A University of Queensland (UQ) research project to help improve the cost efficiency of the Gold Coast Desalination Plant was launched earlier this month and is now in full swing.
The project will look to identify operational cost efficiencies while maintaining the plant鈥檚 environmental performance , with a key focus on reducing costs during hot standby operation.
Lead researcher , from , said the project aimed to optimise the economic and environmental performance of desalinisation facilities.
鈥淭his research project is quite exciting, as it will allow us for the first time, to combine environmental sensing systems with advanced numerical models to better understand the performance of the plant,鈥� Dr Gibbes said.
The research project was one of 10 innovative desalination research projects announced by , in mid-May.
It forms part of the Australian Government's 's $2.7 million injection to research projects on desalination.
Dr Gibbes said the research project combined the School of Civil Engineering's substantial water resources and environmental engineering expertise with the group's world-class coastal engineering research capacity.
The research team's said he was excited about the offshore deployment of environmental sensors to monitor water quality and hydrodynamic processes.
鈥淐ollecting data in these types of environments and at the level of detail that we have planned, is quite a challenging task,鈥� Dr Grinham said.
鈥淭hat we can now confidently deploy these systems is a great example of the advances that have been made in recent years by water resources and environmental engineering research groups at the University.鈥�
Collaborators of the 微拍福利research project include owner of the Gold Coast Desalination Plant, , international engineering consultant and , which deliver and manage water and wastewater infrastructure.
鈥淲orking closely with these industry partners, we will perform a series of large-scale experiments at the Gold Coast Desalination Plant,鈥� Dr Gibbes said.
The research team includes 微拍福利Coastal Engineering Group's , and .
Dr Callaghan said the project could make fundamental advances in the knowledge of coastal processes.
鈥淎s a result of the data we collect, we hope to make significant progress in our understanding of the mechanisms that drive mixing wave dominated environments,鈥� Dr Callaghan said.
The research project will be completed by June 2014.
Media: Dr Badin Gibbes (b.gibbes@uq.edu.au, +61 7 3365 9151) or Madelene Flanagan (m.flanagan@uq.edu.au, +61 7 3365 8525)
