W ATER _ & SEWAGE

m Jersey desalination plant nears completion

The biggest desalination plant of its type in the British Isles, with an output of 1.32 million gallons a day, is presently being commissioned by Weir Westgarth of Glasgow, two months ahead of schedule.

The new diA.5 million plant, which uses reverse osmosis

The reverse osmosis desalina- tion plant at La Rosiere, Jersey, presently being com- missioned by Weir Westgarth.

technology to separate salt from seawater taken from the English Channel using high pressure membranes, has also been built within budget. Ordered by Jersey New Waterworks Company and sited at La Rosiere, the plant is due to start producing water shortly and will be officially opened in June, when it will top up drinking supplies during periods of low rainfall. It replaces multi-stage flash evaporators supplied by Weir Westgarth nearly 30 years ago, which ceased operation last autumn.

Weir Westgarth has been responsible for supplying, installing and commissioning the new plant as well as remov- ing the old one.WeirWestgarth, part of the Weir Group and a leader in desalination technolo- gy, has supplied similar RO plants in the UK to the Stilly Isles, the Channel Tunnel and BP’s research facility at Sunbury.

m Unique impellers get Welsh vote of confidence

Hidrostal’s patented method of automatically adjusting pump output to varying inflow, the Prerostal System, has been selected for the new Cog Moors Waste Water Treatment Works, operated by Hyder’s water treat- ment business, Dwr Cymru Welsh Water. Hidrostal Pumps - which feature a unique screw centrifugal impeller - have been installed for all major pumping duties in the &65 million project near Dinas Powys.

The Prerostal system is used in the inlet and intermediate pumping stations where incom- ing flows vary widely.The sys- tem is founded on a standard Hidrostal screw centrifugal pump with constant speed motor and a suction bellmouth, custom designed and profred to match a GRP prerotation basin set in the sump floor.

Sump geometry is complet- ed by a weir, located in front of the pump and open at one end to create a tangential inlet.The predetermined rotational flow pattern thus created matches the direction of the pump impeller, liquid speed varying in

The patented Hidrostal Prerostal System.

Global update 1

USA The City of Springborn in Ohio has signed an agreement with USFilter, for the operation and maintenance of its water and xwage treamenf plants for dlC next 15 years. Worth around $1 million a year, the deal Includes guarantees by US F&X to upgrade existing facilities to current standards.

Turkey Residents of earth- quake-stricken parts of Turk dre moving temporarily into the countryside, partly for fear of further tremors and partiy to cop with the absence of running bvater and rhe problems of dis- rupted sewage systems. WeIi \vater is to be avoided, SO ioc?l 5pring waters are providing invaluable aid. Aid agencies ti the sanitation breakdown will \oon lead to the widespread out- break of disease.

Yugoslavia Humanitarian soups, helping with the restora- r tion of war-torn Yugoslavia, alZ warning rhat the extensive con- ramination of soil by petroleum, 0, ‘I and diesel along with the discharge of sewage water into rhe Danube may soon CIWC irreparable ecological d-age. I‘hc United Nations refutes the suggestion that its bombing i.lmpaign caused most of the problems, but has called for urgent action to address the envi- I-onmental situation.

USA A renewable energy process has been unveiled which idn use sewage to generate a combustible gas by generating an electric arc in magnetically U&It- cd liquids containing carbon. IIe MagneGasTM process pm- .Itcs 2.78 times more energy in the form of combustible gag than ir takes to make the gas. With a machine that produces nedy three times the energy that it rakes to run it, the process has rhe potential to be a source ofvir- twIIy Iimiciess clean, renewable c’nergy

WORLD PUMPS SEPTEMBER 1999