Brackish Water Reverse Osmosis

High quality demineralised water is produced from bore water for cooling tower and boiler feed water at a titanium dioxide plant in Kemerton. Initially interested in a hire Reverse Osmosis (RO) plant to supplement the demineralised water supply from its existing Ion Exchange plant, this manufacturer realised the reliability and cost effectiveness of RO compared to ion exchange and decided to increase the requirement to 1,500 m3 /day for a longer hire term to replace an old Ion Exchange system. Prior to completion of the first hire term, the RO hire plant capacity was upgraded to 1,800 m3 /day and extended to a second term. With ongoing service and support by MAK Water, RO proved to be a more efficient and reliable replacement for Ion Exchange and the contract was subsequently extended to a third term with a longer Build Own Operate (BOO) contract.

The Government of Western Australia (WA) Housing Authority manages essential services at Aboriginal communities in the remote outback of WA via the Remote Area Essential Services Program (RAESP). Local Regional Service Providers are engaged by Housing Authority for the delivery of essential services to these communities. The Cosmo Newberry Aboriginal Community potable water supply had nitrate levels that exceeded the health limit, and with a number of MAK Water treatment plants at other aboriginal communities, MAK Water was asked to supply an additional water treatment plant. The client was looking for a fully automated, extremely reliable, low maintenance system, to achieve compliance with the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines (ADWG).

A major Silicon Smelter in Western Australia’s Southwest operates a Reverse Osmosis (RO) plant to produce demineralised water for use in their process. The client commissioned MAK Water to undertake an engineering review of the plant and make recommendations on how to increase the production rate, whilst minimising downtime required for installation of any upgrade.

When a new mining company was planning on restarting operations at an existing gold mine in the Goldfields region of Western Australia, they contacted MAK Water to discuss water treatment options. They required potable quality water for both potable use at the accommodation camp and occasional process use. The available saline bore water needed to be treated to potable quality and they required a simple, fully automated, robust design, using quality equipment to provide a reliable solution, all at a reasonable cost.

Roy Hill is an integrated iron ore mining, rail and port operation. The mine is located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia and the ore is exported through a purpose-built iron ore port facility at Port Hedland. MAK Water was engaged by the Engineering, Procurement, Construction (EPC) contractor to design and construct the potable water treatment plant for the mine site’s non-process infrastructure area. The plant was constructed to project engineering and design specifications, using the project preferred electrical equipment, and supplied with a site-specific vendor drawing and data package. MAK Water provided site installation supervision and commissioning of the plant.

BHP Petroleum needed to secure their supply of potable and construction water. With no access to surface water and isolated from government supplied potable water, desalination was the best solution. MAK Water worked closely with BHP Petroleum, their engineer, and the installation contractor, from concept to commissioning, providing the technical expertise to develop a turnkey solution to meet the project’s water treatment requirements.