FAQ S Frequently asked questions from our customers. 1. What is a Ballast Water Treatment System? 2. What regulations are guiding ballast water treatment? 3. What is the current state of ratification for the International Maritime organization conventions? 4. Is SeaCURE system IMO/AMS Type Approved? 5. Which type of vessel does SeaCURE suit best? 6. Some ship-owners seem to be reluctant about an investment into ballast water treatment technology at the moment, what are the benefits of investing now instead of postponing the decision? 7. There are various technologies available on the market what are the basic principles and benefits of Evoqua s system? 8. What are the advantages of a system using an active substance (biocide) for treatment of ballast water? 9. A big concern of many ship-owners is an assumed lack of reliability regarding the operational flexibility of existing BWM systems. How effective is SeaCURE in different climate zones and water conditions? 10. What would you recommend to ship-owners as the initial planning steps for investing in a BWM system, what are the first important points to consider?
QUESTION: WHAT IS A BALLAST WATER TREATMENT SYSTEM? ANSWER: Ballast water treatment is the process of treating ships ballast water in order to actively remove, kill and/or inactivate organisms prior to discharge. The shipping industry currently transports over 90% of the world s goods every day. Global trade and commerce is intrinsically linked with the maritime industry through the transport of freight across all the world s oceans and through a vast network of ports. Large vessels require thousands of tons of ballast water to ensure stability and maneuverability, and the environmental impacts of this can be considerable. The transport and exchange of ships ballast water around the globe facilitates the spread of non-native invasive species. These intruders can have a dramatic and damaging effect on the host environment s ecosystem and are often problematic to expel. International legislators have reacted by moving to implement new environmental regulations to prevent the spread of these invasive species by treating ballast water prior to its discharge in a new local. QUESTION: WHAT REGULATIONS ARE GUIDING BALLAST WATER TREATMENT? ANSWER: The current legislation requirements fall primarily within two legislation bodies, those decided by the International Marine Organization (IMO) and those decided by the United States Coast Guard (USCG). The IMO Ballast Water Management Convention was adopted in 2008 (IMO Resolution MEPC.174(58)) and is relevant to all international shipping. In short the convention specifies that all ballasting vessels must have a system in place to treat the water that they uptake in order to kill or inactivate the various organisms contained therein prior to discharge. This means that organisms taken up in ballast water from one location cannot be inadvertently transported to another upon discharge. The legislation consists of two parts, G8 which describes the evaluation, performance, and design of the system and G9 which evaluates the active substance used by the particular system. The IMO Ballast Water Management Convention has yet to be implemented as it requires at least 30 countries representing a minimum of 35% of the global fleet s total tonnage to ratify it. Once that mark is surpassed the convention will be ratified and formally implemented in one year, meaning that vessels will be required to have an approved system in operation from that date. Many manufacturers already offer systems that comply with and have been tested against the IMO standard. However the efficacy of such systems in live working environments cannot always be verified as many systems will not be fully deployed until the convention is ratified. A second Ballast Water legislation has been set out by the United States Coast Guard (USCG) and will apply to all ballasting vessels that wish to operate in United States waters. The legislation is similar to that implemented by IMO but in many ways is more stringent and exacting. Many systems that have been passed as IMO compliant may actually be unable to pass the USCG standard. In particular systems that employ technology to inactivate organisms (rather than kill) may struggle to achieve the USCG standard without significant design and/or increased power consumption changes. Currently the USCG standard is yet to be enforced as few compliant systems are available on the market. Many applicable vessels have extension letters from the USCG allowing them to continue current operations without a treatment system in the interim. However as more systems are undergoing testing and approaching compliance, enforcement of the legislation is expected to come into force sometime in the near future. Ultimately any vessel that intends on operating globally and in US waters will require a system that is compliant to both regulations. As the adoption of both regulations is moving ever nearer, vessel operators need to make contingency plans both for new build ship projects and increasingly with retrofit systems to existing vessels.
QUESTION: WHAT IS THE CURRENT STATE OF RATIFICATION FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MARITIME ORGANIZATION CONVENTIONS? ANSWER: The ratification count has continually moved closer. The IMO obtain an up-to-date analysis on the state of the convention - Click here for the latest details QUESTION: IS SEACURE SYSTEM IMO/AMS TYPE APPROVED? ANSWER: The SeaCURE ballast water treatment system has obtained IMO type approval from German Flag authority in 2014 and Final approval by IMO in 2012. SeaCURE system additionally, has been accepted by the US coast guard as an Alternative Management System (AMS) for all salinities (Freshwater, Brackish & Marine). Evoqua has also started the program to achieve full USCG Type approval. The letter of intent was submitted to USCG in fall 2014. The SeaCURE system is now well underway with USCG testing through the Independent Laboratory NSF. Brackish water testing, was completed in Baltimore USA in 2015, leaving fresh and seawater test to complete in the 2016 biological season QUESTION: WHICH TYPE OF VESSEL DOES SEACURE SUIT BEST? ANSWER: SeaCURE system adopts an Electrochlorination method of disinfection by eliminating organism cells. This method is particularly efficient at treating higher volume flows of ballast water and therefore catering best for larger vessels such as tankers, bulk carriers and container vessels. Additionally, the SeaCURE system s wide operation parameters allow the system to continue to operate effectively in non-optimum water quality as often found in the majority of the world s ports. SeaCURE system is a good choice for vessels that intend to operate in locations with particularly cold, turbid, brackish and/or fresh water types. QUESTION: SOME SHIP-OWNERS SEEM TO BE RELUCTANT ABOUT AN INVESTMENT INTO BALLAST WATER TREATMENT TECHNOLOGY AT THE MOMENT, WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF INVESTING NOW INSTEAD OF POSTPONING THE DECISION? ANSWER: This reticence is primarily due to the fact that the legislation is not yet ratified and that there is still some confusion as to which systems will be compliant to both IMO and USCG standards. Operators do not want to take the plunge if there is a chance that their system will not be sufficient to meet both sets of regulations. Furthermore there are instances where large fleet-level investments have been made for systems that now may not be approved. Clearly the objective is to ensure that any investment is a long term one and that there is no margin of risk. This uncertainty may have caused some owners to delay. There are however several benefits to addressing this topic today rather than tomorrow. Firstly based on the number of vessels that will need to comply with the regulations when they come into force, it is very likely that there will be a high demand for the limited pre-engineering, manufacturing, installation and commissioning resources available. This may create backlogs and result in some vessels actually not being compliant and serviceable in time. For current new-build vessels which will likely have a lifespan of 25+ years, it would be extremely shortsighted not to install a system in the building stage, as the cost and convenience differential of doing this in the first instance as opposed to as a retrofit is considerable
Finally it is clear that the overriding rationale behind the implementation of Ballast Water Treatment legislation is the protection of the marine environment. Owners may have delayed implementation due to the perceived cost implications, however, modern consumers and manufacturers increasingly demand transparent sustainable practice in end to end logistics and supply chain operations, it is often a false economy for freight operators to shun environmental best practice in favor of cost savings. In short it is more pragmatic to install a system now than to wait and see what happens. The proviso being that the said system should be capable of passing both the IMO and USCG standards in order to ensure that the investment remains valid. QUESTION: THERE ARE VARIOUS TECHNOLOGIES AVAILABLE ON THE MARKET WHAT ARE THE BASIC PRINCIPLES AND BENEFITS OF EVOQUA S SYSTEM? ANSWER: Evoqua s SeaCURE system combines filtration with electrochlorination carried out in a side stream configuration. The heart of the system is the electrolytic cells that convert the salt in sea water into the active substance sodium hypochlorite. This technology was developed by Evoqua over 40 years ago and has proven to be reliable and safe in more than 2,500 Chloropac marine growth prevention systems (MGPS) around the world. The electrochlorination method of treating ballast water has some advantages over other technologies as it kills the organisms in the water as opposed to rendering them inactive. This means that systems employing this technology are more likely to be able to fulfil all the regulatory requirements to be fully compliant with IMO and USCG. The side stream configuration of the SeaCURE system has several advantages over full flow electrochlorination systems as only a small percentage of the water is used to create the Sodium Hypochlorite biocide before reinjecting it back into the main flow. This allows a system with a flexible footprint that is easier to install into existing ballast main, is simple to bypass if required, has a lower pressure drop and with a lower flow rate offers superior dose control, which in turn allows for improved power consumption efficiency. Crucially also, a side stream configuration allows for energy efficient ballasting in Fresh and Brackish water through reduced need for stored seawater. A further benefit of SeaCURE system is that the system can be used not only for ballast water treatment, but also for marine growth prevention (MGPS), eliminating the need for additional auxiliary equipment and expensive Cu/Al consumables for that purpose. QUESTION: WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF A SYSTEM USING AN ACTIVE SUBSTANCE (BIOCIDE) FOR TREATMENT OF BALLAST WATER? ANSWER: Sodium hypochlorite has been used as the main disinfectant for drinking water worldwide for over 100 years. It has been proven to be effective and safe and can easily be produced with the SeaCURE system in situ on the ship so that there are no handling requirements or safety concerns for the crew. Unlike in systems that don t use active substances like UV treatment or that make use of short-lived active substances like ozone or radicals, hypochlorite continues to disinfect once the water gets into ballast water tanks. This is the main reason why the SeaCURE system only needs to treat water on uptake and not during discharge as well, like many other systems. Furthermore and as mentioned previously, electrochlorination has some advantages over other technologies in that it kills the organisms in the water as opposed to rendering them inactive. This means that systems employing this technology are potentially more likely to be able to fulfil all the test and regulatory requirements to be fully compliant with the IMO and USCG standards.
QUESTION: A BIG CONCERN OF MANY SHIP-OWNERS IS AN ASSUMED LACK OF RELIABILITY REGARDING THE OPERATIONAL FLEXIBILITY OF EXISTING BWM SYSTEMS. HOW EFFECTIVE IS SEACURE IN DIFFERENT CLIMATE ZONES AND WATER CONDITIONS? ANSWER: The heart of the SeaCURE system is an electrolyzer containing Chloropac concentric tube electrodes. The material composition of the electrodes has been especially chosen to work in all weather conditions. Decades of experience with the Chloropac system in the offshore oil and gas industry show that these electrolyzers perfectly work both in arctic and tropical waters. Land-based and ship-board tests further showed the applicability of the SeaCURE system in all natural salinities. In fact, the SeaCURE system is to date the only commercially available system that passed land-based testing in the Great Lakes of America. In short the majority of the world s ports have less than optimum water quality be that due to salinity, turbidity, pollution or temperature. SeaCURE system has been designed with that fact in mind and thus the operating parameters are wide enough to ensure the system performs wherever the vessel is located. QUESTION: WHAT WOULD YOU RECOMMEND TO SHIP-OWNERS AS THE INITIAL PLANNING STEPS FOR INVESTING IN A BWM SYSTEM, WHAT ARE THE FIRST IMPORTANT POINTS TO CONSIDER? ANSWER: There is more to the topic ballast water than just knowing the capacities of pumps and tanks. The ship owner should be fully familiar with the ballasting pattern of the vessel and the expected routes and ports of call. Specific regulatory requirements and/or port water type and quality may preclude certain system types from being a valid choice for certain vessels Prior to a thorough evaluation of the systems available on the market, the owner should also assess the consequences of a malfunction in the treatment system. Based on this analysis, the owner should determine which kind of technology fits the vessel and which system providers offer systems within that specific technology. With these shortlisted providers an intense dialogue needs to be conducted that should include all topics from installation to lifetime support and ongoing compliance.