Historical manufacturing activities have resulted in contamination of groundwater beneath Botany Industrial Park (BIP) (NSW). Orica is responsible for managing groundwater contamination and is committed to long-term environmental preservation. Currently, the contaminated groundwaters at Botany are extracted and processed by a groundwater treatment plant (GTP) which consumes gas and electricity equivalent to 2t of CO2e per day, or 12,600t CO2e over the life of the plant. Orica is planning to move away from its energy-intensive treatment plant towards using natural attenuation which relies on (accelerated) biogeochemical processes to degrade chlorinated hydrocarbons (CHCs), the contaminants of concern at this site. This transition will necessitate substantial advances in understanding of chemical and microbiological processes, along with assistance towards mitigating remaining energy inputs. These issues are being addressed by collaboration with UNSW with the key aims of the collaboration being to: i) drive the decarbonisation of the process, ii) provide innovative solutions to on-site reagent generation, iii) deliver critical insight into biogeochemical processes determining contaminant fate. The ToR appointee will join a team of UNSW researchers involved in this collaborative project.
School
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Research Area
Environmental engineering | Contaminated site remediation | Field-scale trial of innovative remediation technologies
Suitable for recognition of Work Integrated Learning (industrial training)?
Yes
- Research environment
- Expected outcomes
- Supervisory team
- Reference material/links
Scientia Professor David Waite and his team are undertaking this collaborative project with support provided by Orica and the Australian Government through the TRaCE Lab to Market programme. The activities of this team range from improving mechanistic understanding of treatment technologies through to field scale trials to validate the viability of these technologies.
- Turn off the GTP at the BIP site (and facilitate this at other sites nationally and internationally) by providing low/clean energy alternatives.
- Develop a low energy alternative to on-site H2O2 production both for use at contaminated sites such as the BIP, but also for other applicable industries.
- Dr James Stening and Dr Olga Bukhteeva (industry supervisors)
Useful reference materials relating to the technologies that will be trialled at BIP include the following: