- Ballast water treatment system manufacturers reveal revolutionary solutions that will positively impact the container market.
- Hyde Marine made the changes to the system in order to acquire type-approval from US Coast Guard (USCG).
- The company’s current systems being used by ship operators can be retrofitted as they have a “defined upgrade path”.
- Container vessels are challenged with short retention times, frequent ballasting and deballasting.
- Trojan Marinex targeting the container feeder vessel market is extremely low power consumer, this is an important consideration for an owner with the higher price of fuel.
- Atlantium’s first Purestream ballast water management system (BWMS) was installed on board a 3,854-TEU container vessel.
- Purestream BWMS system was completed while the vessel was in voyage in lieu of drydocking, thus eliminating the need for downtime.
Major ballast water treatment system manufacturers reveal revolutionary solutions and features that will positively impact the container market, writes Rebecca Moore for an article published in Riviera Maritime Media.
Hyde Marine’s change to GUARDIAN
Hyde Marine senior market manager Mark Riggio said that they have made “truly revolutionary” changes to its GUARDIAN ballast water treatment system.
The company made the changes to the system in order to acquire type-approval from US Coast Guard (USCG).
What are the changes made to the system?
Mr Riggio explained why he says the system is revolutionary!
Approach with power
- The power increased as beneficial as possible.
- Though the power was increased, it was at a lower level than most of the competitors as power is an issue for container ships because of high reefer loading.
- During ballasting, while loading or unloading containers, usually reefers are loaded first; so there are very high power loads as hundreds of reefer containers are being plugged in.
- To address that through the lowest possible power increase, a lot of time was spent for coupling power increase with a change in design philosophy.
Approach with UV systems
“Most UV systems use a minimum intensity level. We took a different approach.” Mr Riggio describes it as “we allow you to move your reading chair close to the light” versus the traditional method of it simply being “bright or not bright enough”.
- It is done by slowing down the flow rate through the UV chamber.
- When the water condition is poor or low, instead of being stuck, the approach allows the user to improve the amount of time organisms are exposed to UV light.
- The elegant system allows treatment to work in murkier waters as now.
- The flow to put through for any water condition is studied. So, without the ship doing anything the flow gets immediately poised at the maximum flow the system can achieve to meet treatment goals.
Updated system under review
The updated treatment system is still under review with the USCG after being submitted in December and Hyde Marine expects the approval to be granted in Q1 or Q2 2020.
Defined upgrade path
He says the company’s current systems being used by ship operators can be retrofitted as they have a “defined upgrade path”.
Hyde Marine regarding Container ship market
Speaking about the container ship market, Riggio said that they were not successful, though the market was important for them. Unfortunately, Hyde Marine struggled in Asia’s newbuilding market as so many Asian shipyards would rather use Asian manufacturers.
The company has carried out around 20 container ship installations. Mr Riggio added that they expect to see a significant impact on the container market with the new technology they are bringing to the market.
The two aspects of the revolutionary system
There are two other aspects that make the updated system revolutionary are :
- The ability to remotely access the system
- The ease of use.
The ability to remotely access the system
According to Mr Riggio –
- A completely automated and remote interface for the system is built and designed.
- Can remotely operate and troubleshoot the system.
- Provide monthly and quarterly updates for owners to know how much it is operating, and if they are running low on anything.
- Can troubleshoot while the vessel is underway so we can arrive at port with the parts they need.
- Creates the ability to react to issues before the vessel comes into port.
The ease of use
- The ballast water treatment systems are no more difficult to operate than the ballast pump itself.
- The user interface is redesigned to be much more intuitive.
- Everything is resident in the software, so no valves are needed to be independently operated – crew push the button and walk away and when it is finished, they press stop.
Trojan Marinex targeting feeders
Trojan Marinex is targeting the container feeder vessel market in Europe. Trojan Marinex product specialist Andrew Daley says “This market in particular is very important to us. The retrofit market is really starting to move forward in this sector.”
The vessels for which ballast water systems were not considered at the time, need something small that fits with the existing power infrastructure of the vessel now.
- The Trojan Marinex BWTS meets these needs very well.
- The Marinex system has a small footprint and very low power requirements, allowing it to fit into the vessel’s existing infrastructure.
- This is a very important factor for many owners.
He adds “We are an extremely low power consumer, this is an important consideration for an owner with the higher price of fuel – they do not want to bring on another genset.”
Trojan’s 2 launches
Trojan has two important new launches that help further ease retrofits and free up space. In late 2019, Trojan’s Inline Lamp Driver was approved for hazardous zones. “Conventional UV requires large electrical cabinets with purge and pressure systems. These are demanding on the vessel’s infrastructure. With the InLine Lamp Driver, this requirement is eliminated,” says Mr Daley.
Improvements into the company’s product suite continue into 2020 as it is launching a single control and power cabinet. Mr Daley explains “This further supports simple installation and reduces the complexity with electrical interconnections.”
Atlantium Technologies Ballast water
Atlantium’s first Purestream ballast water management system (BWMS) was installed on board a 3,854-TEU container vessel — Zim Qingdao. It is in the shipboard testing phase to acquire IMO and USCG type-approval withLloyd’s Register as the independent laboratory and Niva as the test facility.
Downtime eliminated
Atlantium Technologies chief technical officer Ytzhak Rozenberg said that the installation of the Purestream BWMS system was completed while the vessel was in voyage in lieu of drydocking, thus eliminating the need for downtime. The easy to operate system has minimal to no interference with the vessel’s normal operation.
Test results
“Initial shipboard testing results have shown little to no organisms in the discharge water, indicating a robust Purestream system design that has easily integrated into the vessel and its unique ballast water system while providing treatment to meet the IMO BWMS Code and the USCG Ballast Water Discharge Standard.”
Other orders
- Based on the initial success of the shipboard testing, ZIM has ordered another system for an additional vessel.
- Atlantium will provide another turnkey project.
- The Purestream complete solution is inclusive of
- 3D and engineering services,
- documentation generation for class approval,
- manufacturing of all piping,
- platforms and support,
- wiring,
- adding indicators to the existing valves to record any bypass, and
- complete system installation, integration and commissioning.
Atlantium is the single point of contact
Mr Rozenberg singles out that this is important because it allows Atlantium to be a single point of contact for the ballast solution and minimises the owner’s risk of not meeting the biological acceptance test.
Atlantium’s Purestream systems
- Purestream is an advanced UV ballast water management technology that is a non-chemical, environmentally friendly solution based on a 20-micron screen filter and a proprietary medium pressure UV system.
- Purestream systems are designed to treat 100–1,500 m3/h of fresh, brackish or seawater and are validated to operate at minimum retention times (≤ 24 hours) following treatment of 100% of the maximum flow under difficult water conditions with UV transmittance as low as 40% UVT.
Challenges with container market
Speaking about container market challenges and considerations, Mr Rozenberg says “Container vessels are challenged with short retention times, frequent ballasting and deballasting, and varying water quality since some of the harbours contain very bad water.”
Atlantium’s Purestream BWMS is designed to limit the operational restrictions of the ballast process by enabling the treatment of the worst water conditions with minimal to no retention time restrictions. This is accomplished using a unique approach to fully automate control, minimising restrictions on the flow and enhancing the filter backwash mechanisms to prevent filter clogging.
BIO-UV Group busy with container market
- Among several targeted market segments, BIO-UV Group is busy within the container ship market providing its solution across a range of newbuilds and retrofits.
- One of its major clients, for newbuilds and retrofits, is CMA CGM, where it is providing ballast water treatment systems for the French carrier’s 22,000-TEU LNG dual-fuelled newbuilds.
BIO-UV Group business director Xavier Deval says, “Our systems are interesting for container ships because this flowrate market segment perfectly suits our UV technology. Also, the main focus of container ships at port is to carry out operations, loading and unloading containers. Crew do not want to have problems with the ballast water treatment system, they want to have transparency, reliability and a peace-of-mind system. As our system is integrated into the ships operations, the automation system it is very easy to operate. Maintenance is also simple, there are no large parts to change, the opex is limited, it is a chemical-free solution with a competitive capex.”
Low sulphur cap impact
Commenting on current industry issues, Mr Deval highlights the impact of the 2020 low sulphur cap.
“Supply of ballast water solutions has been affected by the fitting of scrubbers in 2019 and 2020. Some shipowners are using drydock to install both scrubber and ballast water treatment systems at the same time and some of them are more reluctant about the investment [for a ballast treatment system] due to scrubbers. But one way or another, they cover ballast water.”
Bottlenecks in shipyards
Singling out the issues of bottlenecks in the shipyard due to scrubber retrofit work, he says “It is a concern for the owner and yard. We ask shipowners to confirm their needs with makers to be sure systems will be delivered on time allowing smooth installation and operation. Anticipation is a key word and we are working on inventory to have units ready for departure.”
BIO-UV Group agreement
In January 2020 BIO-UV Group made an agreement with Hai Cheung Trading, a specialist marine equipment supplier based in Hong Kong. The strategic alliance between France-based BIO-UV Group and Hai Cheung Trading (HCT) of Hong Kong aims to reinforce the commercial rollout of the company’s BIO-SEA ballast water treatment system across Asia.
Under the new agreement, BIO-UV Group will be able to draw on HCT’s extensive network of Chinese shipyards to accelerate the take-up of BIO-SEA systems across the region, strengthening the company’s presence in Asia.
Mr Deval says the new deal means the BIO-UV Group is “closer to the market in Asia and can react faster.”
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Source: Riviera Maritime Media
