Page 5 - Chemical Technology

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Engineers and scientists
pay attention to challenges by Thoko Majozi
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Weir Minerals Africa is a global
supplier of excellent minerals
solutions, including pumps,
valves, hydrocyclones, wear-
resistant linings, screens, hose,
rubber products and dewatering
products, backed by a superior
technical service which
enables customers to achieve
significant improvements in
their process efficiencies. This
focussed approach provides our
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including optimised performance,
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Weir Minerals Africa prides itself
on providing customers with
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To find out how we can assist you
in achieving the lowest cost of
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contact us on (011) 9292600.
We look forward to being of
service to you.
T he Department of Science and Technology
(DST) recently organized an International
Research Forum (IRT), which was aimed
at bringing leading minds in science together to
tackle challenges that are contemporary in South
Africa and globally. This took place in Cape Town in
August 2012.
The forum was broadly categorized into water
management, aerospace, pharmaceutical, energy
efficiency and waste management sessions, with
each session highlighting challenges and prog-
ress that has thus far been made in science and
engineering to address these. Given my affinity for
water and energy and my understanding of the
challenges that the shortage of these resources
pose to South Africa and beyond, I was drawn
closer to the water management session.
The session on water management technolo-
gies involved four speakers from diverse back-
grounds, albeit within the water management
sector. The first presenter was Graham Trusler
from Digby Wells Environmental, who presented on
water research needs in South Africa. The second
presenter was Martin Pryor from Aveng Water, who
gave the perspective of the infrastructure company
on the value of research, development an innova-
tion. He was followed by Donald Hunter from FFS
Refineries, who gave an overview of technology in
waste oil industry. The last presenter was Henk
Vasmel from Wells and Facilities in Shell’s Global
Innovation and R&D Organization, whose presenta-
tion was on water management in energy.
The key message from all presenters was that
there exists a need for significant investment in
skills, research and technology development within
the water and energy sectors to bring about mean-
ingful and positive change. The inextricable link be-
tween water and energy was strongly emphasized.
In highlighting research needs in South Africa,
acid mine drainage (AMD), fracking and sewage
spillage emerged as the main threats to available
water resources. The solution to these immediate
threats will require an integrated water resource
management approach. The latter should be
founded on reduction of waste at source instead of
traditional end-of-pipe treatment methods. Water-
less sanitation systems were also cited as a viable
candidate solution to water conservation. However,
the design and implementation of these systems
will require a significant number of highly trained
people, which South Africa currently does not have.
The agricultural and urban sectors were
identified as key to water conservation, since they
collectively consume more than 85% of available
water, compared to industry and power generation
that consume 3% and 2%, respectively.
The solid link between water and energy was
emphasized in the presentation on research
initiatives at Shell’s Global Innovation and R&D
Organization. In essence, their holistic and compre-
hensive approach to water management involves
energy as well as food. The rationale is that one
needs water to grow crops that ultimately provide
food. On the other hand, the flow of water from
source to plantations requires energy. As a result,
any water management strategy that excludes food
and energy is bound to be largely unsuccessful.
It is imperative to address the water-energy-food
nexus within the context of a growing world popula-
tion. The current world population is 7 billion and
predicted to peak at 9 billion around 2050. Over
the last few years, Shell has invested more than
US$1 billion in coming up with integrated water
management solutions. Some of the successes
that are worthy of mention include the use of
domestic effluent as make-up for cooling towers in
one of the refineries in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, the
largest zero liquid discharge GTL facility in the world
in Qatar and a 45 000 m3/day reed bed water
treatment plant in Oman.
The issue of fracking was also discussed at
length and it was highlighted that fracking remains
a viable option for cheap energy, particularly if op-
portunities for water recovery are fully exhausted.
Where possible, water could be imported instead of
using local water resources, which has always been
the bone of contention.
There was consensus that a working solution
to water management would invariably require a
comprehensive and an integrated approach. Con-
sequently, all interventions should seek to achieve
this fundamental goal, which mandates a greater
effort towards development of new technologies.
3
Chemical Technology • January 2013
Craig Gelling, product specialist for
hydrocarbon processing at Weir
Minerals Africa