EnvironmEnt
Zebra mussels are one of the most invasive species found in ballast water
Ballast Water treatment systems: Beating the Bottleneck By planning ahead, ship owners can save time and money
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lanning ahead always pays off both in time and cost savings. Just ask Saga Shipholding, the open-hatch carrier subsidiary of Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK). The company has been planning for the arrival of the Ballast Water Treatment Convention since 2010. “We carried out a planning process from 2010 through 2012 in which we evaluated the ballast water treatment system types available—mechanical, chemical and ultraviolet disinfection,” says Saga Shipholding Technical Manager Nils Otto Bjorhovde. “We found that the ultraviolet system made the most sense for us. From there, we chose three suppliers to take part in a tender process, and Optimarin ended up winning the contract to retrofit all of our vessels.”
The first vessel is not dry docking due to BWT installation. In fact, Saga has planned in advance to avoid such issues. All vessels will be retrofitted during their regularly scheduled dry dockings. Therefore there will be no schedule delays or differentiations as a result of the BWT system retrofits. “This is the main reason for starting early. We can carry out BWT system installations on six to eight vessels per year from now through 2016,” Bjorhovde says. “Our belief is that it will become much more expensive the closer one gets to future BWT regulation installation deadlines. This is in regards to both the equipment itself and the fact that you’d then have to dry dock purely to carry out a retrofit.”
Time of the essence
Optimarin brought Goltens in as its engineering partner on the fleet agreement—and Saga was pleased with this. “We knew Goltens as a trusted partner from other jobs, so we were happy for them to get on board here. When you add in their competitive prices, all of this made it an easy decision for us,” says Bjorhovde. He said that Goltens’ 3D laser scanning of Saga’s fleet was also a large selling point when carrying out retrofits with sister vessels. “Not only does the scanning create huge cost advantages, but it
The contract covered complete BWT systems—including installation, engineering and service agreements—for 24 sophisticated open-hatch bulk carriers. It also built in another important element: time. “We will carry out the first retrofitting of one of our vessels in China in mid-May. Our plan of action is to retrofit all of our vessels with BWT systems from now through 2016,” says Bjorhovde.
An easy decision
September 2013 MARINE LOG 41