Ballast Water Treatment test completed
MARITIME INDUSTRY: DESMI Ocean Guard has successfully completed the land-based test of their Ballast Water Treatment System. The system is now undergoing the shipboard test and is expected to be fully approved and certified early 2012.
The system, comprising 40 micron filtration, low pressure UV radiation and on-site generation of ozone injected into the water stream, has been successfully tested according to IMO requirements in salt as well as fresh water.
Also the power consumption needed fulfilled the expectations and was monitored under real conditions to be less than 11 kWh per 100 m³ treated ballast water. According to their information, it is the first UV ballast water treatment system that has been successfully tested in fresh water according to IMO requirements.
As a result of the experience gained during the land-based test DESMI Ocean Guard A/S can now offer a system which handles both seawater at all salinities and fresh water in accordance with the current requirements.
The test has also shown that the system appears to be able to fulfill the expected future requirements. As the treatment parameters of salt water and fresh water respectively are very different, the system has on-line monitoring of the water salinity and automatically adjusts the treatment means based on the water salinity.
The land-based test and the experience gained from the test in fresh water have led to more patent applications from DESMI Ocean Guard.
DESMI Ocean Guard A/S was established by A.P. Moller – Maersk A/S, DESMI A/S and Skjolstrup & Gronborg ApS. The company is located in Aalborg, Denmark, and focus on development of systems for removal of living organisms from vessels’ ballast water.
It is anticipated that between 50,000 and 70,000 vessels need to install such equipment in the period up to 2019.
Source: DESMI Ocean Guard
