AdTech
heads for 5th anniversary at RAAF Amberley
 2009
marks AdTech’s 5th year of treating wastewater
from the Engine Business Unit (EBU) at Australia’s
largest air base, RAAF Amberley in Queensland. EBU
wastewater consists of streams from engine-part washing
baths, backwash water from a conditioning plant and
various solvent tanks.
It contains detergents, solvents, oil and grease as
well as alkaline metal cleaning products and waste
from an NDI (non-destructive inspection) workshop.
This particular stream contains a bright green fluorescent
product used (with x-ray equipment) to check for metal
fatigue in aircraft body and engine parts.
AdTech undertakes service visits roughly every fortnight
with around 20,000 litres treated during each one-day
visit. The treatment can involve traditional processes
like clarification, chemical dosing, separation and collection
of solids and oil water separation. But it is the final
pass through AdTech’s proprietary filtration/adsorption
units that ensures the quality of the treated water continues
to be exceptional. AdTech’s unique filter media
combines the benefits of high permeability with large
surface area adsorption.
New company
licensed to market AdTech sanitation technology
 AdTech
Environmental has formed a new company, AQA
Engineering Pty Ltd, with UK ‘water engineers/entrepreneurs’ Altoriva.
The new company is dedicated to constantly finding
novel ways of saving both precious water and energy… and also saving industry
and government (and therefore communities) from unnecessary
spending on water-related infrastructure.
Previously with Thames Water, the UK team made a name
for themselves saving large amounts of money for companies
in England and Ireland by reassessing both existing
and pending water infrastructure projects. Now spending
time in Australia (Perth and Sydney) and introduced
to AdTech, they quickly saw the benefits of AdTech’s
sewage treatment technology (focused on a product previously
known as ‘Dark Earth’).
AdTech has successfully used this low-cost flocculant
to enhance biological treatment processes and increase
the efficiency, capacity and longevity of urban wastewater
(sewage) treatment plants, as well as the quality of
the treated water. The Altoriva duo recognised existing
benefits such as eliminating odours, improving settleability,
reducing BOD, COD and TSS and protecting the Biomass
from ‘toxic shock’… and they also researched and discovered
further benefits of this amazing product that will
save energy and therefore money.
They predict energy reductions of up to 30% from improvements
such as faster cycle times, reduced maintenance and
savings for both UV treatment and filter backwashing
in STPs. Moreover, they believe there are still more
applications for the product now licensed to AQA Engineering
and re-badged as AQA Black - such
as improving water quality in effluent ponds in the
agricultural and food processing industries and reducing
organics, notably phosphorous, in sensitive receiving
areas.
AQA Black is the subject of a new patent application
and is the first product to be marketed by the new
company. AQA Engineering is now working on a new product
that will enable the use of household ‘grey water’ as ‘black
water’ in toilets, etc. and another device specifically
designed to protect vacuum sensor equipment in sewer
mains from uncontrolled water damage.
For further information, visit: http://www.aqaengineering.com/
Quick
action leads to AdTech treatment record
 An
unexpected deluge of stormwater entering an underground
storage tank at Army Aviation Centre Oakey added to
a contaminated mix of both AFFF residue and aviation
fuel.
When AdTech got the call, staff acted promptly, re-arranging
the Oakey treatment schedule to ensure the AFFF test
could go ahead as planned. A crew was mobilised and
on site within two days and promptly treated the very
large amount of contaminated water through the AdTech
on-site wastewater treatment plant. Amazingly over
half a million litres of wastewater was treated
over a five-day period.
The treated water was sent to irrigation tanks on
the airfield and therefore saved up to 500,000 litres
of bore water that would normally be used to fill these
tanks. To avoid the occurrence of a similar situation
in the future, the underground holding tank at Oakey
has now been plumbed directly to the AdTech wastewater
treatment plant adjacent to the AACO Paint Shop.
Twitter
used to bring water to the world
 On
12 February 2009, over 200 cities all over the world,
from Adelaide here in Australia to Wichita, Kansas
in the U.S., took part in a ‘Twestival’ that brought
together thousands of Twitter users for face-to-face
meets all over the world to raise money for Charity:
Water. Each function raised money to be used
drilling freshwater wells for communities in countries
such as Cote D’Ivoire, Ethiopia and the Democratic
Republic of Congo.
The Twestival was organised entirely online in only
a matter of weeks by volunteers and 100% of the money
raised from the international events went directly
to support Charity: Water projects. It is projected
the final tally will be around the US$250,000 mark.
Raising this money was of course important, but perhaps
even more so was that by rallying together in such
a short time, for a single aim on the same day, the
Twestival brought worldwide public awareness to the
global water crisis. The campaign was a fantastic example
of how the still-evolving concept of social networking
can be successfully used for such a great cause.
Charity: Water is an exceptional organisation founded
by New Yorker, Scott Harrison – a former nightclub
and fashion event promoter. Touched by the poverty
and human suffering he witnessed on a trip to West
Africa, Mr Harrison changed his life, using his own
money to take real action and help where he could.
He chose the lack of safe drinking water as the focal
point of the organisation he founded. Charity:
Water is not about offering grand solutions and billion
dollar schemes, but instead, simple things that work.
Things like freshwater wells, rainwater catchments
and sand filters.
To date the organisation has successfully completed
1,247 water projects, servicing over 650,000 people
in countries throughout Africa as well as in Bangladesh,
Haiti, Honduras and India.
For more information or to see how you can help, go
to: http://www.charitywater.org/
Photo by Scott Harrison, Charity: Water
5th
World Water Forum in Istanbul this month
 Held
every three years, the World Water Forum gathers together
interested parties from every horizon to find sustainable
solutions to the world's daily water challenges.
According to the United Nations Environment Program,
two-thirds of our planet will live in water-stressed
conditions by 2025 if present consumption patterns continue.
With more than 3,000 participating organisations, Forum
attendees will include international Heads of State,
United Nations representatives, parliamentarians, local
government authorities and water professionals, all discussing
how to improve the world's management of water resources.
To find out more click
here
Memorandum
for new World Water Protocol launched by former Soviet
leader
 A
Peace with Water international conference organised
by the World Political Forum took place in the European
Parliament on 12-13 February. It aimed to contribute
to ongoing international negotiations on a post-Kyoto
agreement on climate change for 2013 by proposing a
Memorandum for a World Water Protocol.
Launching the Memorandum in Brussels, Mikhail Gorbachev
in his role as President of The World Political Forum
and of Green Cross International, said the inclusion
of water in global climate talks should be a high priority.
"Water is without no doubt a political problem
and a crisis of development that is unsustainable.
It is part of a global political crisis," Gorbachev
said. Meanwhile, the current global economic crisis
may even act as a catalyst for a new order to help
overcome "our old unsustainable model of
development," he said.
Gorbachev called for clear political leadership on
water, demanding that all nations help the United Nations
to "enshrine the right to water as the most
important human right". Gorbachev’s
memorandum argues that the global water crisis is such,
that profound structural changes to the economic system
and human lifestyles are needed.
It calls for a global political paradigm shift regarding
water and the establishment of a World Water Plan featuring:
- The universal right to water and sanitation, and;
- Acknowledging the universal individual and collective
responsibility regarding safeguarding water for future
generations.
"We cannot save water without instituting
political engineering and promoting the global shared
responsibility towards our common source of life," reads
the memorandum, which also calls for the water protocol
to be integrated into the UN's post-Kyoto agenda
and future agreement.
|
E