Western Water is seeking tenders for the design, supply, installation, construction, testing, commissioning and performance testing of a new Waste to Energy (WtE) facility which will be developed and integrated within the Melton Recycled Water Plant (RWP).

The current Melton RWP treatment process consists of inlet works, primary sedimentation tanks, secondary treatment with bioreactors and secondary sedimentation tanks configured for a Modified Ludzack-Ettinger (MLE) process, followed by disc filtration and a series of maturation and storage lagoons (Class C effluent) or the membrane treatment plant (Class A effluent). The treated wastewater effluent produced by the plant (Class A or Class C) is either supplied to customers through the recycled water network or discharged to Jacksons Creek.

The primary and secondary sludge streams are thickened and anaerobically digested. Anaerobically digested biosolids from the Melton RWP are currently dewatered on site using a belt filter press. A project is underway to install a new dewatering centrifuge to dewater digested sludge. The belt filter press will remain as a standby unit. Dewatered biosolids are transferred by conveyor and discharged into a trailer. The trailer is removed by a tractor when it is full and the biosolids are transferred to adjacent land for further drying in windrows prior to beneficial reuse.

The intention of this project is to deliver a new WtE Facility, consisting of a liquid waste receiving station, storage tanks and transfer system to feed the waste to the existing 3.2 ML anaerobic digester currently being commissioned on site. This system will have the capacity to:
* process liquid waste supplies from Western Water waste supply contractors
* complete required pre-treatment of waste, and
* transfer waste to the anaerobic digestion process.