South West Water’s new Mayflower water treatment (WTW) works is due to become operational in autumn 2019, employing what seems to be a novel combination of treatment techniques. Valves and fittings expert AVK has helped specify elements of the project. A press release from the firm points out that September 2020 will mark the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrim Fathers’ intrepid journey from Plymouth to America aboard the Mayflower, and suggests parallels in so far as there is much about the facility that is pioneering.
Located at Roborough, just north of Plymouth, Mayflower WTW uses a combination of suspended ion exchange, inline coagulation and membrane microfiltration to treat the water. It is the first time this combined technology has been used in the United Kingdom. Once it is fully operational the facility will have the capacity to produce up to 90 megalitres (90MLD) of high-quality drinking water every day.
The Mayflower WTW project took over six years from concept to completion, including two years of construction works on site. Over that period the AVK Projects team worked alongside South West Water and consulting engineers to ensure the correct valves were specified on the project. Valve specification was critical in ensuring the flow of water through the process was accurately regulated.
Through its global supply chain, AVK were able to provide a single source of supply across all valve products; AVK products used on the Mayflower WTW project include gate valves, butterfly valves, plug valves and non-return valves. The AVK Projects team also partnered with actuator specialists AUMA and Rotork to supply the specialist actuated valves.
The plug valves on the Mayflower WTW project were located at height. To simplify operational access, the valves were fitted with umbilical cords. The umbilical cords enabled the valves to be operated from ground level thereby eliminating the health and safety complications of working at height.
Mayflower WTW required seven kilometres of pipeline to connect to the existing South West Water mains network, including 1.6 km of pipeline installed using trenchless technologies to minimise impact on ancient woodland.
The AVK response was led by Stuart Montgomery, Water Projects Sales Manager:
“Mayflower was a really exciting and challenging project. It drew on our extensive specialist engineering expertise of our projects team, built up over many years of working on utility projects both in the UK and worldwide. If the treatment technologies used at Mayflower are proved to be cost-effective then I can see them being replicated in other new WTW facilities. AVK Projects will be ideally placed to assist and advise on valve specifications and configuration if this is the case.”
