DESALINATION PLANT

144 Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite—Leader of the Opposition) (30 September 2008). Why was it necessary to have a pilot scale desalination plant if the desalination plant is 'off-the-shelf' and when will a full scale desalination plant in Adelaide be fully operational?

The Hon. K.A. MAYWALD (Chaffey—Minister for the River Murray, Minister for Water Security): While many of the components may be 'off-the-shelf' items, but each desalination plant is custom built to a local design specification, which is typically a function of feed water quality, product water quality and unit production requirements.

Pilot-scale testing is strongly advised for any large-scale desalination plant. Inadequate pre-treatment, as a result of lack of understanding of water quality, could result in rapid membrane failure. Irreversibly fouling membranes in a small-scale pilot plant is far less costly and provides valuable design information.

Piloting also provides the opportunity to examine the performance of the reverse osmosis system, with respect to water quality. Removal of certain substances of significance (e.g. boron, bromide) is often not easily predicted, so piloting is recommended by membrane manufacturers.

The Adelaide desalination plant is currently expected to be fully operational, in December 2011 at the latest.