Ballast water treatment: alternatives to onboard systems

Honesty and respect

And given current concerns on the back of international Covid-19-related lockdowns, there is added value in using an OEM supplier with a robust logistics supply chain and an engineering company that has experience of retrofit installations during these troubled times. The president of the Ballast Water Equipment Manufacturers Association (BEMA) and senior market manager, Hyde Marine, Mark Riggio says: “We have seen a manufacturing hub for ballast filters impacted. Manufacturers across the globe are finding new ways to produce systems, but with less efficiency and speed than before. Now more than ever we need to band together as an industry to meet the challenges that we all face. We need to look our customers in the eye and speak from a place of honesty and respect for each other.”

“One onshore system servicing several vessels, no dry-docking costs and no off-charter losses”

Owners and operators must also act with responsibility: it is critical to engage an experienced engineering firm 18 – 24 months before the IOPP date to start looking at retrofit options. An alternative to the onboard treatment of ballast water in the US involves using municipal fresh water and/or municipal waste-water treatment. But this is largely theoretical: “There are no onshore treatment facilities in the US,” said Ms DiCianna. Other alternatives include the use of mobile systems such as Damen’s InvaSave system or shore- or barge-based containerised systems.

“For PSV/OSV operators whose vessels always call at the same ports, there are large economic and operational advantages with a shore-based solution,” says Danish ballast water treatment supplier Bawat’s chief executive officer Marcus Hummer. “OSV/PSV ballast patterns are such that de-ballasting in almost all cases takes place in the same ports, and thus having a shore-based ballast water treatment facility allows operators to service multiple ships with one treatment plant,” he says.

According to industry sources, a North Sea-based operator is looking to install a shore-based plant in its major ports in Scandinavia and the UK, enabling it to service its entire North Sea fleet from three or four onshore installations. “The plants are containerised and mobile, so should the trade pattern of the OSV/PSV operator change, the treatment plant can be moved as well,” says Mr Hummer.

The economics of the set-up are attractive: one onshore system servicing several vessels, no dry-docking installation costs and no off-charter losses. Minimal retrofit work on the vessels to allow easy connection to the port-based treatment system is a small price to pay in comparison to installing a treatment system on each vessel.

Of those treatment systems that can be utilised in port, the Bawat containerised system uses pasteurisation technology, while Damen InvaSave employs UV technology. Unlike the majority of vessel systems, both only require a single stage of treatment. Neither system requires chemicals and the Bawat system also does away with a filter, avoiding the costs associated with waste disposal.

Access to a port-based system may prove difficult if the system is located on the quayside of a busy port. A solution to this involves mounting a containerised system on a workboat or barge, which can manoeuvre around the port and bring the treatment to the vessel.

Such systems can be used in the US, as shore-side containerised BWTS do not have to be approved by the USCG. Once the ballast water leaves the ship, it is classed as waste-water and subject to local port and jurisdiction rules.

This is the main thrust of the portable system being developed by Glostens, which is developing the oneTank system. Glostens director of research and development Kevin J. Reynolds has been at the forefront of testing the system on several vessels in the US and explains that when oneTank is used on board a ship it is under control of the Master and the ship remains liable for the operation. The oneTank system is reaching the final stages of development and is expected to be launched shortly.