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Feature 1 | SOUTH KOREA


BWTS companies gear up for big instalment push


Ballast water treatment system (BWTS) manufacturers are in the process of modifying their systems and companies in readiness for what they expect will be a major push to meet new regulations


I


f and when the BWTS regulations are finally ratified by the requisite nations at the IMO the BWTS


manufacturers will be faced with an uphill struggle to fit systems to the global


fleet in time, says one major


BWTS company. A Techcross


spokesman told The


Naval Architect that the company believes: “there will be less than 10 manufacturers that will be eligible [to sell their systems] and there is no way that the BWTS manufacturers will be able to meet that demand.” As a result owners believe that the


deadline for fitting the systems will, necessarily, have to be extended. Techcross established a sister


company, called Lastech, in June this year for the purpose of installing its Electro-Cleen systems which, disinfect ballast water through a process of electro-chlorination. “Lastech will be operational by the


end of this year,” says Techcross who are in the process of recruiting and testing for Lastech. The company has been established especially to retrofit systems. “It means we can offer a full package of the BWTS and fitting to owners”. A second factory could also be opened


with a larger manufacturing capacity, says Techcross, which is in the process of evaluating candidate sites. NK, a Techcross competitor, is also


preparing for a significant increase in the number of orders it gets for its ozone BWTS NK-03 BlueBallast System. Te company has already sold 65 systems to date with a further 13 options and 17 already installed. Tere has already been a significant increase, with the company securing US$10 million in orders in 2010, but that rose significantly to US$70 million by the following year and NK says 2012 orders will top US$95 million.


38 However, NK’s research and


development department is working to reduce the power output necessary to operate its BWTS. The company has already improved the system with a combined compressor and oxygen generator for the three smaller models, handling up to 1,000m3


of ballast water. The combined system has not only


reduced the operating power necessary, but has also reduced the space needed for the BWTS onboard the ship. The company says that: “in the near future all of the BlueBallast System models [in all sizes] will be a single unit instead of many”. According to the company, this will


reduce the installation costs by some 70-80% because the system will be a “plug and play” system that is very easy to install. Meanwhile, Panasia


is seeking


approval for a second BWTS that uses electrolysis to disinfect the water. The company already produces a UV-based system, known as GloEn-Patrol, but the company says that some customers prefer electrolysis systems. Panasia has submitted plans for its latest BWTS to the IMO and it is now awaiting approval for the system. Details of how the BWTS operates


are not yet available, however, Panasia says it is a “smart electrolysis system” and is expected to come to market in around a year’s time. In addition Panasia has further developed its GloEn-Patrol


system


which, in its original form operated with six


filters. The new version,


GloEn-Patrol G2, has a single “multi-caged filter” for BWTSs that disinfect between 1,200-3,000m3 of ballast water and which requires considerably less space than the original system.


Panasia says that it has delivered 82


GloEn-Patrol systems and has contracts for a further 211 BWTS. Te company also highlighted the fact that most owners that have already fitted BWTS are not operating the systems. “Many owners have fitted BWTS to


their newbuildings because it is far more expensive to retrofit BWTS, but owners are not running the systems at the moment because they don’t need to,” explained a Panasia spokeswoman. According to all three BWTS suppliers


owners are reluctant to operate installed BWTSs because it increases the power usage and, thereby, increases fuel consumption. GloEn-Patrol uses around 20kW to process 150m3


/hour. Larger ships


would need to process far larger amounts of water, around 1,500-2,000m3


/hour, but


the company emphasises that this does not mean that the system will use 10 times the power, but Panasia was unwilling to be precise about the power usage of its system. NK is clearer about the BlueBallast


System which uses 38.2kW for a BWTS that processes up to 150m3


/hour. /hour and the


power usage increases through to the largest size which ist says uses 725.4kW in processing up to 4,000m3


to treat 100m3


Techcross says its system uses 1.7kW /hour of normal seawater,


this means that there is no need for supplementary power generation. All the systems will consume some


power and that will add to the cost of operating a vessel, though the amount of consumption from the BWTS would depend on the ship type and the regions that it operates in. However, supplying and fitting the (approximately) 70,000 ships in the global fleet may prove a tall order for the manufacturers who are still having some difficulty persuading owners that the BWTS is coming and that they will need to comply. NA


The Naval Architect October 2012


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