Watercare Services Picks Up Engineering Honours

Auckland’s Watercare Services Ltd Picks Up Two Engineering Honours

New Zealand’s largest wastewater treatment plant received two awards at the 2007 New Zealand Engineering Excellence Awards at TE PAPA in Wellington last night.

Watercare Services Ltd’s Mangere plant treats all of Auckland’s wastewater. The firm won the Food, Bioprocess & Chemical and the Mechanical & Manufacturing categories.

Using new technology solutions never used before in New Zealand, consultancy Maunsell Ltd designed and engineered the Biogas Cogeneration Plant which is attached to the wastewater treatment facility. The plan now generates up to 6.776MWe electricity and 8MW(th) hot water from methane gas (biogas) extracted from the digestion process.

Engineering consultancy Maunsell found during research into international best practice that the options currently in use at other wastewater treatment plants fell short of Watercare’s objectives for efficiency, maintenance and overall environmental friendliness. An innovative approach was adopted to introduce new technology solutions that included zero waste methane gas control as well as noise and odour reduction.

“The design and installation of the new plant was complex and the project required considerable creativity and ingenuity”, said David Elms DistFIPENZ, Convenor of the Category Awards judging panel. “Some of the technological solutions had not previously been implemented in New Zealand or had not been integrated in one plant on such a scale anywhere in the world. The use of iron sponge filters, for example, is cutting edge in world terms”.

The third New Zealand Engineering Excellence Awards are the premier awards for New Zealand engineering professionals. The awards are presented in two major areas: Individual Awards, that recognise leadership, entrepreneurship, and our young engineers; and Category Awards, that recognise achievement in the various industry areas, together with a Supreme Award for the best of the Category winners.

The New Zealand Engineering Excellence Awards are hosted by a consortium of five partners and 10 contributing organisations. The partners are: Centre for Advanced Engineering (CAE); Association of Local Government Engineering New Zealand Incorporated (INGENIUM); Electricity Engineers Association of New Zealand (EEA); Association of Consulting Engineers New Zealand (ACENZ); and the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand Inc (IPENZ).

ENDS