COMPLETED

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.

Project title: Electricity Profiling

Project aim: Smoothing Western Water’s electricity profile/shape over its 52 large market sites so that WW can negotiate a better overall tariff for them. This would involve smoothing the loads in a ‘ideal world’ setting and then adjusting the operation of individual sites to ensure that operational requirements are still met (eg: that water tanks are at a specific level at a specific time of the day).

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 2-4 engineering students to work on this project.

Photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jgbinion/4100186134

Project title: Energy Audits and PV Utilisation

Scope:

• Undertake audits of water and waste water treatment plants and identify energy savings
• From the new energy benchmark size the type of PV to supply the treatment plants energy needs
• Create a standard template for Victorian water corporations to undertake this work in-house

Industry partner: North East Water

North East Water (NEW) provides water and sewerage services to 41 localities across the North East Victoria and are one of 12 similar corporations throughout regional Victoria. North Easter Water operates as a retailer that on-sells water from our wholesaler, Goulburn Valley Water (GMW), which manages water storage, delivery and drainage systems involving 70% of Victoria’s stored water. North East Water serves an estimated population of 107,000 people in an area of approximately 20,000 square kilometres. This region extends from Corryong in the east, along the Murray River to Yarrawonga, and south to Benalla and the alpine towns of Bright, Mt. Beauty and Dartmouth.

Students:

We are seeking two engineering students (mechanical/sustainable systems/electrical) for this project.

Photo:https://www.flickr.com/photos/activsolar/8447103163/

Project title: Energy Shedding

Scope:

• Design a risk assessment that can be used by Victorian water corporations on priority equipment or plants to be exposed to energy shedding
• Study the effectiveness of remote shedding from a retailer using the Kwatch controller unit – what did it achieve in cost reductions and did the technology work?
• How does a corporation use the Kwatch controllers spot price notifications to run equipment to capitalise on low price market signals – e.g. could a low price trigger a water treatment plant to run?

Industry partner: North East Water

North East Water (NEW) provides water and sewerage services to 41 localities across the North East Victoria and are one of 12 similar corporations throughout regional Victoria. North Easter Water operates as a retailer that on-sells water from our wholesaler, Goulburn Valley Water (GMW), which manages water storage, delivery and drainage systems involving 70% of Victoria’s stored water. North East Water serves an estimated population of 107,000 people in an area of approximately 20,000 square kilometres. This region extends from Corryong in the east, along the Murray River to Yarrawonga, and south to Benalla and the alpine towns of Bright, Mt. Beauty and Dartmouth.

Students

We are looking for two engineering students for this project.

Project title: Kerbside Organics Processing Feasibility Study

Industry Partner: Macedon Ranges Shore Council

Macedon Ranges Shire Council coordinate community projects with community partners to enhance the look and use of public spaces such as parks, town centres, public and and community buildings. Projects are chosen from community plans, which are developed in the townships by local community members. Council works with local community representatives to ensure the design of any upgrades reflects the community’s views.

Project Background:
The Statewide Waste and Resource Recovery Infrastructure Plan (SWRRIP) identifies the need for a greater number of regionally based organic waste processing facilities to achieve greater diversion from landfill. MRSC’s kerbside collection contractor currently transports organic waste from the kerbside garden bin collection to a composting facility in Stanhope, Victoria. This presents a significant cost to Council and ratepayers. The proposed introduction of FOGO in July 2019 will further increase the volume of organic waste collected at kerbside. A processing facility located within the shire would enable MRSC to manage its own organic waste and generate a usable product (compost) and/or energy.

Project Aim: To investigate the feasibility of a local organics processing facility to manage the shire’s kerbside organic waste.

Project Objectives:
The overarching project objectives are:
• Investigate options for treatment/ processing of kerbside organic waste material (look at case studies, available technologies, etc.)
• Assess feasibility of options within the shire (market analysis, feedstock volumes and suitability, siting and planning requirements, OPEX and CAPEX, products, potential revenues)
• Investigate and secure funding sources
• Produce a useful product and/or energy from FOGO waste material

Project Deliverable:
• Feasibility Study
• Develop a preferred option and business case
• Secure funding through grants programs
• Prepare business case and present to Council

Students:

We are seeking 2 environmental engineering/science students for this project.

Development of a Green Travel Plan for Bundoora Campus

RMIT generates significant travel with 50,000 staff and students travelling almost every day for work and study which affects the social, environmental and economic wellbeing of these communities. One of the key actions in RMIT’s Sustainability Action Plan is to provide opportunities for more sustainable transport for staff and students.

In this proposed project, students will conduct a study on various issues around the subject of staff and student travel, e.g. policy context, current situation and future projections, existing and future road/transport networks, etc., with a focus on Bundoora Campus The project aims to provide a framework that enables and motivates more staff and students to walk, ride and use public transport for work and study related travel.

Deliverables:

Work Method:

• Students are required to attend the kick-off meeting with GSP and the Sustainability Team to fully understand the project requirements. A returned project brief together with a project plan is required after this meeting.
• Students then work on their own and/or under the supervision/instructions of the supervisor to meet the agreed timeline.
• There will be a contact person from RMIT Sustainability Team who helps students with data access or any question/queries regarding the requirements of the project

Desired Students Attributes:

1. Good grasp of statistics, analytical tools.
2. Self-driven and needing little supervision
3. Good research skills

Photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/clintw/5128685205/

Project title: Visualisation of Waste Data from Transfer Stations to Landfill Facilities

Industry partner: Sustainability Victoria (SV)

Sustainability Victoria supports Victorians to be more sustainable in their everyday life; in homes and in jobs, schools and communities and in the systems and infrastructure that support a thriving Victorian economy and lifestyle. SV aims to improve the way Victoria manages its resources and help communities to take action on climate change. SV provide expert advice and guidance in energy, materials and waste. SV conducts research and demonstrate what is possible and inspires people to make sustainable change above and beyond legal requirements.

The aim of this project is to visualise location specific ( weather station) data from the Bureau of Metrology (BOM) on a dashboard to be made  available to the public on the SV website.

The dashboard would display climate data trends such as (examples only):

• Max and min temps ( daily)
• Rainfall maximums and trends per month
• No of days over 30, over 35, over 40 per year per location.

The data is available by download from the BOM in .csv but SV would be keen to look at the possibility of using an API to get this automatically (BOM data is updated daily).

Eligibility:

Analytics/Data Science students and/or IT students

Photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/telstar/2428941689/