Osmosis plant for Gloucester CSG plan

A reverse osmosis desalination plant would remove salt from water, which is sucked up from underground coal seams during coal seam gas (CSG) operations.

AGL has conditional approval to sink 100 CSG wells for part one of its Gloucester Gas Project.

A proposal detailing AGL’s strategy to manage produced water will be on display in Gloucester sometime in August, AGL said.

Public submission will be received for four weeks following.

A motivating factor for the osmosis plant came from community feedback concerning water treatment, according to AGL's manager of hydrogeology, John Ross.

Desalinated water will have low levels of salt similar to drinking water and could be used for irrigation purposes, he said.

Salt extracted during osmosis would be disposed of at a “licensed facility”.

“There are so many beneficial uses for the freshwater once it has been desalinated", Mr Ross said.

“Gloucester Shire Council also found this to be the case in their recent produced water Report.

“Our draft strategy proposes that the freshwater can be used for irrigation, however, we are looking at ways to make the water available to third parties in the local area.”

AGL is in the midst of a trial to test an alternate use of produced water at its Gloucester property, Tiedmans, using compost, lime, gypseum and zeolite. The treated water is used to grow crops such as triticale and lucerne.

The Tiedmans trial uses water from exploratory drilling, whereas the proposed osmosis plant would treat water from gas production wells.