Australia - Kingaroy

About the Kingaroy Nereda WWTP

The township of Kingaroy is located within the South Burnett region of Queensland, approximately 200km north west of Brisbane.

The challenge

The original wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) was constructed around 1940 and had been upgraded over the years to take into account population increases in the area. The old plant consisted of two primary settlement tanks, two biofilters, two humus tanks, a secondary clarifier, a chlorine contact tank, three lagoons and a final pond, with the purified effluent expelled into the Stuart River. The old plant was outmoded in both capacity and operational efficiency. The upgraded design needed to serve a population equivalent of 11,000.

The solution

Aquatec Maxcon based its treatment solution on Nereda technology and was awarded the contract to construct a new WWTP in mid-2014. The project, that was the inaugural use of aerobic granular biomass technology, in Australia was supported by A$10 million in funding from the Queensland State Government. Nereda technology was selected due to its proven results of achieving lower capital and operating costs than its rivals.

The outcome

The plant has been fully-operational since the summer of 2016. The effluent discharged from the reactor now provides the Kingaroy community with water via recycled water reclamation. During summer up to half of the resultant liquid is reused for sporting fields and a golf course in the vicinity. The process has also significantly improved the quality of effluent released from the plant, benefitting the local environment. The Nereda process offers operational flexibility, as it can be tailored by adjusting its operable parameters to reflect changing conditions. At present, Kingaroy operates at a maximum of 2.6ML a day. Should the town grow another reactor can be installed, but most of the supporting infrastructure is already in place.