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Treatment Process Control

The Sewage Treatment Plant operation is fully automatic.  The sophisticated control scheme is a PLC-based system allowing control and monitoring of the main process parameters. The operator only needs to manually select on a touch screen any of the three modes: summer, winter and dewatering.

The following information is also available on the screen: mimic diagrams of all treatment stages instantaneous status indication for all plant components temperature readings in critical areas wastewater flow measurement: instantaneous and cumulative run timers for all motors alarm indication and history control of all process settings auto/manual/off modes for all Plant equipment. In case of a PLC failure there is provision for manual operation of the plant. The alarm indication has an interface with the Scott Base network.

Odour Control, Ventilation, and Smokey Detection

The wastewater treatment plant is located in close proximity to the Stage 8 ablutions block and this raised a concern for odour control within confined areas. To eliminate/minimize the possibility of exposure of people to foul gases, the following precautions were undertaken:

• all the main treatment stages were designed to be aerobic to minimise the risk of odour
• equipment contacting with raw wastewater and primary solids were enclosed and ventilated
• the air change rate within the treatment plant containers complies with international standards
• continuous hydrogen sulfide detection with alarm indication was provided
• a negative pressure was ensured within the treatment plant containers relative to the ablutions block to eliminate the possibility of backflow of air.

System Operation
Wastewater Treatment System Construction
Installation at Scott Base
Operating Performance
Conclusions