SubscribeTo supply the high-quality water used in the nuclear reactor cooling system for the new Astute nuclear powered attack submarine, due to launch on June 8th 2007, BAE Systems Submarines at Barrow [Cumbria, UK] has installed a new Rapide Strata Plus 18 water treatment plant from ELGA Process Water.
The new plant, which can supply up to 18m3 per hour of treated water at 0.2µS/cm conductivity, replaces an existing 20-year-old installation which had become unreliable and hard to maintain.
The ELGA equipment was selected after a wide-ranging competitive tendering process, on the basis that it offered the best match for BAE Systems Submarines' technical and budgetary requirements.
The Rapide Strata Plus 18 is a resin-based ion-exchange demineralisation system which incorporates a HIPOL polishing bed to further enhance water quality. It uses ELGA's proven SCION short-cycle regeneration technology, which not only reduces the time needed for regeneration, but also delivers savings of up to 40% on running and effluent costs compared with conventional systems.
ELGA's contract with BAE Systems Submarines included removing the old mixed-bed treatment system and its associated bulk chemical storage, as well as supplying and installing the new plant and new storage tanks for chemicals and regeneration water. ELGA also fitted new instrumentation, along with a new control panel cabled to the existing pumps.
Although the new plant was to be installed in the space occupied by the old one, which meant that installation work could not start until the old plant had been removed, BAE Systems Submarines requested that interruptions to the supply of treated water should be kept to a minimum. Meeting this request was made much easier by the construction of ELGA's Rapide Strata system, which is skid mounted, and which is supplied to site ready assembled and tested.
The smooth running of the project and its timely completion were also greatly facilitated by the close liaison which took place between ELGA and BAE Systems Submarines Site Engineering Services Department, both in the run up to the installation of new plant, and while the work was being carried out.
In practice, it proved possible to complete the work with only two short interruptions to the water supply to allow the new pipework to be cut in. Unfortunately, during one of these interruptions, BAE Systems Submarines had an urgent requirement for treated water.
To address this, ELGA immediately despatched one of its trailer-mounted AQUAMOVE mobile water treatment systems to the site. These modular units can be on the road from ELGA's depot within two hours, day or night, 365 days a year, and are ideally suited for providing short-term cover when fixed plant is out of service because of maintenance or upgrades.
The new Rapide Strata Plus water treatment system at BAE Systems Submarines at Barrow is now fully operational, and is reliably meeting the site's requirements for a continuously available supply of high-quality demineralised water. In addition, its running costs are much lower than those of the system it replaced, and maintenance requirements have also been greatly reduced.
June 2007