Corrosion specialist completes wastewater plant contract

24th April 2015 By: David Oliveira - Creamer Media Staff Writer

Jet Park-based corrosion protection, epoxy flooring, concrete repair and waterproofing company Verni completed a supply and installation contract in September 2014 for the Hannes van Niekerk Wastewater Treatment Plant, in Westonaria, in Gauteng’s West Rand district municipality, applying a variety of corrosion protection products.

Verni technical sales manager Peter Breiting tells Engineering News that the company installed 100 m2 of its Verni-EN FRP lining system in the wastewater treatment plant’s ferric acid storage bund.

Verni-EN FRP is a high-performance epoxy novalac fibreglass-reinforced system, which the company used to protect the concrete bund from the highly corrosive ferric acid that would be placed in the bund.

“We considered every acid protection system individually and it was determined that Verni-EN FRP was the best solution for this particular asset. After all the materials and chemicals – which would be used in the tank – had been considered, it was found that this lining system offered the best long-term corrosion protection and the quickest installation time. It could also be applied with a nonslip finish, which was an important requirement for the stairs leading to the top of the bund,” explains Breiting.

In addition, Verni installed 4 244 m of bandaging, which was used on vertical and horizontal surfaces in various areas of the plant, and about 300 m2 of its Supaflor-EPO SL 1-mm-thick, self-levelling and nonslip epoxy flooring solution in the workshop areas.

Breiting further points out that Verni had to undertake crack repairs on the concrete slabs in the plant before applying the epoxy flooring. The company used its gravity-fed epoxy-based crack filler, Verni-EPO Crack Filler.

Verni is also supplying joint sealants to the Hannes van Niekerk Wastewater Treatment Plant as on-site consumables. “To date, we have sold about 100 polysulphide joint sealant kits to the plant, which are used for jointing and filling any gaps at various points in the system, protecting the various surfaces from the chemicals to which they are exposed,” says Breiting.

He highlights that the sealants come in gun-grade and flow-grade variants, which are used for the vertical and horizontal applications.