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SA poo plant undergoes historic upgrade

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26 Feb, 2024

This post was originally published on Sustainability Matters

SA Water has just completed the single largest concrete pour at South Australia’s Bolivar Wastewater Treatment Plant — part of a $64 million upgrade that will create a new inlet structure at the facility.

More than 310 cubic metres of concrete was poured into the steel-lined base to create the inlet’s foundation, involving the coordination of around 50 mixing trucks across the complex 15-hour pour.

Bolivar’s new inlet is being built to increase the plant’s capacity to receive and process higher projected flow rates of sewage as Adelaide’s population grows.

SA Water’s Senior Manager of Capital Delivery, Peter Seltsikas, said along with the slab pour, the project has achieved a number of other milestones, including delivery of new screens that will be retrofitted on the inlet and act as the plant’s first line of defence, capturing and removing inorganic material.

“We’ve also recently started replacing three of our existing inlet pipes — which transfer raw sewage from across metropolitan Adelaide to the plant — while they remain temporarily connected to the existing inlet structure,” Seltsikas said.

Bolivar’s capacity to receive sewage from the network will more than double to about 630 million litres per day once the new inlet is operational.

A 20-tonne tower crane was deployed next to the inlet’s concrete slab to help crews lift equipment and pipes into place, along with large panels to facilitate concrete form work.

“Once the new inlet is complete, we’ll change the connections over and construct an additional three inlet pipes to accommodate increased flows that will come into the plant as the local population grows,” Seltsikas said.

“Despite ticking off the project’s single largest concrete pour, we anticipate we’ll need a further 1990 cubic metres, with our team now working on forming the concrete roof structure, overflow channels and walls.”

Seltsikas said SA Water hoped to begin installing the inlet’s mechanical equipment in the next few months. This process will involve eight customised screens, major support steel structure and ancillary items such as penstocks and stoplogs that control and isolate the flow of sewage.

To accommodate future projected flows, Bolivar’s capacity to receive sewage from the network will more than double to around 630 million litres per day once the new inlet is operational.

Top image caption: More than 310 cubic metres of concrete was poured into the steel-lined base to create the inlet’s foundation across the 15-hour operation.

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ABB receives EPD status for gearless mill drive ring motor

ABB receives EPD status for gearless mill drive ring motor

ABB has gained Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) status for its Gearless Mill Drive (GMD) ring motor — technology used to drive large grinding mills in the mining industry.

An EPD is a standardised document that provides detailed information about the environmental impact of a product throughout its life cycle. Based on a comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study, the EPD highlights ABB’s commitment to transparency, environmental responsibility and supporting customers in making informed decisions on sustainability in their supply chains.

ABB analysed the environmental impact of a ring motor across its entire life cycle from supply chain and production to usage and end-of-life disposal. The study was conducted for a ring motor of a semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill with an installed power of 24 MW and was based on a reference service life of 25 years.

“Sustainability is at the core of our purpose at ABB, influencing how we operate and innovate for customers,” said Andrea Quinta, Sustainability Specialist at ABB. “By earning the Environmental Product Declaration for our ring motor, we emphasise our environmental stewardship and industry leadership for this technology. We adhered to the highest standards throughout this process, as we do in the ABB Ring Motor factory every day. This recognition highlights to the mining industry what they are bringing into their own operations when they work with ABB.”

The comprehensive LCA was conducted at ABB’s factory in Bilbao, Spain, and was externally verified and published in accordance with international standards ISO 14025 and ISO 14040/14044. It will remain valid for five years.

The ring motor, a key component of the GMD, is a drive system without any gears where the transmission of the torque between the motor and the mill is done through the magnetic field in the air gap between the motor stator and the motor rotor. It optimises grinding applications in the minerals and mining industries by enabling variable-speed operation, leading to energy and cost savings.

The full EPD for the ABB GMD Ring Motor can be viewed on EPD International.

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