Type approval for ballast water treatment system

The approval was issued by DNV on behalf of the Norwegian Maritime Directorate after the successful land-based and shipboard testing in accordance with the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) “Guidelines for approval of BWM Systems (G8)” and DNV rules.
In addition, the electrical components were subjected to DNV’s “Environmental test specification for instrumentation and automation equipment, DNV Standard for Certification No 2.4”. These requirements are more stringent than the IMO requirements and include, for instance, electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), vibration, low temperatures and damp heat testing.
Auramarine CrystalBallast® is a two-step process, with an efficient automatic filter to remove sediment and larger organisms, followed by an intensive medium-pressure UV unit to disinfect and inactivate smaller plankton, bacteria and pathogens. According to Auramarine, the combination of automatic filtration and ultraviolet light based ballast water treatment is likely to become one of the leading technologies, offering considerable benefits compared with other disinfection methods. Filter and UV disinfection is a proven purely physical and chemical-free disinfection process and it is not affected by salinity variations in seawater. Disinfection is fast and ballast water is ready to be discharged immediately after treatment without any by-products.
Ballast water is treated using filter and UV during ballast water intake and re-treated during ballast water discharge through the UV reactor (filter bypassed). Re-treatment during discharge is necessary to eliminate possible re-growth of bacteria in ballast tanks due to cross contamination or incomplete intake disinfection.  Both process steps have been carefully selected to provide a minimal pressure drop over the treatment system and a small and compact installation area.