business accelerator is on the hunt for solutions to the growing global waste problem that can be quickly brought to market. Announced during the United Nations Regional 3R Forum in Adelaide, South Australia, one of Australia's leading commercialisation groups, Innovyz, is looking for ideas, inventions and products that can be quickly developed into profitable companies. Innovyz Chairman Philip Vafiadis said his company’s nine-month commercialisation program would develop up to 10 new companies to become leading innovators in the waste and recycling sector. “We will go out and find the best ideas to solve one of the world’s biggest problems,” said Vafiadis. “But this is also a huge economic opportunity.” The program will be funded by yet-tobe-named green industry companies and a $750,000 loan from the government of South Australia. “This is a recycling loan that will be repaid and reinvested in future work,” said Vafiadis. The accelerator program is partnering with Green Industries SA, the government agency responsible for recycling and waste management in South Australia. Green Industries SA chief executive Vaughan Levitzke said although South Australia had been successful in achieving a recycling rate of almost 80 per cent, it was less successful in commercialising its solutions. “There has been a gap between the ideas and the commercialisation but now we have the acceleration system set by Innovyz that will help bridge that gap,” said Levitzke. The waste sector is worth $1 billion to South Australia, which is known for its container deposit legislation and ban on plastic shopping bags. Western Australia, New South Wales and Queensland have recently enacted similar recycling schemes. According to the Waste Management Association of Australia, the waste and resource recovery industry makes at least a $14.2 billion contribution to the Australian economy each year. 4

Waste + Water Management Australia | December 2016

In the past four years Innovyz has helped 50 Australian companies raise almost $40 million for an estimated current value of $240 million. Its program takes entrepreneurs through an intensive nine-month program where they are paired with business mentors from across the world to define the scope of their projects and then refine them to the point of being able to raise capital. Companies formed through the accelerator program include Bluedot Innovation, Makers Empire, Gooroo Ventures, and Titomic – which recently saw its pre-IPO oversubscribed. Vafiadis is asking universities, research institutes, entrepreneurs and anyone with a big idea that is broad enough to have a impact on the problem of global waste to register through its website: www.innovyz.com “The idea does not need to be surrounded with a team, we can help participants create the team they may need, along with deep commercialisation support,” he said. “What matters is that the ideas are important, and that there is appetite to turn these great ideas into great companies, to get them out into the world quickly.”

Applicants will be reduced to a short-list of 15 and brought to South Australia for an orientation weekend before a final list of 10 is determined. The the program budget is approximately $1.5M, and the 10 finalists will be enrolled in the program at the Innovyz co-working space at the Tonsley Innovation District in Adelaide and given an voucher for $10,000 to be spent on expenses related to the commercialisation of their idea. The United Nations Regional 3R Forum brought more than 350 people from 40 countries to Adelaide for the world’s largest waste and recycling sector forum. The forum recognised South Australia’s position as the leading recycling and waste management state in Australia. “South Australia is recognised globally for its leadership in waste management – including our 1977 container-deposit legislation, action on plastic shopping bags, and landfill bans on e-waste and globes,” said the Premier of South Australia Jay Weatherill. Fo further information, or to register, please visit: www.innovyz.com

Philip Vafiadis, Executive Chairman, Innovyz & Innovyz Institute. Turning great ideas into great companies.


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INDUSTRY NEWS

National voice for the waste and recycling industry Five of the largest companies in the Australian waste management and recycling sector have agreed to establish the National Waste & Recycling Industry Council (NWRIC). The NWRIC will embrace the views of companies with direct investments in the waste management, recycling and resource recovery industry. Waste management is an essential service and the sector contributes significantly to the Australian economy and the protection of the environment. However, national industry representation in the past has been fragmented and lacks a national approach. The NWRIC will act as the industry’s national policy setting body and represent the interests of the waste management and resource recovery activities across Australia. This includes all aspects of waste management including waste collection, storage, transfer, sorting, treatment, processing and disposal. The NWRIC will develop a national advocacy agenda that will promote best practice operations and strive for greater harmonisation of waste and resource recovery legislation across the Australia. “We need an organisation to truly represent the interests of the waste management and recycling industry and look at multi-jurisdictional matters but one that can also deliver strong state based advocacy,” said Council representative Max Spedding. The foundation members of NWRIC are Cleanaway, JJ Richards, Remondis, SUEZ and Veolia. An open invitation was extended yesterday to other waste and recycling companies with a national presence to join the Council. The NWRIC will support the continued development of strong waste and recycling industry representation in each state and special interests areas. State and specialist organisations will also be offered a representative position on the Council. “The NWRIC will truly be the national voice of the waste and recycling industry bringing together all players, big and small, to positively advocate for our sector,” Max Spedding added. 6

Waste + Water Management Australia | December 2016

Policies that support energy from waste New South Wales, Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory have the most supportive policies for deploying energy from waste and bioenergy projects, according to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. The corporation’s Bioenergy Sector lead, Henry Anning, said CEFC research had identified the states as having policy settings and levies that created an incentive for businesses to recycle waste and reduce operating costs. “The states, which have imposed higher levies on landfill waste, are providing the right environment for investment in energy from waste projects,” Mr Anning said. Across Australia, the CEFC has identified new investment opportunities of up to $3.3 billion in energy generation from urban waste. Its latest Market Report – Energy from Waste in Australia: a state-by-state update – demonstrates that with around 23 million tonnes of urban waste sent to landfill annually, there is a significant opportunity for energy-from-waste to play a role in generating renewable energy while diverting waste from landfill. The CEFC has found that, depending on feedstock used, generating electricity and heat from bioenergy and waste resources is largely cost competitive with other new-build energy generation. However, the technologies which are extensively deployed in Europe and across America have not yet been widely adopted in Australia.

“While the scope for generating electricity from waste is relatively small as a share of total electricity generation, it can provide a baseload power source while reducing emissions and it can meet local energy needs through recovering value from landfill waste,” Mr Anning said. The CEFC is looking to accelerate deployment of energy from waste technologies through finance for individual projects, as well as through equity investment. “On the debt front, we work directly with projects for amounts greater than $10 million. For smaller projects we work through co-financiers. Earlier stage projects may be eligible for finance through the Clean Energy Innovation Fund,” Mr Anning said. “On the equity side, the CEFC has committed $100 million as a cornerstone investment in the Australian Bioenergy Fund, managed by Foresight Group, which is in the final stages of raising additional equity and has a strong pipeline of projects.” The CEFC considers a range of factors when looking to invest in energy from waste projects, including: • the technology involved; • where the feedstock for the plant will originate; • if the project has a customer contracted to take the energy produced; • whether there is a substantial equity component secured from a quality sponsor; and • suitable construction and operation and maintenance arrangements.


INDUSTRY NEWS

Digital State of the Environment Report What the Queensland Government claims is Australia’s first online State of the Environment (SoE) Report has been accessible since mid-October 2016. “This is a new generation tool that delivers the latest information about the state of the environment,” Minister for Environment, Steven Miles, said at the launch of the online tool. “It takes people on a visual journey through the state’s environmental assets and provides a regional snapshot. “Through videos and graphics, the website provides a comprehensive picture of the extent and condition of Queensland’s environment and pressures facing our environmental assets,” said Dr Miles. “Across the digital site, there are more than 1,200 tables, graphs and charts, and images. There are also over 100 data sets, 119 indicators and 119 key findings.” Science Minister, Leeanne Enoch, said the report was based primarily on the core work of scientists from the Department of Science, Information Technology and Innovation.

“Our scientists used satellite imagery, in-field environmental probes and samplers, combined with laboratory and field work to collect the data used in the report,” Ms Enoch said. “Synthesis of these data by simulation modelling and geographic information systems allows us to better understand our natural environment, ultimately providing Queenslanders with the most comprehensive and scientifically-reliable picture possible on the state of our environment.” Dr Miles said it was a legislative requirement to produce the State of the Environment Report every four years to monitor the extent and condition of Queensland’s environmental assets. “State of the Environment reporting occurs at both the national and state level, and Queensland is the first to deliver an interactive online one-stop-shop resource,” Dr Miles said. “It is the internationally accepted method for assessing environmental performance.

“The latest report now online provides quick access to information about the State’s biodiversity, heritage, pollution and climate, focusing on 2012 to 2015, from a phone, tablet or computer. “This State of the Environment Report includes for the first time important heritage information about Queensland shipwrecks and aircraft wrecks, as well as reporting on the fragmentation of remnant patches of vegetation. “Improving our understanding of the state of environment in Queensland is vital for addressing the key challenges and pressures faced by our environment.” The report can be accessed at: www.qld. gov.au/state-of-the-environment


INDUSTRY NEWS

Advancing waste and resource recovery The South Australian and Victorian Governments have taken key initiatives to improve waste and resource recovery. The SA Government has released a draft consultation paper to guide future decisions in planning, investment and job creation in the waste and resource recovery infrastructure sector. And the Victorian Government has released its plan for how Melbourne’s waste and recycling needs will be implemented over the next decade and beyond. In a first for the state, South Australia’s Waste and Resource Recovery Infrastructure Plan brings together the best available information and data to project future waste flows. It maps existing waste and resource recovery infrastructure by major types. Adding to the work done on South Australia’s Waste Strategy 2015-2020, the plan will present the best ways to attract infrastructure investment and innovation, focus on economies of scale and remanufacturing opportunities, and build on already-strong capabilities. The draft plan models projections for future trends in waste generation, recovery and landfilling, potential infrastructure needs and associated investment. It identifies potential future infrastructure

needs and investment opportunities, providing valuable intelligence to industry to inform investment decisions. SA Environment Minister, Ian Hunter, said there was great benefit from having a clearer understanding of waste and resource recovery infrastructure needs throughout the state. “The government knows how important the sector is to our economy, as modelling based on a moderate diversion scenario over the next 10 years estimates an extra $110.4 million in Gross State Product and the creation of an additional 1,045 full time equivalent jobs. “Our vision is for South Australia to build on our internationally-recognised waste and resource recovery achievements through continuous improvement and development of this important sector to our economy.” The Victorian Government’s Metropolitan Waste and Resource Recovery Implementation Plan focuses on four priority areas: • reducing waste sent to landfill to prevent the need for new sites; • increasing the amount of organic waste that is being recovered; • delivering community, environmental and economic benefits through waste recovery; and • planning for Melbourne’s growing population.

The plan encourages the development of new technologies capable of utilising waste from household garbage and also allows for the development of the first of these alternative waste technology facilities – reducing reliance on landfills. In addition, the plan will support expansion of the metropolitan organics network to allow recovery and processing of 600,000 tonnes of food and garden waste from homes and businesses into compost for farms, gardens and open spaces. With food and garden waste currently comprising 42 per cent of municipal and commercial waste sent to landfill, this is an opportunity to remove significant amounts of waste from going to Melbourne’s landfills. Victoria’s Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, Lily D’Ambrosio, said population growth meant waste volumes could nearly double over the next 30 years. “To ensure Melbourne remains liveable we have to see waste as a resource and not just a problem. “The Metropolitan Waste Plan will boost recycling levels by encouraging the development of new infrastructure to recover more waste and reduce the pressure on new and existing landfills.”

Preferred proponent for Woodman Point WWTP The largest wastewater treatment plant in Western Australia will undergo a major expansion, with a $196 million program of work about to start to boost capacity by 40 million litres a day. Joint venture partners – Civmec Construction and Engineering and Black & Veatch Australia – are the preferred proponent to upgrade and expand Perth’s Woodman Point Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP). The expansion will increase the plant's capacity from 140 to 180 million litres a day to cater for future growth in the region. Woodman Point WWTP serves an area bounded by Kalamunda in the east, Byford in the south, and the coast to the west. The upgrade includes: • construction of a new grit removal facility; 8

Waste + Water Management Australia | December 2016

• new flow distribution channel; • expansion of existing odour collection and treatment systems; • new sedimentation tanks; and • conversion of the existing batch reactor to a permanent aeration facility. The project will be delivered using a construction alliance model, which the Water Corporation of Western Australia has used to complete other complex infrastructure projects, including its two desalination plants. The Woodman Point announcement follows a comprehensive request for proposal and bid process. The expansion is expected to be completed by the end of 2019, with construction on site scheduled to be underway early in 2017.

"The Woodman Point plant is a critical part of Perth's wastewater treatment network and it currently serves about 680,000 people," WA State Water Minister Mia Davies, said. "Once this large program of work is completed, it will be able to accommodate 900,000 people by 2019. "This is a significant investment which will create more jobs for West Australians," the Minister added.


INDUSTRY NEWS

Victorian water market detailed in trading report Victorian irrigators can stay up to date with current trends in water trading across the state with the release of the 2015-16 Victorian Water Trading Annual Report. Available on the Victorian Water Register website, the report provides detailed information about the price of water, volume and the number of trades across the grid. Market transparency is a key focus of Water for Victoria - the state water plan released in mid-October - which looks to strengthen market tools so customers can make more informed decisions to support families and businesses. Victorian Minister for Water, Lisa Neville, said the government would continue to refine the trading rules in irrigation areas to enable more efficient trade. Minister Neville said the trading report showed a total of 2,737 gigalitres (GL) of allocation was traded in Victoria during 2015-16.

The report also showed: • most water was traded in northern Victoria (2,702GL), with small amounts in southern Victoria (31GL) and western Victoria (4GL); • a total of 565GL was traded into the Goulburn-Murray Irrigation District and 301GL traded out. The Lower Murray region saw 322GL traded in and 79GL traded out; and • 294GL was traded into northern Victoria from interstate and 71GL was traded out, excluding trade between environmental accounts. Net trade for the area was 223GL. Ms Neville said record volumes of interstate trade into Victoria largely reflected the high value of the state’s agricultural production. She said the high volumes traded in the state’s north reflected the region’s recent hot, dry conditions and the moderate volumes of allocation available.

“Victorian farmers, families and businesses need access to an open and transparent water market – which is a key focus of the state water plan,” said Minister Neville. “This water trading report provides useful information about how much water is moving across the grid and at what price.” “Irrigators can use it to make better decisions and plan for future challenges around climate change.” For further information or to download a copy of the report, please visit: www.waterregister.vic.gov.au


COVER FEATURE

BUILDING FOR A BRIGHT FUTURE

BUCHER MUNICIPAL’S PURCHASE OF PAKMOR CREATES A NEW AUSTRALIAN EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURING POWERHOUSE.

“By taking advantage of the many synergies that exist between the two companies, the acquisition has enabled both companies to pool their resources, experience and expertise to create a cohesive and well-resourced manufacturing base, capable of delivering a wide range of waste, recycling and materials handling solutions.”

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COVER FEATURE

W

ith so much negative news across the Australian manufacturing sector, it’s heartening to see that one major equipment manufacturer is ‘bucking the trend’. Hot on the heels of it’s recent appointment as the exclusive national distributor and service representative for the world-renowned JHL range of vacuum tankers – a move which includes plans to assemble and eventually manufacture the JHL tankers in Australia – leading waste and environmental equipment specialists Bucher Municipal have also announced the purchase of leading Australian compaction and materials handling equipment company PakMor Waste Equipment Australia Pty Ltd. The purchase, which was formalised on September 20th, is the latest in a series of major investments by Bucher in the Australian market - investments which have not only significantly expanded the company’s already extensive product and service offering, but also look set to cement Bucher’s position as a leading ‘one-stop shop’ for all manner of waste, recycling, materials handling and street cleansing equipment. Speaking about the PakMor takeover, Bucher Municipal’s Managing Director, David Waldron, commented: “We’re very excited about the PakMor purchase. It not only represents a real

‘watershed’ moment in the company’s history, we believe that it also represents a major boost for the future of Australian manufacturing.” “Importantly, it’s an ideal fit for all involved, both ideologically and in terms of product development and growth.” David Waldron said. “Both businesses have always placed a major emphasis on local manufacturing using local suppliers and local labour; and we’re both extremely passionate about supporting and growing Australian manufacturing.” “What’s more, the size of both businesses meant that the purchase was mutually beneficial to both companies. It wasn’t just a massive company taking over a small company; it was two successful companies coming together to create a larger company which is capable of delivering a more comprehensive product and service offering on a national scale,” he added. These sentiments were echoed by former PakMor Managing Director, now General Manager Bulk Waste Equipment with Bucher Municipal, Dean Crozier, who said the purchase not only represented a major boost for the PakMor brand in Australia and internationally, but that it would also play a significant role in helping to boost Australian manufacturing. “We’re also very excited about the growth opportunities that the buyout offers,” Dean Crozier said.

“There has been strong growth in demand for our products and the company has been growing well. While sales and growth are always good, for a company the size of PakMor, strong growth can sometimes represent a ‘double-edged sword’,” he said. “In short, when it comes to equipment design and manufacture, one of the biggest challenges is being able to gather the resources to grow production capacity, while at the same time developing new products to bring to market and, most importantly, servicing your existing clients.” “As well as wanting to expand our manufacturing capacity, we were also at the stage where we felt the need to have an expanded national presence to service our customers around the country. The Bucher purchase means that we’ll achieve those goals much quicker than we ever could have in our own right. It has provided us with the resources to start developing additional solutions that we simply didn’t have the capacity to work on,” Dean Crozier said. “Importantly, the acquisition really is a mutual benefit to all concerned – PakMor, Bucher Municipal and their clients,” Dean added. “By taking advantage of the many synergies that exist between the two companies, the acquisition has enabled both companies to pool their resources, experience and expertise to create a cohesive and well-resourced


COVER FEATURE

MAINTAINING THE PAKMOR BRAND Over the past four decades PakMor has gained an enviable reputation for excellence and innovation and is widely recognised for playing a key role in developing an array of waste compaction and handling systems in Australia. "The PakMor brand is extremely well known and respected throughout Australia and internationally," David Waldron said. "It provides state-of-the-art compaction solutions to waste and recycling industry companies, government departments, sporting facilities, the retail sector, hospitals, commercial and residential building owners and managers, and more. Indeed, PakMor's reputation for both equipment quality and customer service is second-to-none." "With that in mind, we will not only be maintaining the PakMor brand into the future as one of Bucher Municipal's product brands, we'll also be keeping the PakMor team together," he said. "After all, people are at the heart of every business, and the PakMor team bring a wealth of experience and knowledge that will help to ensure that we can continue to build on PakMor's excellent reputation for quality and service."

Another load of PakMor Auguer Compactors ready for delivery.

manufacturing base, capable of delivering a wide range of waste, recycling and materials handling solutions.”

Two Family Businesses Join Forces As well a taking advantage of the obvious synergies that exist between the two companies in terms of industry and equipment expertise, Bucher Municipal’s acquisition of PakMor is also an ‘ideal fit’ in terms of company philosophy and corporate goals. While it may not be obvious to the casual observer – especially given the size and diversity of the companies – both PakMor and Bucher are family companies. Bucher Municipal's Australian operations, which were established following the purchase of MacDonald Johnston (another well-respected family business), are a privately owned subsidiary of the Bucher Municipal Division which forms a part of the Swizz-based Bucher Industries Group - a company which has a long and distinguished history dating back to 1807. PakMor was founded by Anthony Crozier (the first of two generations of the Crozier family to be involved with the business) in the early 1970’s, when he started manufacturing waste equipment PakMor also manufactures a range of 'bespoke' equipment, including this innovative refrigerated compactor.

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Waste + Water Management Australia | December 2016

in Sydney. From the outset the company's primary objective was to 'provide superior service to the waste industry' - and it's a goal that remains to this day. "For us, customer service and quality equipment are more than simple slogans," Dean Crozier said. "They are the basis on which the company has been built - and it's a company edict which has been passed down through two generations." "And that's why we believe that Bucher Municipal and PakMor are such a great match. Both companies operate on the same 'customer-focused' philosophy, " he added. Importantly, from a customer perspective, very little will change as a result of the acquisition - which is critical in terms of maintaining a high level of customer services. "In the initial stages PakMor will run with a ‘business as usual’ approach. Customers will be dealing with the same people and the same products," David Waldron said. "As far as PakMor's customers are concerned, there will be no change in the way things are done." In the initial stages, the biggest changes will be to the manufacturing and service facilities. With both companies outgrowing their existing facilities, the acquisition has provided an ideal opportunity to expand into larger premises. These expansion plans will provide Bucher Municipal and PakMor with a major presence in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. In Sydney, Bucher Municipal will be merging their existing facility in Wetherill Park and PakMor's facility in South Windsor into a new major facility in western Sydney. As well as providing the company with a significant presence in Sydney, centralising the NSW manufacturing, service and administration facilities, will enable Bucher Municipal to increase its production output and further reduce manufacturing turnaround times.


COVER FEATURE

In Melbourne, Bucher Municipal will now have facilities to the east and west of the city. As well as maintaining its existing manufacturing and administration facilities in Melbourne's south-east, it will also maintain PakMor's manufacturing facility in Melbourne's west.

Innovative Equipment Outstanding Service While PakMor has been successful with an array of equipment solutions over the past four decades, in recent years, strong and consistent growth in demand for its compaction equipment saw the company streamline its product offering to concentrate its resources and expertise on designing and manufacturing stationary and transportable auger and blade compactors. Designed with a focus on reducing waste volumes to reduce transport movements and costs, PakMor

manufactures a range of compactors to suit both wet and dry wastes and wide variety of installation requirements. The company also manufactures a range of 'bespoke' equipment - including an innovative refrigerated compactor - to cater for specific waste handling needs. In keeping with its focus on providing a 'one stop shop' for its customers, PakMor offers a full 'end-to-end' service, encompassing: • Design and Manufacturing • Installation • Regular Service and Repairs • Preventative and Scheduled Maintenance Programs PakMor also offers a full 24/7 on-site breakdown service for all types of waste equipment. All service vehicles are fullyequipped with hydraulic hose making machines and carry a range of standard parts to facilitate most common repairs and help minimise downtime.

VALUABLE EXPORT OPPORTUNITIES The Bucher Municipal acquisition also looks set to deliver a range of valuable export opportunities for both Bucher and PakMor branded Australian-made equipment. As part of a reciprocal arrangement with Marathon Equipment in the USA, PakMor launched its auger compactor in the USA in May 2015 and it is already having significant success - generating strong sales and interest from a range of industry sectors. Add to this Bucher Municipal's success exporting equipment to Europe, and it's clear that their soon to be expanded manufacturing capabilities could also deliver a significant export boom and much needed 'shot in the arm' for the Australian equipment manufacturing sector.


IPWEA NSW NEWS

IPWEA NSW launches CIVENEX 2017 IPWEA NSW has officially launched CIVENEX 2017. Scheduled for May 17 & 18, CIVENEX will be back at Hawkesbury Showground for 2017. Highlighting the latest in equipment and materials technology and innovation for construction, infrastructure and civil works, CIVENEX 2017 provides an ideal opportunity for councils and contractors alike to see the latest equipment first hand and get all the information you need from the many experts that will be on-site to assist. From road construction and maintenance equipment, street furniture, roadside assets, lighting, signage, pavement materials and road safety solutions, through to compact construction equipment, parks & gardens equipment and maintenance solutions, street cleansing equipment, stormwater solutions, construction materials; surface coatings, asset management and maintenance systems, design tools and BIM systems, CIVENEX 2017 will feature an extensive array of products and services to meet a wide range of needs.

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Located adjacent to one of Sydney's (and Australia's) largest urban growth corridors, Hawkesbury Showground is easy to get to by both rail and road, with convenient easy train access and free on-site parking. CIVENEX 2017 will also feature a series of on-site seminars, many of which will focus on safety and innovation in both the road infrastructure and construction sectors. From road safety through road design and ancillary systems, through to worksite safety and OH&S, the CIVENEX 2017 seminar series will feature informative presentations by local and international industry experts. Another major feature of CIVIENEX 2017 is the live demonstration area, where visitors will not only be able to see an array of equipment put through its paces under actual working conditions, but will also be able to speak to the many experts on hand about their own individual equipment requirements. For more information about exhibiting at CIVENEX 2017 or for details on how to get there or where to stay, please contact Scott Leighton, email: scott.leighton@ipwea.org or visit: www.civenex.com


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SPECIAL REPORT

SA Government backs majority of findings of Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission The South Australian Government will support nine of the 12 recommendations contained in the report of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission. The Commission’s report – released in May 2016 – found that South Australia could safely increase its participation in nuclear activities. It included 12 recommendations and 145 findings in relation to the state’s further participation in elements of the nuclear fuel cycle. Specifically, the government will support all five recommendations that relate to expanding uranium exploration and mining. This means the development of a new state-wide mineral exploration drilling initiative to support the discovery of new mineral deposits in South Australia, with a particular focus on uranium. The government also supports the recommendation that relates to promoting and increasing the use of nuclear medicine at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI). In relation to energy, the government supports the Royal Commission’s recommendation to further collaborate with the Australian Government on monitoring and reporting on the development of new nuclear reactor designs. There was also backing for the recommendation to promote and collaborate on the development of a comprehensive national energy policy that enables all technologies to contribute to a low-carbon energy system. The government decided not to support the Commission’s recommendation to pursue

the removal of existing Federal prohibitions on nuclear power generation, recognising that in the short-to-medium term, nuclear power is not a cost-effective source of lowcarbon electricity for South Australia. On recommendations relating to a nuclear waste storage facility, the government will not pursue policy or legislative change, but will continue to encourage discussion and remain open to pursuing this opportunity for South Australia. The second Citizens’ Jury that looked into the Royal Commission’s report rejected the idea of nuclear waste storage in the state by a two-thirds majority. The jury cited a “lack of trust” as the key reason for its rejection of the nuclear waste storage proposition – its report said the jury was sceptical of the government’s ability to deliver the project safely and on-budget. The two Citizens’ juries were a key feature of an extensive community consultation program which informed the government’s formal response to the Royal Commission report. Data was compiled from a range of sources, such as state-wide surveys, feedback forms received on-line and via post, discussion boards, social media and phone calls. Premier, Jay Weatherill, said the government’s response to the Commission’s report was about embracing a high-tech future for South Australia that would generate jobs and prosperity for decades to come. “The report was the foundation of the largest consultation program in our state’s

history. It outlined the risks and opportunities of further engagement in the nuclear fuel cycle,” Mr Weatherill said. “The report made a substantial contribution to our state and opened the doors to a wide range of possible nuclear, resource and energy options for all South Australians to consider. “The Government supports recommendations relating to the expansion of uranium exploration and mining, which provide exciting economic opportunities for our state.” Premier Weatherill said he was excited about the many positive commercial opportunities that were on the table for South Australia in nuclear medicine around the SAHMRI cyclotron. “We can also position ourselves as leaders in developing a national energy policy, playing a greater role in transforming Australia’s energy sector towards lowcarbon energy sources, such as exploring emerging renewable technologies and advancements in nuclear energy. “Having considered all of the community feedback, the government has decided that discussion should continue on a proposed nuclear waste facility. “It has also concluded that the only path forward is the restoration of bipartisanship and broad social consent, secured through a state-wide referendum. “Continued public debate about South Australia’s role in the nuclear fuel cycle is important and ultimately it is a matter that the people should decide – not political parties.”

Waste + Water Management Australia | December 2016

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WASTE TO ENERGY

Why Waste-To-Energy and not Landfill? With around 800 thermal waste-to-energy (WTE) facilities world-wide, WTE is considered an integral part of the global waste management solution. As well as reducing the need for non-renewable energy sources to be used for generating electricity, WTE can have a significant impact in terms of reducing the total amount of waste being disposed of in landfills. Waste-to-energy (WTE) is the process of creating energy from the waste which Australians would normally dispose of into the ‘big hole in the ground’ - landfill. Most WTE methods generate electricity through incineration. There are currently some 800 thermal WTE facilities that are fully operational and considered an integral part of the global waste management solution throughout Europe, Asia and North America. Australia is still in the early stages of fully accepting alternative energy sources; partly due to its reliance on fossil fuels, and partly due to our historic belief that our vast land mass could/would provide us with a seemingly never-ending supply of available space for landfills. Australia currently uses less than 1% of its available waste stream for WTE processes, however this may be starting to change in Western Australia, following the WA State Government's recent decision to 'green light' a new WTE project in Port Hedland. The Port Hedland waste-to-energy project is expected to divert between 30,000 and 40,000 tonnes of waste from landfill per year from the region’s residential and 18

Waste + Water Management Australia | December 2016

commercial waste streams. This WTE plant should produce enough electricity to cater for around 21,000 households – thereby generating a renewable energy source to help reduce the State’s dependence on fossil fuels and assist in providing a stable power supply for Port Hedland¹. Waste-to-energy has thrived throughout the world as a leading alternative process of waste disposal and electricity supply. With recent closures of some of Australia’s long-running and major contributing coal plants, especially in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, renewable energy opportunities such as WTE may be the unlikely benefactor of this loss. For example, Hazelwood Power Station supplies approximately 20% of Victoria’s power. We need something to take its place. Why not WTE? WTE provides us with an opportunity to utilise Australia's ever-growing Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) stream as a source for fuel, while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Over 20 million tonnes of waste gets dumped into the landfills each year throughout Australia, and although the waste degrades over time, it very often produces

harmful gas emissions for many years after its disposal. With WTE’s ability to reduce the volume of waste in an environmentally-friendly manner, generate valuable energy, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it is quite easy to see why the European nations rely on wasteto-energy technologies². ‘According to the Confederation of European Waste-to-Energy Plants (CEWEP), Europe currently treats 50 million tons of waste at waste-to-energy plants each year, generating an amount of energy that can supply electricity for 27 million people or heat for 13 million people.’ Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) along with Construction & Demolition (C&D) and Commercial & Industrial (C&I) are the three main contributing waste sectors in Australia that can be rescued from landfill via reprocessing materials, ultimately for the recovery of recyclables and/or source of fuel. The environmental reasons for the reprocessing of these materials as highlighted in the Victorian Recycling Industries Annual Survey 2013-14 from Sustainability Victoria³, include:

“Over 20 million tonnes of waste gets dumped into the landfills each year throughout Australia, and although the waste degrades over time, it very often produces harmful gas emissions for many years after its disposal.”


WASTE TO ENERGY

• reduced greenhouse gases (methane emissions) from landfill and energy-intensive primary production processes; • savings in water and electricity in the production of metal, concrete, paper and glass by using recycled feedstock; • savings of raw materials, for example mineral ores used in virgin metal production and timber and oil used in paper production; and • reduced risk of groundwater and soil contamination from landfill, and the preservation of landfill space. Importantly, it is clearly evidenced around the world that WTE plants can provide a distinct supply of continuous renewable energy. Every week the average Australian 161201_WWM.pdf 1 1/12/2016 household waste bin contains the

resources for both recycling and combustion - potentially producing enough waste to power approximately 14% of a household’s weekly electricity needs. WTE is a real solution that requires consideration.

Your opportunity to participate in shaping Australia's waste-to-energy future... Attend the Australian Waste to Energy Forum in Ballarat, Victoria on 22 & 23 February 2017 to learn, network and discuss the issues facing the development of a successful energy from waste industry in Australia. This Forum will consider what has worked around the world and what we can learn from those experiences. What are the barriers and how to overcome them? Who are the stakeholders, what are their roles and how will they influence the industry? How does the plan for future energy requirements influence the development of a 9:50:25 AM waste to energy industry in Australia?

The informative and discussion-focused program will address a range of key issues, including: • What is the role of and requirements for Waste-to-Energy in Australia? • Why does Australia want incineration? • Securing feedstock supply and offtakes • The challenges of fitting in with current energy infrastructure; • Regional approaches to waste-to-energy; and • Current Australian projects and opportunities. For further information and to register, please visit: www.aien.com.au/wteforum Source: 1 http://www.newenergycorp.com.au 2 http://www.alternative-energy-news. info/waste-renewable-energy-source 3 http://www.sustainability.vic.gov.au/ publications-and-research/research/ victorian-waste-and-recycling-dataresults-201314/victorian-recyclingindustry-annual-report-201314

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RECYCLING TECHNOLOGY

STEINERT unveils a sorting system for separating aluminium alloys Aluminium plays a key role in mobility. With an ever-increasing number of vehicle bodies now containing large amounts of aluminium, the demand for high-quality aluminium by the automotive sector is growing at an almost exponential rate. At the same time, up to 50% of the material used in the stamping processes common in mass production operations was wasted as there was no way of effectively separating the production waste for recycling. This situation has now changed, thanks to the new STEINERT LSS (Laser Sorting System) which enables alloys to be cleanly separated from one another. During the stamping of auto body panels, up to 50% of the material forms production scrap. This is a valuable resource which, for both economic and ecological reasons, should be kept within the production cycle. For this to occur however, it is necessary to pre-sort the scrap into properly separated alloy types so that they may be remelted and reused without downgrading or changing the material properties. "Until now, the recognized state-of-the-art method has been to use dry mechanical separation of 2xxx and 7xxx aluminium alloys with higher copper or zinc contents by means of STEINERT XSS T ( X-ray transmission)," says Uwe Habich, technical director at STEINERT. "Until now, the separation of aluminium scrap into unmixed types in the alloy groups 1xxx to 7xxx has not been practicable on the technological scale as there weren't any in-line operating or industrially usable techniques. That was until STEINERT developed the LSS technology. "Our STEINERT LSS (Laser Sorting System), which uses the latest LIBS technology, now makes this possible and amplifies the sorting process,” Mr Habich added. According to Karl Hoffmann, Business Development Manager at STEINERT, the company developed the system because “...the increased use of rolled aluminium products in the automotive industry (5xxx series and 6xxx series alloys) will quickly create large amounts of new scrap that need to be sorted or separated according to alloy series. Moreover, the demand for recycled aluminium is increasing at the same time. As a sorting specialist, we are responding to this development with the inline STEINERT LSS, which features the latest LIBS technology." "Our products are targeted at companies that process new scrap Dr. Uwe Habich, CTO at or production waste from aluminium STEINERT 20

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Stamping waste from the automobile industry (Aluminium alloys 5xxx und 6xxx)

STEINERT LSS for the sorting of aluminium alloys

stamping facilities - at companies that need to separate 5xxx and 6xxx series alloys so that recycled aluminium can be used on the same stages of the value-creation process,” Mr Hoffmann added. When sorting stamping waste of 5xxx series and 6xxx series alloys, the first step consists of isolating the pieces in the mixture of crushed materials so that it can be handled by a sensor-based sorting system. “For this system we have created a setup consisting of several conveyor channels and conveyor belts, which ensures that the material always flows past the laser in such a way that the laser pulses hit the material’s surface. These pulses vaporise tiny particles of the material. This process creates visible light that is simultaneously recorded and analysed in order to identify the alloy and its individual components as well as their percentages in the alloy,” says Habich. The sorting process takes place at high conveyor speeds of 2 to 3 m/sec. The calibration methods stored in the measuring unit routinely analyse the concentrations of the alloying elements Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Si, Zn and Cr. In each case the alloy or aluminium fraction identified by laser is separated off, for example a 6xxx alloy, while the rest of the material on the conveyor belt passes farther on. “Test runs in our laboratory achieve a separation success ratio of 90 percent purity of 99 percent,” says Habich. "In the tests, unsorted 5xxx and 6xxx alloys were used – supplied by a rolling plant which recovers the material mix from an automobile plant that normally melts it directly." Inasmuch as the unit is not operating at its capacity limits, in a second sorting pass all the unidentified material can be brought into focus and separated off, so that then there are two pure aluminium fractions and a residual fraction. “On the other hand, after the first pass the quantities remaining are certainly not waste, but can be sold on at the normal scrap price, only without extra premium charges,” he continues. With its new sorting technology, STEINERT is mainly addressing processors of new scrap or production waste. Such companies are basically interested in a type-specific purification of the alloys, because material sorted by type can be sold at a premium. For the metal recycler, sorting alloys using laser spectroscopy can pay for itself financially in a relatively short time. According to data from metal recyclers, in Europe, proceeds of between 300 and 400 euros per tonne can be obtained for aluminium scrap sorted into pure fractions. This compares extremely favourably with sorting costs of 20 to 30 Euros per tonne when using sensor-assisted equipment.


Using laser spectroscopy a highenergy laser pulse is directed onto the specimen to be investigated

The unit offered by STEINERT achieves an output of several tonnes per hour. “Yet, even with an output of just one tonne per hour, with 300 euros of additional proceeds and an operating time of 8,000 hours per year, the additional proceeds amount to 2.4 million euros,� calculates Habich. In this example calculation, the unit would pay for itself in around half a year. A conservative approach allowing for a more modest premium still gives a payback time of less than a year. To begin with, STEINERT’s new sorting technique is aimed at new aluminium scrap. With increasing recycled quantities of wrought alloys from scrapped automobile recovery, however, the technique should become more and more interesting for old scrap as well. Yet, even today the major vehicle dismantlers generate relevant amounts of wrought aluminium alloys for which the acquisition of sorting equipment that uses LIBS technology should prove profitable.

What is LIBS?

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LIBS (Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy) is the measurement method by which the material being sorted is identified. In this type of laser spectroscopy, a high-energy laser pulse is directed onto the specimen to be investigated. This vaporizes a minute particle of the material at the surface and a plasma is produced, in which atoms, ions and molecules are in a higher-energy state and therefore emit light. These emissions are collected by means of optical components and sent to a spectrometer. In the spectrometer, a wavelength-dependent spectrum is produced and this contains significant atomic lines of the elements in the specimen material. A major advantage of LIBS technology is that the spectral intensity of the atomic lines is proportional to the concentration of the elements in the specimen. Accordingly, the LIBS measurement method can be used for quantitative element analysis. LIBS is a multi-element analytic process. From each individual spectrum measured, the concentration contents of all the elements present in a specimen can be determined. Importantly, the short measurement and analysis times make the LIBS technology ideal for use in industrial process conditions with a high quantitative throughput. As a rapid analytic method for aluminium alloys, manual LIBS instruments already provide a reliable method for scrap traders and processors to identify materials. Over the past ten years the core components of LIBS analysers have not only become more robust and compact, they've become cheaper. The STEINERT LSS sorting unit provides a technology that contributes toward further completing the raw materials cycle and obtaining valuable metal products without downgrading in the production cycle. The method is a fully automated sorting system for scrap, especially broken-up stamping wastes from the aluminium industry. It separates aluminium alloys of the 5xxx and 6xxx series into type-isolated batches and is ideally suited for stamping waste material 20 to 60 mm wide and 60 to 150 mm long. The sorting system consists of the LIBS sensor, a special isolating mechanism, clearing modules for the pneumatic separation and a conveyor system with volumetric object recognition developed precisely for this application. For further information, please visit: www.steinert.com.au

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INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS

Viega’s high-grade piping system always keeps Ireland’s world-class Aviva Stadium at the right temperature, no matter how cold it is outside or how heated the game is on the pitch.

Pioneering Piping System for a World-Class Stadium Sustainable and efficient, Viega’s high-grade piping system always keeps Ireland’s worldclass Aviva Stadium at the right temperature, no matter how cold it is outside or how heated the game is on the pitch. "Football is a gentlemen's game played by ruffians; rugby is a ruffian's game played by gentlemen" – at least that's what rugby fans say. The "ruffians" and "gentlemen" of the Republic of Ireland's football and rugby teams respectively have been sharing a home in Dublin since 1872. For decades, both played at the historic but run-down Lansdowne Road ground. Then in May 2010, the 51,700-seater Aviva Stadium was opened as the new sporting temple of the sports-mad Irish on the same hallowed site. Since then, the four tiered horseshoeshaped arena, which won a British Construction Industry Award in 2011, has 22

Waste + Water Management Australia | December 2016

also played host to stars including Madonna, Lady Gaga and AC/DC. Stadium fans enjoy top-class water supply and heating, thanks to the Viega Propress copper piping system throughout the drinking water installation, and the galvanised steel Prestabo system used for the heating installation. Although Viega did not receive the invitation to tender until very late in the process, its Propress and Prestabo products were ultimately chosen. Aviva Stadium planners were also impressed by the functional Smart ConnectFeature – which only Viega press-fit connectors provide – and its double pressing technology. The contract was won even though press connectors had up to that point been practically unknown in Ireland. There is another reason why pressconnection technology has had such success

internationally (including in Australia for a decade) – enhanced on-site work safety, particularly compared to brazing/soldering. As pressing involves no open flame, and so poses no fire hazard, no fire safety measures are needed. Consequently, press-connected pipes can often even be installed in explosive industrial environments without interrupting production operations. Viega press technology combines rapid yet safe installation with long-term reliability. In fact, there is up to 75% time saving compared with conventional brazing. It also consistently utilises ultra-hygienic material such as copper and stainless steel, which ensures hygienic operation and guarantees reliable material quality, a long lifespan and tremendous versatility. For further information please visit: www.viega.com.au


A STADIUM BUILT FOR WORLD-CLASS PERFORMANCES. And a piping system that delivers unparalleled heating installations. In a stadium where so much is on the line, you should team up with a partner that meets the highest demands for quality, performance and reliability when it comes to heating installations. Sustainable and efficient, our high-grade piping system always keeps Ireland’s most modern stadium at the right temperature, no matter how cold it is outside or how heated the game is on the pitch. Viega. Connected in quality.

Aviva Stadium, Dublin, Ireland

viega.com.au/About-us


Recognising Our National Sustainability Leaders As Australia Moves To An Innovation Era Individuals, businesses and communities, have gathered together to learn how Banksia Award winners exemplify the collective desire to lead Australia towards a more sustainable and innovative future. Not only did attendees see more innovative and disruptive solutions, but also heard a cross-sector roar, calling for everyone to stand up and lead the charge to a more sustainable way of living. This call was echoed in the 2016 Banksia Sustainability Awards entries, which increased by 20% this year. Australia’s appetite for sustainability is also evidenced by the diverse range of Award categories Banksia offer. Now more than ever, Australians are realising their responsibility to uphold the stewardship of natural resources and their social awareness by demonstrating innovative thinking and a vision that extends beyond the immediate future. This attitude will ensure that Australia’s ratification of the Paris

Agreement becomes a reality for the nation. Over the last 28 years of conducting The Banksia Sustainability Awards, Banksia has recognised and celebrated some of the most innovative and inspiring sustainability leaders that this nation has to offer, and this year was no exception. Taking home the 2016 Banksia Gold Award, the ‘Best of the Best’ of the Banksia Award Categories, was John West Australia. With their strong drive to deliver a superior product to the market and communicate the importance of sustainable fishing among buyers, John West Australia have won over the hearts of consumers and inspired businesses and individuals alike. The judges commended John West Australia on having “... the courage to talk to, encourage and engage with their consumers”. They all agreed on the importance of effectively communicating the

business’ sustainability objectives to the public, ensuring that consumers’ buying behaviour is shaped around sustainability. This year, ocean conservation and sustainable food production was where it was at, with many entries detailing their efforts in these areas, including the winner of The Banksia International Award, sponsored by the Qantas Future Planet program, Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg. Professor Hoegh-Guldberg is a truly inspiring individual who has been recognised for his leadership and commitment in protecting the world’s oceans and coral reefs as well as his game-changing research on the impacts of climate change worldwide. Professor Hoegh-Guldberg’s desire to communicative science more effectively , partake in research and to find high impact solutions is what is needed on a global scale to ensure our future sustainability.


BANKSIA AWARDS

The winners of the 2016 Banksia Sustainability Awards: • The Banksia Gold Award – John West: Committed to a sustainable seafood future • The Environment and Energy Minister’s Award for a Cleaner Environment: Science and Research, sponsored by the Department of Environment & Energy – FeralScan by the Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre • The Environment and Energy Minister’s Award for a Cleaner Environment: Community Environmental Leadership, sponsored by the Department of Environment & Energy – Dr Tony Parkes • The Banksia International Award, sponsored by Qantas – Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Australia • Banksia Communication for Change Award – John West: Committed to a sustainable seafood future • Banksia Food for Sustainable Thought Award, sponsored by Closed Loop – Natural Evolution • Banksia Indigenous Leadership for Sustainability Award – AshOil

• Banksia Large Business Sustainability Leadership Award, sponsored by NSW Office of the Environment and Heritage – Kathmandu • Banksia Leadership in the Circular Economy Award, sponsored by Cleanaway – TIC Group • Banksia Mindful Movement Award, sponsored by RACV – Sendle • Banksia Natural Capital Award, sponsored by NAB – The Yarra Yarra Biodiversity Corridor by Carbon Neutral in partnership Auscarbon • Banksia Small to Medium Business Sustainability Leadership Award, sponsored by Australia Post – The Farmer's Place • Banksia Smart Award, sponsored by Mirvac – Infratech Industries Pty Ltd • Banksia Sustainable Cities Award, sponsored by City of Melbourne – The 202020 Vision • Banksia Sustainable & Resilient Communities Award, sponsored by IAG – The Manymak Energy Efficiency Project Consortium As sustainability becomes a prominent factor

STREET SWEEPINGS & DRAIN WASTE RECYCLING SYSTEMS

Waste Water Management Oz Feb 16.indd 1

in how we conduct our lives, we see a rising increase in shared passion and desire for our businesses, communities and the individuals of our nation to showcase their innovation and hunger for a future of sustainability. Innovation is at the cutting edge of how we progress towards a more sustainable future and these leaders have shown how this is done and how others can emulate the passion and determination that the winners have shown and create their own sustainable lead in their respective area.

ABOUT THE BANKSIA FOUNDATION The Banksia Foundation is a national not-forprofit organisation, overseen by a national Board of Management, which promotes environmental excellence and sustainability through its Awards program and other associated initiatives. The Banksia Foundation was founded in 1989 by a diverse group of 44 Australians who shared a common goal to do more to recognize, promote and encourage further innovation and leadership in “finance, environment and society” towards a more sustainable future for Australia. More information about the Foundation or the Awards can be found at: www.banksiafdn.com

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• Over 85% reduction in landfill • Washed grit suitable as a non- structural fill secondary aggregate • Mobile plant option offers processing at a number of sites • Return on investment within 2 years

01/02/2016 14:52:412016 Waste + Water Management Australia | December

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INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS

FROM LEFT: Paul Wardale, Lina Goodman and Rebecca Tempelhof from TIC Group accepting the Banksia Leadership in the Circular Economy Award.

TIC Group wins prestigious national Banksia Award TIC Group is thrilled to have won a Banksia Award for leadership in the circular economy. This prestigious award highlights TIC's on-going commitment to ensuring the economy develops within natural limits by developing smarter business design and technology to extend the lifecycle of products, reduce waste to landfill, and create new supply chain pathways that previously did not exist. “TIC Group has embedded circular economy principals into our operations from day one,” said TIC Group’s General Manager of Marketing, Lina Goodman. “TIC Group introduced the world’s first garment hanger reuse program 27 years ago and we now operate a range of sustainable businesses including Australia’s first automated mattress recycling facility which was opened in Melbourne recently,” Ms Goodman said. “We have innovation in mind and sustainability at heart.” TIC Group’s new sustainable retail returns package, Solvup, also recently won a Victorian Premier’s Sustainability Award. It aims to increase customer satisfaction and give retail goods an extended lifespan. “TIC Group is a wholly owned Australian company dedicated to solving complex problems with simple and sustainable 26

Waste + Water Management Australia | December 2016

solutions,” Ms Goodman said. “We have a proven track record. Each day TIC Group re-uses over 1 million garment hangers globally, diverts thousands of mattresses from going to landfill and our Solvup package is extending the life of hundreds of thousands of retail products each year,” she said. Melbourne entrepreneurs Mark Gandur and David Harris own the company, which has been operating for over 27 years. TIC opened Australia’s first automated mattress recycling system in Melbourne earlier in the year, and it's already having a significant impact in helping to reduce the number of mattresses ending up in landfill. The Victorian Government provided TIC with a $250,000 grant to help build the facility through the Investing in Manufacturing Technology Program. “TIC’s new state of the art facility means more mattresses can be recycled in Victoria than ever before,” said Michael Warren, TIC’s Managing Director of Mattress Recycling. “At the moment in excess of one million mattresses end up in landfill in Australia every year, if these mattresses were stacked on top of each other they’d reach the International Space Station,” Mr Warren said.

“Many of the mattresses being recovered for recycling are actually being shredded or poorly recycled, meaning not all the recyclable material is recovered and pollution such as micro plastics are released." “It’s fantastic news for the environment because we can now recycle up to 85% of a mattress in a controlled facility that reduces risks and maximises environmental benefits,” he said. The textile covering and foam of mattresses can be reused in manufacturing carpet underlay, and metal from the springs is also recycled. TIC has secured rights to the innovative technology developed and operating in the Netherlands and has adapted the system to suit Australian conditions. A number of Victorian councils supply TIC with old mattresses from their transfer stations and hard waste collections. “We already have a supply of mattresses for recycling but we have an insatiable demand for end of life mattresses and are keen to get even more Victorian councils involved in this safe and efficient system,” Mr Warren said. “We want to work with local and State Government to effectively ban mattresses from landfill or poor end-of-life management that is not getting the best possible environmental outcome. The community and the environment deserve no less.” The new facility could potentially handle all of Victoria’s end of life mattresses. For further information about TIC Group, please visit www.ticgroup.com.au BELOW: TIC's mattress recycling facility could potentially handle all of Victoria’s end of life mattresses. BOTTOM: Each day TIC Group re-uses over 1 million garment hangers globally.


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RECYCLED WATER

Recycled water: Recognising the opportunity By Steve Leung, SVP & President, Emerging Markets at Xylem Inc. a leading global water technology company. Drought and water scarcity are among the many realities Australians have come to know and understand well. Surprisingly however, our first-hand experience from decades of hardship with water supply hasn’t seemed to translate into effective water management to combat future droughts and similar water scarcity scenarios. While Australia’s Millennium Drought officially ceased in 2010, the nation is currently experiencing an El Nino weather pattern (declared in 2015) and the impact of climate change is projected to decrease winter and spring rainfall by up to 15 per cent by 2030 across southern Australia. South western Australia has already seen stream flow declines of 50 per cent since 1970 and Australia’s El Nino is creating dryer inland conditions in Eastern Australia, placing extra stress on already depleting water stocks, at a time when water demand is increasing. Reservoirs in the Murray-Darling Basin are also now close to their lowest level since the Millennium Drought. It should therefore come as no surprise to hear that Australia has no cause to fall complacent to water saving issues. In fact, time spent outside of drought is the most crucial in forging constructive and effective strategies to manage Australia’s water supply before another drought arises. The use of recycled water is one solution that can help to create a sustainable water management system. In Australia however, we’re still facing a number of barriers to widespread use of this strategy; namely education and acceptance. There’s no denying the ever-lingering concerns and opposition from residents about the use of recycled water for drinking purposes. Take, for example, the state of Queensland. The city of Toowoomba, in particular, (with a population of more than 100,000 28

Waste + Water Management Australia | December 2016

and 120 kilometers west of Brisbane) voted against using recycled water for drinking purposes in 2006 despite major drought conditions at the time. In 2010, despite this referendum result, the QLD Government connected Toowoomba to a pipeline that would supply recycled water to the city if severe drought meant it was required. However, local opposition to the concept still exists. Xylem recently conducted a state-wide survey of California residents to gauge their perceptions of recycled water and their familiarity with the technology used to treat it (released March 2016). The survey found that 76 per cent of respondents believe recycled water should be used as a long-term solution for managing water resources, regardless of whether or not a water shortage continues. Further, the survey found that education and terminology are key components in gaining even stronger support for recycled water, something the Queensland Government should take note of as it heads into its 11th year-long debate into recycled water. In fact, there is a lot the Australian people can learn from other markets effectively managing their water resources.

“According to the survey, 89 per cent of respondents are more willing to use recycled water after learning about the advanced treatment processes used to make it clean and safe.”


RECYCLED WATER

According to the survey, 89 per cent of respondents are more willing to use recycled water after learning about the advanced treatment processes used to make it clean and safe. Further to this, 88 per cent agreed that seeing a demonstration of the water purification process would make them more comfortable using and drinking recycled water. The survey also found that terminology plays a role in the level of public acceptance for the use of recycled water. When reused water was referred to as “purified water” respondents were more likely to be supportive (90 per cent) of it as an additional local water supply than when the term “recycled water” (87 per cent) or “reclaimed water” (82 per cent) was used. With these insights, the opportunity exists for state governments to champion a flexible framework that recognises the unique needs of local communities as they work to establish water resource strategies that include sustainable solutions, such as recycled water. The current surface water storage volume for all main Australian cities indicates that our cities can meet their urban water demand for the foreseeable short-term future with current water supplies. With surface water alone, Adelaide and Perth can meet their urban use for up to two years and south east Queensland for almost nine years. While these figures are certainly encouraging, surface water storage will not save Australia from drought, and neither will complacency. A multitude of water saving strategies must be considered in Australia to diversify our use of water and create a secure water supply for years to come. Recycled water is a key component in the suite of strategies. It has never been more important to harness sustainable water management strategies, such as water reuse, as the future of water depends on it. Steve Leung, SVP & President, Emerging Markets at Xylem Inc

Waste + Water Management Australia | December 2016

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FOCUS ON WATER

Key water legislation amended by Queensland’s Parliament New water laws passed in the Queensland Parliament will protect Great Barrier Reef catchments and groundwater potentially impacted by mining development. Natural Resources and Mines Minister, Anthony Lynham, said the Water Legislation Amendment Bill 2015 changed three Acts – one of the changes prevents some parts of the previous LNP government’s Water Resource and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2014 taking effect from December. Dr Lynham said the legislation would: • reinstate the principles of ecologically sustainable development; • prevent the introduction of the LNP’s water development option; and • prevent the LNP’s designated watercourses, allowing unregulated amounts of water to be taken from rivers and streams. Dr Lynham said the LNP’s water development options would have given large projects access to water with limited scrutiny and scientific assessment. “Under the LNP’s water development option, a project could have been promised hundreds of thousands of megalitres of water without the local science-based water resource plan having enough available water to support the project. “The Water Act already has mechanisms to sustainably support large scale infrastructure development - based on strong science and extensive consultation.” Dr Lynham said the bill also removed the LNP’s provisions to declare designated watercourses where unregulated amounts of water could be taken from rivers and streams, including those that flow into the Great Barrier Reef. “Our laws will help us meet our commitment under the Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan to sustainably regulate the water extraction in catchments leading to the Great Barrier Reef,” Dr Lynham said. In another development, all mines under development in Queensland that will have an impact on groundwater will be required to obtain an “associated water licence” under legislation passed in Parliament. 30

Waste + Water Management Australia | December 2016

Environment Minister, Steven Miles, said the Environmental Protection (Underground Water Management) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2016 allowed the government to fulfil its election commitment to reverse laws which sought to deregulate the mining industry. Dr Miles said all mining projects “already advanced” in their approvals process would be required to obtain an associated water licence. The Director-General of Department of Natural Resources and Mines will consult with his counterpart in the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection before making a decision on the licence. The Director-General of the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection will be required to base any opinion regarding groundwater impacts on advice from an independent panel. The panel will consist of the Queensland Chief Scientist and three other members qualified in the law, public administration and natural resource matters. Dr Miles said “future” mining projects would have the environmental impacts of their groundwater take initially assessed under the Environmental Protection Act 1994 as part of their environmental authority application. He said stronger rights for farmers was another outcome of the new Bill.

Broome solar trial a first for Water Corporation A 12-month trial is underway using hybrid solar-diesel power to deliver drinking water from a borefield to Broome in Western Australia’s Kimberley region. WA State Water Minister, Mia Davies, said the trial was a Western Australian-first and, if successful, the innovative system could lead to more water around the state being delivered using clean solar power. A hybrid system has been installed to power the bore pump, using solar energy during the day and storing excess solar energy in batteries for use in the evening and in times of low light. The pump is also equipped with a diesel generator that can be used when needed. Minister Davies said the hybrid-powered bore would use enough solar energy to pump 1.5 million litres of water per day to Broome's town water supply scheme. "If the trial is successful it would result in opportunities to find significant energy savings in remote locations where mains power is not available, and contribute to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. "The government, through the Water Corporation, is continually looking at ways of increasing the use of renewable energy wherever it can to deliver services in a way that reduces the impact on the environment." The Broome borefield was expanded last year with three new production bores to increase the town's water supply from 5.2 billion litres to 6.1 billion litres per year. The solar trial and borefield expansion represents a $6.1 million investment in Broome's water supply scheme. The solar trial component of this investment is $1 million. The Broome water supply scheme provides drinking water to about 17,000 properties in the town.


FOCUS ON WATER

Key water projects attract extra funding An additional $440 million has been allocated by the Australian Government to break ground on key water projects across Australia. The extra funding was announced on 27 October by Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and his Deputy, Barnaby Joyce, with the release of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund (NWIDF) guidelines. Mr Turnbull and Mr Joyce said the government was delivering the most significant investment in water infrastructure in Australian history, strengthening the nation’s future resource security, economic growth and prosperity. “This investment will ensure our agriculture sector and regional economies are wellplaced to capitalise on the opportunities of a transitioning and diversifying economy. “Under the NWIDF, we have already made available almost $60 million to expedite the planning work needed to get major projects shovel-ready and now we are making $440 million available for capital works to get priority projects built as quickly as possible.”

In addition to the NWIDF, Mr Turnbull and Mr Joyce said the government would be delivering a new $2 billion National Water Infrastructure Loan Facility to provide concessional loans to states and territories for even more projects. “This is a historic investment in Australian water,” they said. “The $500 million NWIDF on top of the $2 billion Water Infrastructure Loans Facility is a $2.5 billion windfall to drive growth into our regional economies and communities.” So far, the Australian Government has made in-principle commitments to five priority projects: • Rookwood Weir in Queensland; • Dungowan Dam in NSW; • the Macalister Irrigation District and South West Loddon Pipeline in Victoria; and • the McLaren Vale water storages project in South Australia. The commitments are pending formal project proposals and co-funding commitments from the states.

SUPERIOR PROTECTION

The Rookwood Weir project has the potential to double agricultural production in the region, unlocking an additional $1 billion in production value. Mr Turnbull and Mr Joyce said the overwhelming response to the feasibility component of the Development Fund was likely to translate into strong interest in capital works funding. “The NWIDF will provide $450 million to state and territory governments to build new water infrastructure such as dams, pipelines, managed aquifer recharge projects, water treatment, capture and reuse schemes. “Projects will be considered for funding on a case-by-case basis and will be assessed by an independent panel of experts for their economic viability, and ability to provide secure and affordable water to underpin the growth of regional economies and communities.”

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Waste + Water Management Australia | December 2016

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PRODUCT FOCUS

Tsurumi C series cutter pump solves the ragging issue when cleaning sewage pits for Dredging Solutions.

Cutter Clears Clogs Keeping settling ponds in optimum condition without taking the sewage plant offline represents real cost savings. Dredging Solutions from Sydney NSW are now able to offer this option due to an innovative application of a Tsurumi submersible cutter pump. While dredging ponds for Sydney Water, the company were faced with pump chokes caused by accumulated rags. Normal submersible pumps cannot cope when oversized, fibrous materials get flushed into the system. Dredging Solutions turned to Aussie Pumps for a suitable cutter pump to solve the ragging problem. Tsurumi, the world’s leader in submersible pump development, has produced a range of cutter pumps, called the C Series, designed to handle such contaminated waste. The C series cutter pumps chop waste material, including rags, thus allowing free passage through the pump without clogging. “Tsurumi’s breakthrough cutter impeller chops through sewage, rawhide, plastic, rags and other materials in seconds,” said Aussie Pumps Product Manager Neil Bennett. “We’ve seen various unmentionables handled by these extraordinary pumps so they were an obvious choice for Dredging Solutions ragging issue,” he said. The C Series incorporates a large open channel impeller with a cutter mechanism. A 32

Waste + Water Management Australia | December 2016

sintered tungsten carbide alloy tip is brazed on the impeller vane. As the impeller rotates the vane slices against the serrated edge of the suction cover, chopping fibrous matter into small fragments that won’t clog. The 3 phase, heavy duty pumps range from 50mm bore to 100mm. The largest pump in the range has an enormous capacity of 2,750 litres per minute, and a max head of 26 metres. “There is a terrific video on YouTube that shows the pumps’ cutting ability. It’s amazing to watch what these unique cutters will do. Dredging Solutions pontoon in action, clearing ponds without the need to take the sewage plant offline.

You’ll never believe it until you see it,” said Bennett. “The demo even shows the pump swallowing nylon rope,” he said. Like all Tsurumi submersible pumps, the C Series include features that extend the life and enhance reliability of the pump. Significant design details make a big difference. They include an antiwicking cable entry that prevents water from entering the motor if the power lead is damaged or the end of the cable is accidentally submerged. A double silicon carbide seal is standard on all models. Both seal surfaces are submerged in an oil chamber, away from the pumped liquid. This ensures lubrication and protects ingress of foreign materials. The oil bath features a patented ‘Oil Lifter’ that increases mech seal longevity. The lifter ensures both the upper and lower seals are lubricated and cooled, even if the oil level in the chamber is low. “We have created a bit of a buzz within Sydney Water with how well the new system is dealing with the rags on site. They have a lot of the ponds to dredge at one time or another, that are heavily ragged up and we now have a solution to deal with it,” said Cameron Lorimer from Dredging Solutions. “The cutter pump coupled with our dredge system will allow the cleaning of the ponds while they remain online. This is critical to the ongoing operation of the plant,” he said. Further information on the complete range of Tsurumi cutter pumps is available on the Australian Pump website (www.aussiepumps.com.au) and from Dredging Solutions, Castle Hill.


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The AQUAGO® team has designed and developed the SUNGO® and SUBMIX® known as the most efficient and least costly solutions to treat and rectify lagoon dysfunctions while improving their purifying capabilities. M E D I A C R O B A T •B A R O U X • A B B A S • L TD / 2016

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RENEWABLE ENERGY

AUSTRALIA LEADS WORLD WITH DEVELOPMENT OF PRINTED SOLAR PANELS Australia’s status as a leader in solar power has received a boost with the Australian Government investing $1.6 million in a worldfirst project aimed at creating cheaper electricity systems by using printed solar panels. The initiative will see CSIRO join forces with two Australian companies to create technology that can integrate printed solar cells into building products. The partnership – with New South Walesbased start-up Solafast and high-tech Melbourne printing company Norwood – could lead to a commercial operation within the next few years, creating jobs and boosting export potential. Printed solar cells are made by printing “solar inks” onto rolls of plastic film using industrial printing equipment. The resulting solar panels are thin, flexible and lightweight, so they can be incorporated

into objects and structures in ways that conventional solar panels can't. CSIRO Industrial Innovation’s group leader, Fiona Scholes, said each partner brought something important to the mix. “CSIRO provides the solar know-how while Norwood can take our printed electronics into the main-stream and create large-scale industrial volumes,” Dr Scholes said. “Solafast’s innovative steel roll-forming technology completes the picture, allowing the solar cells to be incorporated into roof and external cladding products.” Australia’s Industry, Innovation and Science Minister, Greg Hunt, said the partnership was exciting because science was partnering with industry to create jobs and growth potential for Australia. “If successful, the two-year project will help to slash the cost of solar PV and create an environmentally responsible

building material that doesn't compromise architectural integrity,” Minister Hunt said. Australia leads the world in the uptake of domestic solar systems, with around 15 per cent of homes installing them. But at present, the commercial sector remains a largely untapped market, due to expense, safety risk and difficulty of installing current systems. “By supporting this project, the government is helping Australian industry take advantage of Australia’s commercial solar market, which is estimated to be worth $250 million a year,” Mr Hunt said. In addition to the commercial solar market in Australia, the global market for printed electronics more broadly is expected to be worth $40 billion a year by 2020, presenting another opportunity for industry.

BATTERIES CAN STORE 50 PER CENT MORE ENERGY WITH NEW TECHNOLOGY The Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) has developed a new technology that increases the storage capacity of rechargeable batteries by 50 per cent. With this technology, batteries in smartphones, laptops and other electronic devices will last longer, the costs of sustainable energy storage will decrease and the range of electric vehicles (EVs) can be increased. To commercialise the new technology and attract investors, entrepreneurs Christian

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Waste + Water Management Australia | December 2016

Rood and Gabriel de Scheemaker founded LeydenJar Technologies BV, an entity named after the Leyden Jar of 1746, the precursor of the battery. Having obtained funding for the first year, the start-up company is already having discussions with large international battery manufacturers and wants to open a demonstration plant in 2018. The new technology replaces the traditional graphite anode with a pure silicon anode, increasing the storage capacity of this component of the lithium-ion battery by a factor of 10 and the storage capacity of the whole battery up to 50 per cent. The problem with silicon, however, is that it expands when the battery is charged and becomes three times larger, which can make silicon layers brittle and cause the battery material to fall apart. ECN applies the silicon in columns onto copper foil using a plasma-based nanotechnology, creating enough space for expansion and allowing the battery to remain stable. The layer eventually needs to be 10 microns thick for commercial application, which is 10 times thinner than a sheet of paper.

ECN researcher, Wim Soppe, discovered the material 12 years ago when he was developing thin-film solar cells. “The material was unsuitable for solar cells, but we found the technology is extremely promising for lithium-ion batteries. A nice example of how a failure can turn into a success.” Sjoerd Wittkampf, Technology Transfer Manager at ECN, said a lot of effort was put into research worldwide to improve lithiumion batteries, and a breakthrough was claimed every few weeks. “These discoveries usually concern materials that can only be produced in a laboratory environment on a very small scale. “What makes the invention of ECN so promising is that the technology for mass production of this material is already within reach due to its similarity to an existing production process for solar cells. “We believe this gives us a unique advantage. Through the founding of LeydenJar Technologies, we will transfer this technology to the market and create a fit between the battery industry and venture capital investors.”


SEWERAGE

CONSTRUCTION STARTING ON MOUNT EMERALD WIND FARM Construction was due to commence in early December 2016 on Queensland’s largest wind farm project – the 180 megawatt Mount Emerald Wind Farm, about 50 kilometres from Cairns. The project is being developed by major renewable investor, Ratch Australia, and will create 150 direct jobs during construction. State Energy Minister, Mark Bailey, said the Mount Emerald Wind Farm had reached financial close and was another exciting step in Queensland’s renewable energy journey. “This project now has engineering, procurement and construction contracts in place, a long-term operations and maintenance contract, a 25-year grid connection agreement with Powerlink, and finance secured. “It follows government-owned Ergon Energy’s commitment to purchase all of the electricity generated by the wind farm through to the end of 2030, having completed an expression of interest process in 2015 consistent with the government’s commitment to renewable energy. “The project will see opportunities throughout North Queensland’s local supply chain; for example, the towers and turbine will be brought through the Cairns port and transported to site. “During the process, there will also be requirements to employ local professional services. “The government has made its renewable intentions abundantly clear - to create jobs of the future, boost investment and act on climate change.” Treasurer, Curtis Pitt, said the people of Far North Queenslanders had wanted a power station for many years and now one was in the pipeline that would be 100 per cent carbon neutral, using the latest technology. “This is a great way of diversifying the Tablelands’ economy and innovating for the future,” Mr Pitt said. “In terms of direct investment and economic activity, the projections are for more than $400 million in total expenditure in the region over the two-year construction period and 25-year life of the project. “Indirectly, the flow-on benefits are estimated to be around $1 billion to the local economy over that same period. “Crucially, this will deliver new job opportunities in an area of need here in the Far North.”

THE ULTIMATE RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCE In the search for new and sustainable energy sources few people realise that there is a energy source flowing beneath the surface of our cities SEWERAGE! This abundant, free energy source remains mostly untapped. The “Sharc” is a Waste Heat Recovery & Heat Rejection System suitable for a range of applications including, multi-unit apartments, aged care, hospitals, commercial buildings and district energy.

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HOT WATER SERVICE Using the waste water from the building the Piranha is a self-contained HEAT PUMP specifically designed to extract thermal energy from waste water for Domestic Hot Water Heating. COP’s of 5.0 for 50-200 Apartments, Aged Care, and Hospitals to produce 7500-15000 litres of Hot Water per Day

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Waste + Water Management Australia | December 2016

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RENEWABLE ENERGY

ASSISTANCE PACKAGES FOR LATROBE VALLEY AFTER NEWS OF HAZELWOOD CLOSURE More than $80 million in Australian and Victorian Government aid is being made available to support Hazelwood Power Station workers in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley following the closure of the facility at the end of March 2017. Canberra has allocated $43 million while Victoria’s assistance is valued at $42 million. In a decision described by the Victorian Government as “gut wrenching news”, the French energy company, Engie, said it was closing Hazelwood because the French Government was divesting out of brown coal assets and the costs involved in keeping the power plant and mine safe for workers. Engie confirmed it would meet all its legal obligations for the hundreds of workers affected by the decision to close Victoria’s oldest brown coal generator. In 2015-16, Hazelwood met 22 per cent of Victoria’s energy demand and accounted for about four per cent of firm energy capacity in the National Electricity Market. The $43 million in Australian Government assistance will include $20 million to support local infrastructure, a $3 million structural adjustment package to help employees and a $20 million Regional Jobs and Investment Package. That package is designed to help create local jobs and growth, build a highly skilled local workforce, take advantage of export opportunities and diversify the regional economy. The government has also created a Ministerial Committee to co-ordinate and oversee its response. The committee comprises: • Minister for the Environment and Energy, Josh Frydenberg, (chair); • Minister for Regional Development, Senator Fiona Nash; • Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Darren Chester; • Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Greg Hunt; and • Minister for Employment, Michaelia Cash. 36

Waste + Water Management Australia | December 2016

The government sought the advice of the independent Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), which manages the National Electricity Market, on how the station’s closure would affect the secure supply of electricity. AEMO advised the electricity market would continue to operate reliably after the closure. The government also wrote to the Australian Energy Regulator to ensure the closure did not lead to unjustified price increases or allow market participants to unfairly profit. COAG Energy Ministers, with the Federal Government, will help ensure a reliable supply of energy across Victoria and South Australia, and minimal price impacts. For its part, the Victorian Government is making available $22 million in the immediate term to support Hazelwood workers and affected businesses. The support includes: • a Worker Transition Centre established in Morwell in partnership with the Gippsland Trades and Labour Council – a one-stopshop for individual support; • education, counselling, financial advice and subsidised job-seeker training for workers in transition; • tailored support for businesses to help them identify new opportunities and develop a transition plan; and • an expansion of the Back to Work program to businesses that employ workers in the Latrobe Valley. An additional $20 million will fund the establishment of a dedicated Latrobe Valley Authority to lead the government’s response and manage the transition and the future economic development of the region. The new authority, based in Morwell, will work with locals and businesses, the Gippsland Regional Partnership and all levels of government to cut red tape and give locals a say over their future. To ensure the Latrobe Valley Authority gets to work straight away, the government has appointed Kylie White, a respected senior public servant with experience in resources and energy, as interim CEO.

PUBLIC CONSULTATION ON KINGAROY WIND FARM PROPOSAL The Queensland Government is assessing public comment on a proposed $500 million wind farm at Coopers Gap near Kingaroy, about 200 kilometres north west of Brisbane. Consultation on the draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for the project closed on 7 November. The public was invited to make a submission on whether the draft EIS for the Coopers Gap wind farm adequately addressed the project’s terms of reference, including its potential environmental impacts and the effectiveness of measures the proponent put forward to manage the impacts. The project was declared a co-ordinated project in June 2016. Queensland’s Minister for State Development and Minister for Natural Resources and Mines, Anthony Lynham, said consultation was an important part of the EIS process. “AGL Energy Limited proposes to build and operate a wind farm that could potentially supply power to an estimated 236,000 households from its installed capacity of up to 460 megawatts (MW) and up to 115 wind turbines. “The project could create up to 350 construction jobs and ongoing employment for up to 20 people in the region,” Dr Lynham said. Energy Minister, Mark Bailey, said the wind farm consultation followed confirmation of ARENA (Australian Renewable Energy Agency) support for six large-scale solar farms and an Ergon power purchase agreement for the 170MW Mount Emerald wind farm in far north Queensland. “Combined, these projects would support more than 1,000 construction jobs in large-scale renewables,” Mr Bailey said. “We promised to establish a large-scale renewable energy industry in Queensland, to act on climate change while creating new jobs and diversifying our economy, and we are doing just that.”


RENEWABLE ENERGY

PEACE OF MIND FOR SOLAR FAMILIES SOLAR INDUSTRY LAUNCHES MASTER INSTALLER PROGRAM The Australian Solar Council – the peak body for the solar industry – is making it easier for Australian families to choose quality solar installers by launching a new initiative, the Master Installer Program. “The Master Installer Program gives Australian families peace of mind. If they choose a Master Solar Installer, they know the job will be done right by a qualified and

fully-trained professional,” said John Grimes, Chief Executive of the Australian Solar Council. “With Summer arriving, there’s never been a better time to go solar and there’s never been a better time to get a quality solar installer.” “When customers buy a solar PV system, they get the financial reward over the long

term. The longer a solar system works, and the better it performs, the more money customers will make”. “Unfortunately, some installers are in and out as quickly as possible. They are only interested in a quick job, not long-term value or performance for the customer”. Master Installers are solar professionals who provide expert advice, design and installation to give families and businesses the best long-term financial return on their solar. To qualify as an Australian Solar Council Master Installer, installers must pass an intensive training program, commit to ongoing professional development, and be subject to a random audit and inspection program with real teeth, that will remove installers not living up to our high standards. For interviews, contact Wayne Smith on 0417 141 812. We can provide contact details for solar installers and solar families who are available for interviews. A Master Installer video and a national map of Master Installers can be found at www.solar.org.au

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CASE STUDY

The VersaFlex polyurea lining is spray-applied to the prepared and primed surface.

Rehabilitating Ageing Concrete Wastewater Infrastructure Advanced polyurea coatings and liners provide strong, flexible waterproofing to bridge cracks and protect against future cracking and deterioration As is the case throughout much of Australia, a large percentage of wastewater and sewer infrastructure across the USA is approaching the 50-100 year mark and as such, it must be rehabilitated to remain in use for a growing population. Municipal wastewater treatment facilities, sewers and vaults endure some of the most severe and corrosive environments in the water industry and must pass increasing Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scrutiny. At industrial plants as well, EPA enforces requirements to ensure that industries pre-treat pollutants in their wastes to protect local sanitary sewers and wastewater treatment plants. Such extreme wastewater handling environments operate under continual chemical exposure and heavy abrasion that deteriorate concrete and corrode steel in clarifiers, containment pits, anaerobic digesters, manholes, tanks, and other infrastructure assets. A variety of factors can cause these structures to develop sizable cracks through which wastewater can escape (exfiltration) or groundwater can enter the wastewater 38

Waste + Water Management Australia | December 2016

system (infiltration). Leaks, cracks and damage to existing coating systems not only top the list of challenges in facility maintenance and new construction, but can also trigger severe penalties if municipalities or industrial facilities are found in violation of EPA judicial consent decrees. Fortunately, advanced polyurea coatings and liners are proving ideal for wastewater infrastructure rehabilitation by delivering strong, flexible, abrasion and chemicalresistant waterproofing that not only bridges existing cracks, but can elongate up to 400% without cracking. Because they set and cure rapidly, and can be installed and used in a wide range of temperatures, they also minimize facility downtime.

Concrete Cracking and Deterioration Cracks can develop in aging concrete wastewater infrastructure for a number of reasons ranging from earth movement to daily or seasonal temperature changes that cause expansion and contraction including freeze-thaw. In addition, harsh chemicals used to treat wastewater can deteriorate

the concrete, as can exposure to hydrogen sulfide gas, a form of sulfuric acid present in sewers created by anaerobic organisms. Since the EPA regulates municipal wastewater and stormwater management, concrete cracks or leaks that lead to wastewater exfiltration or groundwater infiltration can put the municipality in violation of a judicial consent decree, triggering significant penalties. Consent decrees are settlements in judicial actions that are signed by all involved parties and filed in the appropriate court. “If the EPA finds that a municipality has old leaking sewer systems, putting them on a consent decree can mean that they don’t receive federal tax money until the problem is fixed,� says Jim Osborn, President of Osborn Contract Services Inc., a South Carolina-based certified applicator of spray applied coatings and rehabilitation products. According to Osborn, a cementitious material is traditionally used to repair wastewater-related sewer leaks, but this has disadvantages, as do other coating materials.


CASE STUDY

All cracks over 1/8” wide were repaired with a concrete repair grout prior to the application of the flexible polyurea lining.

“Hydrogen sulfide gas eats away at the cement in sewer concrete, so it may only have a lifespan of a few years,” says Osborn. “Because epoxies are limited by much lower elongation properties, they crack and don’t bridge cracks well. Polyurethanes have more elongation, but nothing like polyureas.” For concrete repairs in wastewater infrastructure from municipal manholes and lift stations to clarifiers, trenches and sumps, Osborn has transitioned to an advanced polyurea system from VersaFlex, a manufacturer of spray applied protective coatings and waterproof membranes for the U.S. wastewater and industrial markets. The spray-applied waterproof coating creates a seamless, waterproof, durable protective liner that stops leaks and strengthens the integrity of the entire structure. It exhibits outstanding physical properties such as elongation up to 400%, crack bridging, hardness, and tensile strength to create a robust industrial liner that protects, strengthens, and waterproofs concrete wastewater infrastructure. According to Osborn, a number of the polyurea’s characteristics help to extend wastewater infrastructure longevity as well as prevent wastewater exfiltration and groundwater infiltration. “Since the polyurea system provides superior elongation, it bridges cracks up to 1/8 inch”, says Osborn. “With tensile strength higher than traditional materials, it has much lower permeability for better waterproofing. Its impact, abrasion, and chemical resistance are excellent so it resists hydrogen sulfide. Instead of years

between the replacement of cementitious coatings, the polyurea coating can costeffectively provide decades of protection.” With the proper crack repair and surface preparation, the polyurea coating can be a thick film applied directly to the concrete or similar substrate. An alternate application method that can sometimes mitigate the need for surface or crack repairs is to prespray the polyurea to geotextile fabric panels placed above the onsite substrate, fusing the panel edges together with more polyurea. Because of the polyurea’s ability to set and cure quickly, it also minimizes wastewater treatment plant or infrastructure downtime. This can translate into thousands of dollars per hour savings as well as avoiding days of service interruption. When extensive cracks were found in a concrete clarifier shortly before a chemical plant’s ribbon cutting ceremony, Osborn turned to the polyurea for superior protection and fast installation. After repairing all cracks over 1/8” wide in the clarifier with a concrete repair grout, Osborn prepared, then primed the floor and walls with VersaFlex VF 20 primer, and applied 80-100 mils of FSS 45DC polyurea. “The polyurea allowed us to provide a warranty against potential future cracks opening in the concrete because of its crack bridging ability,” said Osborn. “We were able to spray the polyurea as thick as needed in one application. Since it sets and cures rapidly, structures can put be back in service very soon after spraying.” While traditional coatings such as cementitious, epoxies, and polyurethanes

will prematurely fail if not installed under a relatively narrow range of temperatures, the polyurea is designed for installation and use from -40°F to +350°F. It will withstand decades of freeze-thaw cycling, and wide variations of temperature and humidity. “When you’re above ground in the Midwest, you have freeze and thaw with concrete expansion, contraction, and cracking,” says Jennifer Hoop, President of Conco Spray Solutions, an Indianapolis, IN-based contractor specializing in the rehabilitation and protection of municipal infrastructure including potable, storm and wastewater systems. “We needed a lining that would move with the structure through the different seasons and tank temperature differentials. For that, polyurea works very well.” To withstand extreme weather conditions at a northern Indiana wastewater treatment plant, Hoop selected the polyurea for a secondary containment area around ferric chloride tanks. “After filling in cracks with grout and restoring the concrete, we sprayed the polyurea on geotextile to provide a really nice containment area for the ferric chloride tanks,” she says. Hoop, whose company does a large amount of wastewater-related work on containment, clarifiers, tanks, and wet wells, says that the polyurea has an added benefit in reducing continual clarifier maintenance. “Typically clarifier maintenance crews need to use high-pressure power washers for hours to clean solid waste from concrete surfaces,” says Hoop. “Since the polyurea provides waterproofing and has a cleanable surface, crews can simply hose down the clarifier to clean it. This can cut required weekly clarifier cleaning by two-thirds.” “For wastewater-related rehabilitation, polyurea is a superior coating for any application that requires crack bridging, longevity, chemical and temperature resistance, as well as fast turnaround,” concludes Hoop. For further information, please visit the website: www.versaflex.com The polyurea sets and cures rapidly, enabling structures to be put be back into service very soon after spraying.

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SPECIAL REPORT

Digital Enablement Expedites Business Growth By Terry Daley, National Sales Director, Wastedge.com

T

he pace of change is accelerated by digital enablement, and we’re seeing a correlation from the rate of digitisation of a company’s data flows to the growth rate of those businesses. The degree to which companies digitally enable their organisation becomes an exponential growth factor in their ability to expand. In the book “Exponential Organisations”, author Salim Ismail reviews organisations that scale many times the rate of typical organisations in their sector. The focus is on the exponentially growing companies that appear to be growing at the same rate as technology, according to Moore’s law, doubling year on year. Moore's law refers to an observation made by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965. He noticed that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits (ie the storage capacity) had doubled every year since their invention. Salim refers to it as the Double Down effect. He notes that “futurist Ray Kurzweil has been studying this growth phenomenon or 30 years and has four signature observations:

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• The doubling pattern identified by Gordon Moore in integrated circuits applies to any information technology. This Law of Acceleration Returns (LOAR) is evidenced back to 1900far earlier than Moore’s original pronouncement. • The driver fuelling this phenomenon is information. Once any domain, discipline, technology or industry becomes information-enabled, and powered by information flows, its price/performance begins doubling approximately annually. • Once the doubling pattern starts it doesn’t stop. We use current computers to design faster computers, which then build faster computers and so on. • Several key technologies today are information enabled and following the same trajectory. These technologies include Artificial Intelligence (AI), biotech and bio-informatics, medicine, neuroscience, data-science, 3D printing, nanotechnology, and even aspects of energy. Salim notes: “The scorching pace of exponential growth will quickly leave the old-world “linear growth” organisations

behind. Those organisations that don’t jump on-board will soon be left on the ash heap of history, joining Iridium, Kodak, Polaroid, Philco, Blockbuster, Nokia and a host of other once great industry dominant giants, unable to adapt to rapid technology change” Unfortunately for Nokia (who had just spent $8.1 billion buying Navteq, a navigation and road mapping company) that dominated the in-road traffic sensor industry, only to find that a small Israeli company called Waze, chose to crowdsource location information by leveraging the GPS sensors on its users’ phones to capture traffic information. Salim points out that: “In 2013, Google acquired Waze for $1.1 billion, and at that time Waze had no hardware, no infrastructure and less than 100 employees, but it did have 50 million “human traffic sensors” that were double what it had the prior year.” Salim cites many examples of companies adopting new technologies and smart algorithms and using them to their competitive advantage: UPS for instance has an American fleet of some 55,000 trucks that make 16 million deliveries a day. Yet by applying


SPECIAL REPORT

telematics and route optimising algorithms, the company saves its drivers 85 million miles per year, translating to a cost saving of $2.55 billion. Given the pending explosion of internet connected devices about to emerge with the Internet of Things (IoT) we’re likely to need more automated analytics algorithms to sift through the ubiquitous information in “Big Data” to convert it to our competitive advantage. Your average BMW car for instance, now has greater than 2000 sensors measuring everything from tyre pressure and fuel level, resulting in measuring billions of data-points per voyage. The experimental Google car, with its light radar scanning the surrounding environment, captures 1 gigabyte of data per second, per car. In 2012 in the USA more than 93% of all transactions were done digitally. So what does this mean for the Waste Industry? What percentage of your business transactions and communications today are still paper based?

logging and escalation system to enable sharing and management of customer requests that turn into different tasks for several departments. Paper messaging systems – like yellow sticky notes, can get lost or passed around to the wrong department or simply travel slower than digital to-do task lists and follow-up reminders, should key service response target time limits be exceeded. Speeding up inter-staff communications can reduce admin costs by more than 10% and resulting customer service satisfaction increase can translate to another 10% saving in less customer churn. Self Service Portals extend business hours and reduce data capture costs Adding on self-service customer portals lets your customers do your data entry for you, and extends your available open-forcommunications hours without additional staff overtime as well as letting the customer do the data entry for you. Divide the number of phone in job bookings per day into staff costs to get a quick idea of the cost per call you’d be saving.

Sales Automation

Waste Collection Route Optimisation

Digitalisation of sales reps’ prospect information, once kept in their heads or in little black books that left the organisation when the rep did, can now be captured digitally on smart phones and tablets (Salesforce Automation) and integrated with diary reminders of when to re-visit prospects just before their current contract expires. Many companies still spend the money to find prospects waning to move to a new supplier then forget to go back a year later when re-signs are due to win over the new business (called the leaky funnel syndrome). Could you be losing 10 or 20% of your sales costs here through lack of digitisation? Not to mention the flip side of increased customer retention by 10% from remembering when to visit your own customers at or well before resign time?

Waste business specific route optimisation algorithms can save a business greater than 12% to 20% of travel distance, and take into account likely truck volume or weight limit capacity, to predict where a trip to the tip is likely needed – then optimise the rest of the route taking into account specific customer site access time restrictions.

This isn’t just a saving of driver wages, but adds the additional revenue that truck can make in an extra hour or two per day directly to the bottom line business profits, without any increase in resource costs.

Mobile On-board Management Systems Savings Paperless run sheets or job lists on field staff and driver mobile devices also digitally enable your frontline workforce to streamline communications in realtime, improving agility and efficiency of handling late service requests or changes. This can save up to 10 times the collection cost of having to go back into an area serviced only one day a week, just to pick up one or two missed customers or late requests that you could have handled while trucks were in the area. The benefits of digitising data early in the process eradicates double handling and double data entry of paper-based systems (more savings). But wait, there’s more: … The truck computer actually provides most of the data-input for proof of service pics with GPS timestamps, plus travel trails and reduces disputed futile charges. Additional automated data capture from integrated on-board weighing and RFid systems facilitates overweight billing from data that would be too time consuming to capture manually and improves customer profitability. Heavy sites are no longer subsidised by the average of other customers on the run.

Company Communications Waste collection companies have a variety of different departments, from receptionist and customer service phone answering staff, through to site inspection safety staff and bin delivery teams, yet many waste companies have no inter-departmental calls or requests

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SPECIAL REPORT

Electronic Invoicing and Payment Systems

Digital billing processes further eliminate paper-handling, with email of electronic PDF invoices, opening up faster online payment options and customer portals where customers can view attached tipping dockets, electronically signedon-glass booking dockets and attached proof of services pictures. EDI – Electronic Data Interchange is now easier with web service APIs Application Program Interfaces (APIs) facilitate even further digitisation of shared transaction data between your customers and supplier (sub-contractors). The collaborative consumption of data is transforming how companies cultivate their own ecosystems. Exponential organisations have the capability to adapt to this new world of deep and ubiquitous information and convert it to competitive advantage.

The Internet of Things Compactor bins that capture who put what weight in from which apartment fob; Wheelie Bins or park and public place litter bins communicate messages from one to another until they reach the master bin or powered lamp post that is a network node; that can then call your computer system when they are near-full; gates that open when they “sense” the truck WIFI system is within X metres; disposable bag RFid tags that can be counted by the truck when thrown through an array of scanning beams at the back of the truck; Container Deposit Scheme bottle tags that can be counted once before crushing in recycling bins that can segregate containers by type and colour; sharps containers that get tracked every time they move from room to room in a hospital (like library books)

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and that can be read by the thousand when passing through the autoclave destruction room back at base;… Salim says: “Ten years ago we had 500,000,000 internet connected devices, today there are about 8 billion. By 2020 there will be 50 billion and a decade later we’ll have a trillion internet enabled devices.” We are about to be deluged in data!

Community Crowd Sourcing Curbs Costs Chris Anderson (of Long Tail Harvard fame) has a technology community of 55,000 followers/members who have been able to build a drone very similar to the Predator drone used by USA military. The DIY drone costs just $300 (where the Predator cost $4 million)! Imagine if you could use drones to guide Robot-based Automated Refuse collections (Roar) – they are testing this in Sweden today (search Robot Garbage on YouTube)! Imagine if you could use a Pac-man style game to crowd-source players into designing the smartest waste collection route for a given set of residential collection street topography, calculating shortest route, minimal reversing and minimal cross traffic turns.

Digital Disruption Digital disruption is a challenge inflicted on companies who fail to execute the digital transformation of their business model. At a recent Cleaner Planet convention in Amsterdam, Mark Abbas from GMT noted: “You’ve all likely heard of this guy: Leonardo DiCaprio. Won Golden Globes and an Oscar as an actor. By doing that, he made some serious money. But most wouldn’t realise that Leonardo has invested in a company with this guy: Nate Morris; to challenge the two big players in Waste Collection in North America (WM and Republic Services) by setting up a digital platform to bring waste producers and waste collection companies together. Rubicon is an asset light company. Like Uber, they do not own any trucks or containers and capitalise on their IT platform. This, in itself, is not unique; there are many similar initiatives in Europe. But the big difference is this… Morris surrounded himself with these two guys: Marc Benioff

(CEO Salesforce) and Oscar Salazar (Cofounder and CTO of Uber).” Rubicon raised $70M and are determined to disrupt the global waste industry. At present they are already in operation in 14 countries and are rapidly expanding. “ So how do you prepare for digital disruption? Firstly, digital transformation is not about a product. It is a business model, a strategy, so it should get some serious attention in your board meetings. Is there actually a person in upper management who owns the digital strategy of your company? Analysts predict that by 2020 47% of all revenue will be driven by digital. Doesn’t this justify having someone in management dedicated to drive digital transformation? A focus on innovation also helps you to keep up with rapidly increasing pace of change. You need to be able to implement new ideas and new strategies in days, not months or years. The winners of the future in the Waste & Recycling industry are those who succeed to implement systems of engagement with their customer base and focus on digital enablement innovations to help build a successful digital business model. Digital enablement is a modernisation journey, and the destination is an environment where digital is not just useful to the business, but a way of life in the business. Organisations need to build capabilities that not only store big data, but that draw visualisation dashboards from insights gained in analysing all this information and drawing conclusions. Companies should investigate how they can digitally enable all facets of their business, where they can accelerate the speed of business processes in line with the exponential growth of Information Technology and innovation.


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Repairs +Tunneline Maintenance

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ACA CORROSION FEATURE

Subsea pipeline corrosion management

A

t offshore oil and gas fields around the world, there are thousands of kilometres of subsea pipelines connecting drilling rigs and production platforms to wellheads and onshore facilities. These represent billions of dollars of investment by companies over many years. Owners of these high-value assets must understand the cost implications of ignoring the effects of corrosion. There are many advantages of planning for corrosion control and mitigation, two of which are that the life of an asset can be extended and maintenance time and costs reduced. The marine environment is a harsh one and pipelines are exposed to a range of external physical, climatic and chemical effects that can cause corrosion and degradation to the outside of the pipes. Not to mention the fluids flowing through a pipeline are themselves corrosive to the inside surfaces. Monitoring the impact of corrosion on subsea pipelines and offshore structures

is a critical aspect of ensuring pipeline integrity. A key way of minimising corrosion is to employ appropriate protection technologies. Companies such as Deepwater Australasia (DWA), Carboline and Independent Maintenance Services Pty Ltd (IMS) supply products and services that meet the varied challenges of offshore and deepwater oil and gas operations around the world. To enhance the effectiveness of the work of companies like DWA, IMS and Carboline, the Australasian Corrosion Association (ACA) works with industry and academia to research all aspects of corrosion in order to provide an extensive knowledge base that supports best practice in corrosion management, thereby ensuring all impacts of corrosion are responsibly managed, the environment is protected, public safety enhanced and economies improved. Most of the world's shallow water oil and gas deposits have been found. As the demand for oil has increased, exploration companies have been looking at reservoirs in deeper and Clamping an anode to an underwater pipeline

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Technician abseiling down the support structure of an offshore rig

deeper waters. The cost of floating facilities and platforms over deep water reservoirs is extremely high, so projects with equipment located on the sea floor are becoming common. According to David Flanery, Business Development Manager at DWA, the method of corrosion protection selected depends on the material that is used to construct offshore infrastructure. Pipelines are often epoxy or concrete encased whereas a platform usually has large amounts of exposed steel. Subsea assets often require protective systems that include special coatings with a long-duration operational life, sacrificial cathodic protection systems, or combinations of these. Ricky Collins, Sales Manager Australasia at Altex Coatings, a regional Carboline supplier, stated manufacturers have developed insulating products that have been designed to withstand the rigours of deepwater operations. The material used in these has been specifically engineered for use with subsea pipelines. Surface coatings and other corrosion prevention methods are usually maintained by companies such as IMS. The scope of the work these companies carry out on offshore structures ranges from general maintenance work through surface preparation and coating to spot blasting and painting. According to Jan Sikora, Operations Manager at IMS, all of the work his company does to keep offshore structures in optimal condition is planned proactively by the asset owners. “Regular inspections are carried out to determine the condition of an offshore installation and then the


ACA CORROSION FEATURE

Preparing the steel of an offshore structure for priming and spray coating

asset owner plans the schedule and scope of works to be carried out by us,” he added. There are a variety of methods for securing a pipeline while on the sea bed. The depth of the water above the pipe determines whether it must be buried or weighted to keep it in place. In general, if the water depth is less than 50 metres, most countries require that pipelines be laid in a trench. The working and operating environment for equipment and pipelines in the deep ocean are vastly different to those of coastal activities. The temperature of seawater at depths of thousands of metres drops to around 2°C. Oil from deep wells can be as hot as 176°C. As the hot oil comes up from the well it travels through the much colder pipeline and the fluid in the pipe can quickly cool down. At approximately 21°C, the water and gas mixtures in the pipe can form gas hydrates or paraffins. If the build up of paraffins is too great, it can ultimately block the pipeline. Such blockages can be extremely costly to clear and, if a pipeline ruptures, can cause catastrophic damage to equipment and the environment. Subsea Flow Assurance is a term used in the offshore oil and gas industry to describe processes that ensure subsea pipelines and equipment maintain oil flow. It is therefore essential that appropriate insulating materials are applied to infrastructure in order to maintain or at least slow down the heat loss from the fluids being transported. Manufacturers of surface coatings have worked to develop suitable materials to handle the extreme conditions of deep water activities.

“An offshore production field is a very complex system,” Flanery said. “Ideally, all the different components and their separate corrosion protection needs should be carefully planned at the design stage.” For example, oil and gas flows from the reservoir, through the subsea tree and, typically, to a manifold or pipeline end termination (PLET) via a jumper pipe. Fluids pass along the pipelines to a production platform for processing before being sent to a tanker or onshore facility for further processing. (A jumper is a short flexible or rigid length of pipe that is used to connect a flowline to other components.) There can at times be a design gap between the corrosion protection systems of two adjacent assets, such as a flowline and a manifold. This can occur because each specialist company manufactures its specific component and different contractors lay them on the sea bed. The corrosion protection system for each asset is sometimes not communicated between companies and often the operator may not take holistic oversight of the field. “You cannot just look at a pipeline in isolation,” Flanery said. “It is always part of a much larger system.” Typical offshore pipelines are composed of 12 metre lengths of pipe welded end-to-end on a pipe lay vessel. Each joint is covered with a factory applied anti-corrosion coating, except for approximately 60 centimetres at each end. These areas are left bare to prevent the heat from welding operations from damaging the coating. Once the girth weld is completed between the two joints, an uncoated area of approximately 1.2 metres

remains. Most pipelines are designed to use a field applied joint coating, typically in the form of a heat shrinkable sleeve. Cathodic protection (CP) is a technique used to control the corrosion of a metal surface by making it the cathode of an electrochemical cell. A simple method of protection connects the metal to be protected to a more easily corroded "sacrificial metal" to act as the anode. The sacrificial metal then corrodes instead of the protected metal. The most common CP system for pipelines uses bracelet anodes that are clamped onto the pipeline approximately every 10 joints, or 120 metres. The anode is bonded to the pipeline via small wires, or bonding straps, fastened to studs welded directly to the pipeline. Regular inspections are a requirement of any company operating an offshore field and they must be able to certify that there is no danger of a pipeline rupturing. For compliance, usually the entire length of the pipeline needs to be surveyed every five years. One method of monitoring a pipeline's CP system is called Electrode Field Gradient (EFG) measurement where a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) or diver swims along the entire length of a pipeline to record the field gradient of the pipeline’s CP system. Field gradient can be used as an indication of cathodic protection activity. The field gradient strength is a function of the distance between the reference electrode array and the pipeline. However, all pipeline surveys must include periodic “stabs” along its length to recalibrate the EFG readings.

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ACA CORROSION FEATURE

“While towed or autonomous underwater vehicles can be used, you cannot really tell how good a pipeline is without contacting it,” Flanery added. One of the latest methods for surveying pipelines is to install CP test stations at a regular, calculated interval, similar to those for onshore buried pipelines. This enables a more rapid and accurate pipeline survey using minimal survey equipment aboard a survey vessel. An ROV or diver is required to make contact readings at these test stations using a special probe. This method allows the survey vessel to plan stops along the pipeline corridor and drop a diver or ROV into the water only at those locations. The diver or ROV 'stabs' the test station and this is correlated with the readings from an EFG probe to determine the integrity of the CP system at that point. Next, a nearby anode can be located and stabbed. During both contact measurements the voltage gradient is recorded. From these readings, the survey crew can use onboard pipeline CP attenuation modelling to determine the next appropriate survey site and report on what actions may need to be taken immediately or planned to maintain optimal operations. DWA has a range of corrosion control and monitoring equipment that can be quickly deployed to site and easily added to a pipeline to enhance the effectiveness of the monitoring program. Several deepwater pipeline coatings are premium-grade, tough, resilient glass syntactic polyurethane elastomers that provide the required thermal insulation properties and are 100 per 46

Waste + Water Management Australia | December 2016

cent solids 'cast in place' material. “The term '100 per cent Solids' implies a coating in solid form, but this is misleading,” said Altex Coatings' Collins. “The term actually means that the coating contains no solvents or VOCs.” Zero Volatile Organic Component (VOC) coatings pose no fire hazard and only low health risk while the coating is being applied. They are also very environment friendly as hazardous organic solvent vapour is not generated and released into the air.) “Syntactic foams” contain the right combination of resins, pigments and glass-spheres to provides the necessary properties to handle the environment and application parameters. Standard lightweight insulation is not suitable for the deepwater environment. They cannot endure long term water exposure and low temperature, More importantly due, under the extreme pressures (3000-6000 psi) at these water depths, most insulation materials will simply collapse and not survive the 25-year life expectancy of the equipment. Collins added “A product like Carboline's Carbotherm® 735 will handle all these conditions and yet is flexible enough to tolerate movement, bending and vibration during shipment, installation and operation.” Working on the structural cross members of an offshore platform requires a unique combination of skills, but also additional safety precautions. IMS staff need to be good corrosion prevention technicians as well as proficient abseilers. “Both of the skills are very important in our job and we emphasise that safety is observed in all aspects of our work,”

Sikora said. “When we find the right person with the appropriate corrosion qualifications, we train them in rope access. To ensure the safety of our workers is not compromised, we also hire experienced Level 3 abseilers and then train them in corrosion prevention techniques.” Comprehensive planning is the priority when dealing with the constraints and challenges of offshore corrosion control. “Once we get to an offshore site, if we forget something it is hard to arrange delivery of more materials or tools,” Sikora added. “You can't just jump in your van and drive to the local hardware store.” The weather and access can also impact on work at an offshore site. There is often limited space for the workers and all their equipment on an offshore platform and sometimes the workers must travel on and off the platform every day, which restricts the actual working hours available. Fortunately, the latest polyurea and polyurethane coatings and primers have been developed to have rapid cure times so that structures can be covered quickly. “With an effective protection system and regular maintenance, an offshore field should have an operational life of up to 40 years,” Flanery added. The ACA is a not-for-profit, industry association, established in 1955 to service the needs of Australian and New Zealand companies, organisations and individuals involved in the fight against corrosion. The vision of the organisation is to reduce the impact of corrosion.

ABOUT THE AUSTRALASIAN CORROSION ASSOCIATION The Australasian Corrosion Association Incorporated (ACA) is a not-for-profit, membership Association which provides training, seminars, conferences, publications and other activities to disseminate information about corrosion and its prevention or control. The industry association was formed in 1955 and represents companies, organisations and individuals involved in the fight against corrosion and promotes cooperation between academic, industrial, commercial and governmental organisations. For further information, please visit the web site: www.corrosion.com.au


ACA CORROSION FEATURE

C&P2016 revealed the latest technical advances and research on corrosion mitigation

Corrosion conference showcases latest knowledge and technologies Delegates to the Corrosion & Prevention 2016 (C&P2016) conference and trade exhibition in Auckland were greeted with a traditional Maori haka, along with other traditional dances, at the start of the event that was staged at the SkyCity Convention Centre on Auckland's scenic harbour in November. The conference brought together a panel of industry experts to discuss the challenges brought by new technologies and materials in addition to the importance of maintaining vital infrastructure. The convention and trade exhibition provided a forum for all corrosion stakeholders to meet and discuss a wide range of topics. Attendees were able to participate in seminars and hear technical papers covering best practice in corrosion management, environmental protection techniques, public safety and economics. Corrosion has a major economic impact on industry and the wider community: it is estimated that governments and organisations spend billions of dollars every year mitigating and repairing corrosion damage. The design, construction and operation of facilities and infrastructure represent major investments by companies, organisations and governments. Corrosion will affect all structures at varying rates over time, depending on the material used, the types of corrosive agents in the environment and the physical processes and mechanisms

involved. How to manage this degradation is a challenge for designers and engineers, as well as asset owners, managers and operators. C&P2016 revealed the latest technical advances and research on corrosion mitigation. Plenary speakers included Professor Digby Macdonald from University of California, whose current research involves studying Simulating Coolant and Corrosion Processes in Water-Cooled Nuclear Reactors and the Development of Deterministic Corrosion Damage Models. Plenary lectures were also delivered by Howard Combs, General Manager Global Sales, Carboline USA, a specialist in elastomeric coating technology; David Williams, Professor in Electrochemistry at the University in Auckland and Nick Laycock, Senior Materials & Corrosion Engineer at Shell Qatar.

Speakers and delegates continue to raise the profile of corrosion and its mitigation, as well as working to place corrosion control on the national agenda. In his opening speech the retiring President of the ACA, John Duncan, emphasised that there is a direct cost to the economy of at least two percent of GDP per year due to materials degradation, and somewhere between 25 and 40 percent of the cost is avoidable using already-known technology. A common view expressed by delegates was that because corrosion crosses a range of disciplines, a good mix of people attend the annual conference and trade exhibition including engineers and experts in addition to asset owners and managers. In the continuing efforts to minimise the impact of corrosion, new materials are being developed to build structures and procedures implemented that have been designed to protect both new and existing facilities. The corrosion effects of these new materials have to be researched and analysed. The keynote address at each C&P Conference is the PF Thomson Memorial Lecture, which has been delivered every year since 1951. Percival Faraday Thompson (1885-1951) is recognised as Australasia’s pioneer in the science and technology of metallic corrosion and its mitigation. The Lecture is the Association’s premier dedicated lecture which strives to emulate the academic and technical qualities for which Thompson became known. Dr Patricia Shaw was selected to give the 2016 P F Thompson Memorial Lecture. Shaw is the Better Buildings Research Team Leader at BRANZ and leads a team of material scientists, fire engineers

Delegates C&P2016 were greeted with a traditional Maori haka and other traditional dances

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ACA CORROSION FEATURE

and structural engineers researching improved techniques and materials for use in the building industry. She obtained a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Auckland and has more than 20 years’ experience as a Materials Scientist. In her presentation, Shaw defined corrosion as the deterioration of materials by interaction with their environment. While the term 'corrosion' is generally used in reference to metals, it also applies to the degradation of polymers, concrete and wood. Shaw's presentation explored the causes and effects of corrosion on polymeric materials and provided an overview of the environmental factors

Dr Patricia Shaw was selected to give the 2016 P F Thompson Memorial Lecture

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The convention and trade exhibition provided a forum for all corrosion stakeholders to meet and discuss a wide range of topics

which may affect polymeric materials, and the impact of those effects on their performance. She also discussed the challenges of measuring and understanding polymer degradation and presented some practical examples to illustrate the importance of this field of corrosion research. Ways to mitigate corrosion include restricting the design load on the material and to include UV stabilisers in the polymer mix. The ACA works with industry and academia to research all aspects of corrosion in order to provide an extensive knowledge base that supports best practice in corrosion management,

thereby ensuring all impacts of corrosion are responsibly managed, the environment is protected, public safety enhanced and economies improved. The work of Dr Shaw and her team adds to the accumulated knowledge available to industry and other academics. In 2017, the ACA will being saying “G'day, mate� to delegates attending next year's Corrosion & Prevention event when the conference returns once more to Sydney. As always, the conference will be the premier corrosion event in the Asia Pacific region and will feature a program of keynote speakers and technical presentations.



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Customer Service Centre Western Region (WA,SA,NT) 76 Grey Street, Bassendean, WA 6054 Australia Phone +61 8 9370 7900 Fax +61 8 9370 7998

Customer Service Centre Central Region (NSW) 35 Walker Street, South Windsor, NSW 2756 Australia Phone +61 2 4577 3099 Fax +61 2 4577 3022

refuse@buchermunicipal.com.au www.buchermunicipal.com.au Quality ISO 9001


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