Ballast water system targets big bulk carrier sector

The system, which treats ballast water during the voyage rather than on uptake, enables these large vessels to discharge ballast water that is guaranteed to meet the necessary standard when it is offloaded, rather than discharging directly into the sea from their upper wing tanks, as many of these vessels do today.  
The technology does not use filters which, at high pumping rates, can block and cause delay. And treating ballast water during the voyage avoids the risk of re-growth during a long ballast haul, ensuring that discharge standards can always be met.
Coldharbour chief executive, Andrew Marshall, explained that these vessels are often deployed on long-haul routes with a significant risk of organism re-growth because no treatment technology is 100% effective. The company’s in-voyage process, without filters, means that there are no potential problems relating to flow rates, pressure drops, or power consumption during ballast water operations.
“No ballast water treatment system technology is 100% kill effective,” Marshall said. “If treatment is only undertaken during uptake, the few organisms that survive will thrive and multiply over a long ballast voyage in the food-rich, benign environment of the ballast tank. The longer the ballast leg, the greater the risk of significant re-growth, meaning that ballast water could easily fail to meet discharge standards several weeks later.”