AMIAD - AUSTRALIA & ASIA PACIFIC NEWS - VOLUME 9 - APRIL 2017 December 2017 Vol. 10 | Page 5

Case Study | When the water is not enough
Treatment of raw water as an alternative to drinking water in regional areas.
Background
State governments entice businesses, especially
Food, Beverage, Dairy and Meat companies to
establish processing facilities and factories in
regional locations to be closer to the growers and
farmers, and for the betterment of the local
economies. Essential services, like Power, Gas,
Water and Wastewater may not be in sufficient
supply and these companies have to contribute or
fund the expansion/augmentation of these
services to future proof their business. Recently,
Amiad has designed and constructed several
small to medium size water treatment plants to
produce high quality and even drinking water
quality to regional businesses serving the Food,
Dairy and Meat industry.
An early morning at site in Victoria.
Challenge
When comparing water analyses from various sources with the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines (2011),
a common theme emerges. Most raw water supplies will not comply with guideline values for Turbidity, TSS,
Colour, Aluminium, Iron and Total/Dissolved Organic Carbon. Treating these parameters to drinking water
guideline levels, offers the industries in these geographical areas access to an alternative water supply.
Parameters
Australian Drinking Water
Guidelines 2011
Source (State)
Typical Values
River (TAS)
pH 6.5 – 8.5
Turbidity 5 NTU
(<1 for effective disinfection)
7.9 NTU
TSS
Channel/Dam (VIC) Pipe/Dam (VIC)
7.7 8.4
86 NTU 30 NTU
42 ppm 8 ppm
Colour 15 HU 22 TCU Aluminium 0.2 ppm (A) 0.45 ppm 1.9 ppm
Total Iron 0.3 ppm (A) 0.52 ppm 1.2 ppm
Manganese 0.1 ppm (A), 0.5 ppm (H)
0.01 ppm
TOC/DOC 4.2/3.3 ppm
UVT % 19%
3.6/3.5 ppm
(A) Aesthetic guideline, (H) Health guideline
Solution
Amiad has more than 20 years’ experience with direct filtration systems, which are based on coagulation,
rapid mixing, slow mixing and media filtration. In addition to the direct filtration system, Amiad can add a
GAC (Granular Activated Carbon) system for final polishing, too. Experience has shown that a well-designed
and optimised direct filtration system can offer similar results as clarifiers/settlers and sub-micron
filtration systems. Extraordinary results can be achieved when matching the right coagulant with the right
media, and the right hydraulic capacity.
5 | December  2017