Author: Nina

Project title: Enhancing Anaerobic Lagoon Performance Industry partner: Rivalea (Australia) Pty. Ltd. is a leading Australian agri-business supplying approximately 20% of the domestic fresh pork market. The company’s headquarters is located in Corowa, NSW and there are piggery operations in Corowa, Albury, Deniliquin, Bendigo and St Arnaud in western Victoria. Rivalea also has stock feed mills and meat processing facilities in Corowa and Laverton, Melbourne. Rivalea’s operations are energy intensive both in the milling of feed, rearing livestock and meat processing operations. The introduction of the Federal Government carbon abatement programs and large increases in energy prices in recent years has incentivized the company to build out its own energy generation plant using farm and plant resources. Rivalea recognizes that biogas generated in the waste water treatment lagoons is a potential source of energy in the operations of the farm and processing facilities.   Project aims:

1. Examine and study the efficiency and operation of anaerobic lagoons at the Huntly Piggery Site.
2. Characterise waste and mass balances for bio-energy production and energy recovery.
3. Analyse lagoon performance using existing data.
4. Explore opportunities to enhance lagoon performance, paying attention to mass balance, carbon, nitrogen, sludge management.
5. Simulate and model lagoon performance- energy mass balance modelling.

Project deliverable:

STUDENT SELECTION:

• 02 Environmental Engineering/Science students

Attributes required include:

• Ability to read and summarise research papers
• Strong analytical skills
• Logical thinker
• Excellent problem solving skills
• Good communication skills

 Skill Set:

• Environmental Engineering
• Microbiology
• Data Analysis Mathematics and Analytics

Industry partner:

Rivalea (Australia) Pty. Ltd. is a leading Australian agri-business supplying approximately 20% of the domestic fresh pork market. The company headquarters is located in Corowa, NSW and there are piggery operations in Corowa, Albury, Deniliquin, Bendigo and St Arnaud in Western Victoria. Rivalea also has stock feed mills and meat processing facilities in Corowa and Laverton, Melbourne. Rivalea’s operations are energy intensive both in the milling of feed, rearing livestock and meat processing operations. The introduction of the Federal Government carbon abatement programs and large increases in energy prices in recent years has incentivized the company to build its own energy generation plant using farm and plant resources. Rivalea recognizes that biogas generated in the waste water treatment lagoons is a potential source of energy in the operations of the farm and processing facilities.

Project aims:

1. To investigate piggery waste and measure lagoon biogas volumes, for Rivalea piggeries in Corowa NSW and Huntly Vic, using historical data.
2. To review waste water treatment processes and assess the potential energy created by production of methane gas and greenhouse gas balance using historical data (2012-2018) such as flow rate, BOD, COD, VFA, pH EC, total solids, rate of conversion of sludge to biogas, rate of replication of biogas bacteria, efficiency of biological processes.

The report generated from this study will make recommendations for:

• A business case to capture biogas and generate electricity at the Huntly piggery.
• Improving greenhouse gas emissions to facilitate a sustainable development of energy supply.
• Biogas data fluxes measured over a period of 6-12 months from a 41 ML anaerobic lagoon that received waste from a  head swine finishing operation.
• Feed type, quality and quantity and animal weights and gains to determine the carbon budget of the facility.
• The influence of temperature on biogas production – summer vs winter biogas production data.

Project deliverables:

Student Selection:

• Environmental engineering/sustainable system students
• Chemical engineering students
• Mathematics analytic/data science students.

Project title: Activated Carbon Filter- Operation Efficiency and Cost Savings

Industry partner: Rivalea (Australia) Pty. Ltd. is a leading Australian agri-business supplying approximately 20% of the domestic fresh pork market. The company is headquarters is located in Corowa, NSW and there are piggery operations in Corowa, Albury, Deniliquin, Bendigo and St Arnaud in western Victoria. Rivalea also has stock feed mills and meat processing facilities in Corowa and Laverton, Melbourne. Rivalea’s operations are energy intensive both in the milling of feed, rearing livestock and meat processing operations. The introduction of the Federal Government carbon abatement programs and large increases in energy prices in recent years has incentivized the company to build out its own energy generation plant using farm and plant resources. Rivalea recognizes that biogas generated in the waste water treatment lagoons is a potential source of energy in the operations of the farm and processing facilities.

Project aims:

1. Identify the chemical and biological mechansims causing the reduction in sulphides from micro-air injection.
2. Identify the optimum percentage mixture of oxygen in biogas to facilitate sulphide removal.
3. Recommend control parameters of mising rations of air to biogas in a covered anaerobic lagoon including safety considerations.

Project deliverables:

Students:

• 02 engineering students (environmental/sustainable systems/engineering management)

IMAGE:https://www.flickr.com/photos/gtzecosan/6593868183/

Project title: Catchment and Water Brine Management

Industry partner: Mandalay Resources operates a gold and antimony mine located in Costerfield, Central Victoria. The operation is spread across two sites. Augusta is the underground site and the processing plant is named Brunswick. The mine’s final product is a concentrate containing approximately 50% antimony and 80 grams per tonne gold. The concentrate is sent to China for processing where the antimony is ultimately used as a fire retardant in plastics and other synthetic materials. Historically antimony was mainly used as an alloying element in the production of munitions. There is currently a workforce of approximately 200 people engaged at the Costerfield mine site. An exploration team is currently working to secure the future of mining at Costerfield.

Project background:

There are two aspects of water management in the mining that are significant: (1) groundwater extracted as a result of mining operations and (2) surface water quantity and quality that can be altered as a result of the development of mining sites.

To improve and understand how water is currently managed water balances can be done for both surface water and ground water based on the last 10 – 20 years rain data in this region and some data available from Mandalay. Variation of ground water table in the aquifer will also depend on wet and dry weather conditions, geological formations, aquifer mobility, etc slow recharge or fast recharge.

Project aims:

The aims of the project are to examine the following issues:

1. Mine drainage water (acid mine drainage or ACMD): this is water drained from the aquifer and infiltration of water that has been pumped out to prevent the mine being flooded while it is actively worked;
2. Effluent from ore refining operations on the site (industrial wastewater effluent produced by initial ore concentration and metal extraction;
3. Post-mine management (a separate project) water infiltration which when flooding an abandoned mine, will flow out to the natural environment.
4. Mining in Costerfield produces a substantial quantity of water and water management is very important in any mining operations. Significant infrastructure investment and energy are required to process water during mining operations. The proposed projects could investigate  best practise options and new ways to manage water on the Costerfield site. How overall water management can be improved considering various technologies for brine processing? What is the most suitable brine concentration stream to be economically attractive? Can salt be recovered from brine, or should be the concentrated brine stream discharge to the poor quality aquifer?
5. Can brine (high salinity waste streams) be turned into a resource that can be used by the company and the community? What are the environmental benefits of treated water and what is the best way to pump it back to the stream (catchment)?
6. Currently there is a trial underway to inject 75-150 Mg/L of filtered water into the aquifer. There are no visible changes to the shallow aquifer. Model and monitor injecting greater volumes of recycled water into the aquifer. What are the benefits? What is the rate of recovery of the aquifer and water tables?
7. Monitoring plan for aquifer-Asses and model antimony signature in aquifer after injection at various intervals- DELWP and EPA. Ten years of data to model with and what happens to water table if mine closes in 1 year, 3 years or 10 years? Modelling of the aquifer under different shut- down conditions?
8. The mine currently has a licence to discharge treated water into the Wappentabe creek, and needs to better understand the environmental benefits of discharging water to the creek, model optimal discharge and flows. What are the community and environmental benefits of returning water to the creek?

Project deliverables:

Students:

• 06 students (environmental science/engineering, sustainable systems, engineering management)

Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/marijkemooy/6817902484/

Project title: Vibration Analysis

Industry partner: Mandalay Resources operates a gold and antimony mine located in Costerfield, Central Victoria. The operation is spread across two sites. Augusta is the underground site and the processing plant is named Brunswick. The mine’s final product is a concentrate containing approximately 50% antimony and 80 grams per tonne gold. The concentrate is sent to China for processing where the antimony is ultimately used as a fire retardant in plastics and other synthetic materials. Historically antimony was mainly used as an alloying element in the production of munitions. There is currently a workforce of approximately 200 people engaged at the Costerfield mine site. An exploration team is currently working to secure the future of mining at Costerfield.

Project aim:

This study proposes to investigate what are the potential short and long terms impacts of tunnelling and explosive charges on the Brunswick processing site? Potential cumulative impact will be also investigated.

The broad scope includes:

1. Model explosive impact on a number of geographical sites in the direction of tunnelling
2. Vibrational impact upon vehicles and humans used to remove materials from tunnelling
3. The specific model could be developed to study various impacts of vibrations on human health, machinery and the environment.

Students:

• 02 mechanical/aerospace/sustainable systems engineering students or engineering management students

IMAGE: https://www.flickr.com/photos/62561162@N00/5179506044

Industry Partner: Bega

Project Background:

The Bega farm lagoon system had its last major upgrade in 1996 as part of a bigger site upgrade (including dryer and WWTP at the factory). The system currently has a Primary lagoon with 3X55kW aerators in it as well as a Secondary lagoon with 2X11kW aerators. Other components of the lagoon system are 3 storage lagoons with a total winter storage capacity of 240MEG. This volume is irrigated to land over the summer period.

On one occasion since the upgrade Bega has had the secondary storage lagoon de-sludged using a dredger (this occurred in 2007). There have been no other remediation works carried out on the lagoon system other than aerator maintenance since then.

The secondary lagoon is currently carrying a large volume of sludge in it from the factory waste streams. This has been verified by sludge mapping conducted on the lagoon approx. 4 years ago.

During the last 5 years site has conducted some testing on the lagoon with the sludge loading in it. This testing includes but is not limited to:

• Sludge mapping of the entire lagoon (this was done 4 years ago.)
• Water sampling monthly testing: BOD, Suspended Solids, Total Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen, pH

Project aim: To conduct research into the current functionality of the system and then workshop potential improvements to ensure that we are treating our wastewater to the best of our ability using the best technology currently available to do so.

(As stated earlier the system Bega currently relies on was installed in 1996 and has worked well, however due to the changing environment and the cost of electricity amongst other things Bega believes that this is a good time to conduct a reality check on the viability of the current treatment practise).

Expected outcomes: The success of the project will be measured on 2 fronts:

1) At the completion of the project Bega will receive comprehensive evidence with one or more researched options providing a breakdown of the quality/financial and environmental benefits.

Bega will receive current state data (energy costs ect) as a result of the RMIT personnel conducting testing to ensure improvements made.

2) RMIT will get to work on a real life industry issue and create a management plan to improve the viability of our wastewater treatment system.

Students:

• 04 environmental engineering/science students

Project title: Study of Suspended Solids in an Anaerobic Digester

Project aim:

• Combining Scada data and laboratory results to generate a ‘live’ view of volatile suspended solids entering the anaerobic digester at Melton; and then
• Combining these figures with biogas generation to map how the digester operates under differing feedstocks. Variables would include for instance: Sludge volume flows; Sludge volatile suspended solids; Biogas volume and quality generated

Industry partner: Western Water

Western Water provides water, sewerage and recycled water services to 61,000 properties with a population of 162,000 across a region of 3,000 square kilometres to the north-west of Melbourne. Since the authority’s establishment 20 years ago, Western Water has seen its service population more than double. This strong growth rate is projected to continue as suburbs around Melton and Sunbury develop over the coming decade. Nearly all towns in the service area now have a secure water supply through provision of alternate supplies to local water. These include interconnection to adjoining supply systems as well as access to Melbourne water.

Students:

We are seeking two environmental engineering students for this project.