RSE Completes Upgrades at Thames Gateway Desalination WTW

RSE were delighted to undertake the design, construction and commissioning works at Thames Gateway Desalination WTW. The Thames Gateway desalination plant recycles the brackish raw water from the River Thames estuary, built to support increased drinking water supply to London during peak demands.

RSE’s scope of works for Thames Water included re-membraning, filter media replacement and an optimisation study, design and implementation for the remineralisation system, to enable regulatory obligations to be met. RSE’s initial involvement commenced in June 2017, when engaged by Thames Water to undertake the replacement of the 800 No. of UF membrane elements.

RSE was most recently engaged in 2020 by SMB JV to undertake the refurbishment of the media filters and the refurbishment, optimisation and commissioning works associated with the remineralisation plant, with the aim of reducing the turbidity levels post dosing to regulatory concentrations.

Following a detailed process review, and investigation of the processes, several improvements were identified and agreed with the client. Specific improvements identified included the following:

• Installation of a lime silo Rotoflo discharge unit and precision metering unit to improve the accuracy of the upfront lime batching.
• New lime batching tank mixers with optimised impellor design to improve lime slurry mixing.
• Installation of specialised static mixers to improve the mixing between the lime slurry and permeate water.
• Redesign of the lime slurry pipework to saturators.
• Installation of saturator sludge blanket detectors to act as an early warning indicator for increasing turbidity levels.
• Improvement to control systems through installation of additional flowmeters.
• Installation of saturator recirculation system to enable consistent flowrates through the saturators.

All mechanical, electrical, process and CAD designs were undertaken in-house by RSE’s Water Technologies team. Additionally, all fabrication, E&M installation and commissioning was facilitated by RSE, except for the mechanical installation of the Rotoflo and precision metering unit, which was enabled by Spirotech. Offsite manufacture was maximised to drive time, financial and carbon efficiencies; with all new stainless-steel pipework fabricated, assembled and tested offsite in our factory conditions, before being installed onsite in modular sections.

Furthermore, RSE subsidiary WES was engaged by SMB JV during 2020-2021 in the refurbishment of existing chemical dosing systems and further safety related installation works at Thames Gateway WTW. WES was responsible for refurbishing and upgrading 22 No. chemical dosing systems, installing 3 No. new 150 metre+ dual contained chemical dosing lines and installing numerous chemical safety screens throughout the site. The overall involvement of WES ensured the works attained compliance with Thames Water’s current Asset Standards.

RSE is proud to play our part in helping SMB JV and Thames Water to rejuvenate this iconic Water Treatment Works and provide greater water supply resilience to our London customers.

RSE can support you with your next water treatment project, please contact [email protected] to enquire.