- Barnaby Smeaton, Dr Katie Third & Dr Erik Aslaksen, Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM); Andy Shaw, Black and Veatch
DOWNLOAD CONFERENCE PAPER - 4-barbaby-smeaton
Sustainability can be defined as living off the ‘interest’ of social, environmental and economic assets, rather than consuming the ‘capital’ of these assets. Achieving sustainable outcomes in engineering projects therefore requires assessing the interest and capital of these assets in order to understand how much will be requisitioned by an engineering activity.
Assessing social and environmental parameters, however, involves considering wider, more complex systems, more stakeholders, more variables, variables that are either difficult or impossible to quantify, and longer timeframes. Much of this complexity lies outside the traditional engineering disciplines, therefore understanding these factors and shaping engineering practice to meet them generally requires new approaches, skills and technologies.
In this presentation we present the case for applying systems engineering to engineering projects in order to improve the sustainability outcomes of the project. Systems engineering is a methodology which evolved from industries designing and producing complex systems, such as aviation, defence, and product development. It is suited to multi-disciplinary projects, and integrates decision modelling, innovation and risk management into projects. Systems engineering incorporates a ‘top-down’ approach, which ensures that all the stakeholder requirements and all their complex interdependencies are reflected throughout the detailed development of an engineering project.
In this paper a case study is examined in which systems thinking yielded an improvement in sustainability: the W2W Alliance upgrade of odour control facilities at Woodman Point wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in Western Australia. At Woodman Pt WWTP the largest biological scrubber system in Australia is currently under construction, with biological scrubbers replacing the conventional chemical scrubbers previously used for odour control. This upgrade has resulted in a step-change in the WWTP’s environmental footprint, since a bio-scrubber system consumes up to 95% less chemicals and can use reclaimed effluent (i.e. treated wastewater) in lieu of potable water, yet achieves the same odour removal. Since odour control is the highest consumer of chemicals and potable water for WWTPs with chemical odour control, conversion to a bio-scrubbing system significantly improves the WWTP sustainability.
Woodman Point WWTP is presented as a case study for applying systems engineering methods to engineering projects, demonstrating a possible direction for interpreting sustainability into engineering practice in Australia.
BIOS:
Dr Erik Aslaksen is a Senior Consultant at Sinclair Knight Merz and has worked at the firm for 20 years. His main focus has been on systems engineering and the management of multidisciplinary projects. His skills include requirements management, system architecting, and performance modelling. Erik has experience in the modelling and optimisation of complex systems and processes, extensive experience in both line and project management of research, engineering, and production. Within electronic engineering, he has many years of experience in communications, power electronics and process control. He has worked as a design manager, project manager, independent verifier, and has been the project manager for multi-million dollar EPCM projects, such as the North Parkes E26 Mine project.
Dr Katie Third is a wastewater consultant experienced in development, design, operation and optimisation of industrial and domestic wastewater and sludge treatment systems, with specific expertise in biological nitrogen removal and modelling. Katie also has significant experience in implementation of sustainability into planning, conceptual design and operating strategies for water and wastewater treatment plants, and the translation of high level sustainability principles into tangible tools and outcomes for water infrastructure projects. Katie has worked at SKM for more than three years and has worked previously in the Netherlands, Dutch Caribbean and the USA. She is currently working as part of the W2W Alliance, an alliance between Black & Veatch, Thiess, SKM and Water Corporation, to upgrade Beenyup, Subiaco and Woodman Point WWTPs.
Barnaby Smeaton is a graduate mechanical engineer with three years work experience at SKM. He has previously worked in the vibrations, noise and structural modelling and testing team in SKM, but is now working in general mechanical engineering project management and design work. He has recently begun working in a systems engineering capacity for clients, and worked with the AAO on a concept design for a major international scientific instrument, the Gemini-sponsored Wide Field Multi-Object Spectrograph. Barnaby is working closely with Erik in building a Systems Engineering Community of Practice in SKM.
Andrew is a Process Specialist with Black and Veatch in their Water Technology Group with over 15 years experience carrying out process design and computer modeling for major wastewater treatment facilities. In 2006, he was seconded to the W2W Alliance program of works in Perth, Australia where he helped to develop a comprehensive greenhouse gas model for the metropolitan wastewater treatment facilities. He also helped to carry out several sustainability assessments for various process upgrades. He is part of a team of specialists looking at carbon footprinting as part of Black & Veatch’s Drive for Value on Sustainability.