Greater Wellington’s Water group has won a New Zealand Engineering Excellence Award for its part in developing a groundbreaking chemical process for water treatment.
Com::pass is a software system that predicts the optimum amount of treatment chemical needed for effective water treatment on a continuous basis. This process has helped to reduce GW’s water treatment chemical costs by almost 25%, as well as reducing chemical use and treatment waste disposal volumes to landfill.
Water Supply group manager Chris Laidlow received the award on behalf of GW last Friday (30 November).
The Com::pass system is an innovative use of state of the art analytical instrumentation and traditional process control techniques. It was developed between Greater Wellington’s Water Supply Group, consultants h2ope Ltd and DCM Process Control Ltd. Initial development took place at GW’s Wainuiomata water treatment plant, with GW staff involved in extensive trial work. It is also in use at the Te Marua water treatment plant and with major water suppliers in Australia and the UK. International sales are expected to grow rapidly in the coming year.
Greater Wellington councillor Nigel Wilson said the Award was a further reflection of the superb work being done by GW’s water division.
“Our water group had already won a prestigious IPANZ award earlier this year and this latest award reflects Greater Wellington’s commitment to excellence in supplying most of the region’s water,” said Councillor Wilson.
