renovating (or “refurbishing”) existing plants

The need to satisfy increasing requirements for water of an ever better quality is often met by optimising existing structures, at least when resources are limited and/or the construction of a new plant is not foreseeable in the immediate future.

Clearly, the first task when refurbishing a plant will consist of replacing old, worn equipment and repairing the structures, in order at least to reinstate the plant’s original capacity. When these tasks are carried out, changing the equipment type can improve or facilitate operations (e.g. chemical feed equipment, filter or clarification discharge control valves, flowmeters, etc.).

Alongside these routine reconditioning tasks, other work will be required in order to achieve more ambitious targets: producing treated water in larger quantities (uprating) and/or of better quality in a better performance technical environment (upgrading), compliance with new drinking water standards, reducing costs, etc.

Below is a summary of some refurbishment operations that are frequently included during plant modernisation.