The Smart Water Fund recently announced$2 million in Round 7 grants for seventeen innovative Victorian water projects.
The government grants come as part of the Victorian water industry’s commitment to developing new and innovative ‘next generation’ solutions to water conservation, water recycling and biosolids management.
Melbourne Zoo
The Melbourne Zoo received a government grant to test a new water treatment process to help manage bacteria levels in the Pygmy Hippopotamus pool.
Using novel ‘Silver Water’ technology the Zoo will be able to better manage the quality of the Hippopotamus pool, saving 3.4 million litres of water per year by reducing the frequency of changing display water and saving energy by reducing the need for UV water treatment and gas consumption required to heat a new body of water.
The trial will allow the Zoo to measure the effectiveness of the technology, with a view to expanding its use across the Zoo’s many displays, and complements the extensive water conservation and educational programs already underway.
Grocon – Carlton Brewery
The Fund will also support Grocon’s Pixel project at the former Carlton Brewery site. The Pixel building will be Australia’s first carbon neutral building and the lowest water consuming commercial building in Australia by incorporating a range of innovative features including vacuum flush toilets, a green roof and living wetland areas and an anaerobic digestion blackwater treatment plant.
Other projects to receive government grants include four research projects, to be managed by Water Quality Research Australia, that will investigate new approaches to recycled water quality verification, water treatment processes, residential greywater reuse and small scale desalination technology.
The full list of government grant recipients is detailed below:
| Funding Recipient | Project Description |
| Australian Institute of Refrigeration Air Conditioning and Heating | Research to determine water savings achievable in the commercial and residential sector through the efficient use of evaporative coolers. |
| Melbourne Zoo | Trial to determine the effectiveness of a Silver Water technology within the Pygmy Hippopotamus pool (a 200,000 litre pool) to help manage bacteria levels in this body of water. |
| Grocon – Pixel Building | The project will incorporate a range of innovative water saving technologies in Australia’s first Carbon Neutral Building and the lowest water consuming commercial building in Australia. |
| Australian Water Quality Centre | Research to optimise the foci of an infectivity analytical technique for detection of low numbers of oocysts in recycled waters. |
| Australian Water Quality Centre | Research into the quantification of pathogen removal in activated sludge treatment. |
| Monash University | Research to create a model to better understand potential risks of greywater use around the home. |
| Victoria University | This project proposes to develop and trial a pilot Membrane Distillation process to treat water for reuse in an industrial setting. |
| Ecowise Australia | This project builds on a previous Round 5 project that developed a novel method for microbial source tracking in alternative water supplies. |
| Victoria University | Disposal of brine from the desalination of brackish water is a costly problem for the water industry, especially in inland areas. |
| West Gippsland Healthcare Group | This project aims to demonstrate an improved system for bed pan sanitisation within hospitals. The project aims to reduce water use per cleaning cycle from 45 litres to 14 litres. |
| Tamil Educational Cultural & Charitable Association | Demonstration of an innovative water treatment and harvesting system powered by renewable energy at a Hindu temple. The project will substitute 60% of the temples daily potable water demand. |
| Warragul Linen Service | This project aims to demonstrate a new way to retrofit older water intensive continuous batch washers in a hospital laundry service to become much more water efficient. |
| Wannon Water | A biosolids reuse trial for the production of energy and biochar at the Hamilton Treatment Plant. |
| Tetra Pak Marketing | This project aims to develop and trial a portable de-watering mechanism designed to remove water from milk at the dairy shed on the farm, with the intention to reuse the water for various on-farm uses (as a substitute for potable water). |
| Bio Filtration Systems | This project proposes to install and trial a treatment system at the Kilmore Racing Club that will recycle the water used in the horse washing bays. |
| Curlewis Golf Club | A project to design a sewer mining plant that can produce variable levels of nitrogen in the recycled water to match the seasonal nitrogen demands of the golf course turf. |
| Australian Flat Oyster Company | Managing soils of urban open spaces through automated calcium dosing of recycled water for irrigation. |
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