A 24-YEAR-OLD Swan Brewery project engineer has saved the company 50 million litres of water a year and won himself the Young Engineer of the Year Award.
When Jared Murray joined the brewery 18 months ago he was assigned the task of evaluating why the operation was using so much water.
“I was asked to look at the volumes of water we were using and find out why we use so much water,” Mr Murray said.
“I found an area where we were using perfectly good water and now, instead of city water, we use recycled water.”
He said saving 5,000 kilolitres of water a year had resulted from finding ways above and beyond the existing waste-water treatment plant.
“There are two streams that are produced. Lagoon water that is used to irrigate the golf course and surrounding parks and the second is a solid that is used as fertiliser,” he said.
“But just because we have the plant doesn’t mean that good quality water should simply go there.
“It costs $1 a litre to treat it, plus the average cost of water.
“What I’ve done is, instead of sending good quality water to the waste treatment plant, I’m using it to make up water for the cooling towers and evaporative condensers.”
Mr Murray studied mechanical engineering at UWA and said that, while his design had some environmental outcomes, it was based on a mechanical platform.
