BALLAST WATER

Shipowners need a partnership-based approach to navigate ballast water bottlenecks, says

Henrik Krull of De Nora

BYPASSING THE BOTTLENECKS

Henrik Krull Area Sales Manager, De Nora

It is often said that shipping is a regulation-driven industry. A complex patchwork of rules across multiple jurisdictions has always created difficulties for shipowners. Ballast water regulations are no exception, with two separate regimes that dictate two different standards and processes for the proper treatment of ballast water.

Compliance adds costs, which can be considerable; shipowners must make significant investments in new ballast water management systems (BWMS) for their vessels, as well on crew training and administration. Non-compliance could cost far more in fines, vessel detentions, and potential legal action.

Navigating ballast water implementation is set to be difficult enough for shipowners, especially as deadlines for implementation get closer.

Suppliers need to be able to provide comprehensive support and flexibility, to help shipowners manage complex compliance logistics. BOTTLENECKS ARE GROWING

All newbuild ships must install a BWMS today and existing ships have been required to install a BWMS at their next survey since 2019 before final implementation in 2024. There are currently tens of thousands of vessels trading without a BWMS installed and the vast majority of these will be retrofitted over the coming years.

These timelines, embedded in global regulations, were always going to cause a peak in demand as owners rush to achieve compliance. Even before the covid-19 pandemic, we were expecting to see bottlenecks in the run up to the final implementation of the D-2.

The pandemic, along with its side effects in the industry, has made all these factors more extreme; some suppliers have faced persistent supply chain disruption and a significant number of vessels have seen their dry docks relocated, cancelled, or postponed. This makes it even more complex to secure and install a system on time.

Even after installing a system, problems

may persist. These bottlenecks may leave some suppliers unable to provide spare parts and maintenance services quickly and create costly extra delays for shipowners.

MAKING THE RIGHT CHOICES

Bottlenecks highlight the importance of thoroughly planning ballast water compliance in advance. Not only does it make it harder to secure a system by a ship’s deadline, it makes it harder to make sure that a ship will achieve long-term, cost-effective operational compliance.

Installing the wrong BWMS on a vessel could have long term consequences. Shipowners must make significant investments, expecting a compliant system to be operationally efficient as well; repeated treatment failures, unexpected maintenance or excess operational expenditure could have a real impact on the commercial value of the vessel.

To combat this, shipowners should consider a vessel’s specifics and the design configuration of a prospective BWMS.

A well-designed BWMS prioritises both treatment quality and operability for crews. It will comfortably meet both the United States Coast Guard and International Maritime Organization treatment standards, in a wide range of water conditions and deliver that treatment in an energy efficient way.

Owners must also account the specific parameters of a vessel and the trade it is intended for in their decision making. This includes water quality , as well as the treatment rated capacity and will usually require bespoke testing.

For example, a UV system may deliver better cost-efficiency for smaller treatment-rated capacity vessels – including vessels that regularly ballast in ports with low salinity water. However, UV systems can struggle to treat high turbidity water to the proper standard at the nominal flow rate.

Similarly, an electrochlorination (EC) system will usually be more practical and deliver lower long-term costs for a larger ship. For these vessels, slipstream EC systems deliver a flexible footprint and can efficiently treat large ballast capacities at low power consumption requirements.

SUPPLIERS MUST ACT AS PARTNERS

Given these challenges, it is more important than ever that BWMS suppliers work consultatively with shipowners throughout the installation process and operation of their systems.

As shipowners must now plan further ahead, working closely with flexible suppliers who act as trusted partners delivers even more value. By supplying honest and thorough guidance, a supplier can help a shipowner to properly assess the applicability of a system.

This approach extends to ensuring that technical support is delivered to the right place at the right time and by the best team. Alongside a partnershipdriven approach, this requires that suppliers expand production capacity, to create more agile and responsive supply chains.

De Nora has always taken a qualityfirst approach, both to our systems and to our service. The recent acquisition of Hyde Marine means that De Nora is now able to supply the leading Hyde Guardian UV based BWMS alongside the Balpure slip-stream EC system. This is already allowing us to simplify these processes and identify efficiencies in production and service support. Eventually this will lead to an even more streamlined experience for shipowners.

Bottlenecks are set to create new challenges for makers and shipowners. Service and flexibility are set to add more and more value to shipowners, and suppliers must be ready to deliver on this promise. This will require work and suppliers who have already started this process will be best placed to deliver.

With regulations relating to ballast water already in place, how the industry goes forward with implementation is key and there are a number of options on the table relating both to funding and implementation

WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP

Damen, which has a wide range of ballast water treatment systems, has signed up Erma First to supply the world’s smallest system, oneTANK. This uses chemical injection to clean vessels’ ballast water.

Damen Green Solutions systems offer shipowners various capacities and techniques in treating their ballast water. With the addition of oneTANK, Damen can provide clients with a solution that is not only small, but also modular. This modularity will be particularly important in Damen’s first project with Erma First, where the client was looking for a plug-and-play ballast water treatment product that could be placed on the deck of its vessel.

“Our client needed a temporary ballast water treatment solution for quite an old vessel,” explains Damen sales manager, Rutger van Dam. “Erma First’s oneTANK is small enough to be housed in a 20ft container. This means that installation will be quite straightforward and, more importantly, at the end of the vessel’s operational life, the whole system can be removed and installed on another vessel.”

The contract is important to Damen because it broadens the scope of ballast water treatment products that it can offer its clients. “We have different systems available from various manufacturers. We know the pros and cons of all these systems. They have varying capacities and use different techniques: UV, filtration, electrolysis, and now chemical injection. Whatever the client requires, we have the knowledge and experience in house to offer exactly what our they are looking for.”

To treat a vessel’s ballast water, the fully-certified Erma First oneTANK uses an 8.25% or 12.5% sodium hypochlorite and 30% sodium thiosulfate solution, with both chemicals being neutralised after use. “For owners working with workboats, superyachts and pontoons (smaller vessels) that are not dependent on frequent ballast operations, oneTANK is a great solution,” continues Van Dam.

OneTANK is a small scale innovative, lowcost, fully automated, International Maritime

Organization Revised G8 Code and United States Coast Guard compliant system. Also, its mixing technology is developed and patented by the US Geological Survey.

“The oneTANK system is a game-changer for all size and type of vessels with space limitations, struggling to comply with stringent ballast water regulations. Hence, oneTANK is the ultimate solution for larger vessels’ aftpeak tanks as well as for smaller vessels, such as workboats, tugboats, semi-submersibles, fishing vessels and superyachts” says Konstantinos Dimopoulos, international sales manager.

OneTANK been tested to demonstrate removal of viable aquatic invasive species, it also ensures that residual chemical levels are environmentally friendly. The technology has undertaken significant testing for disinfection by-products in accordance with guidance from the International Maritime Organization.

Dimopoulos says: “A small, simple system, it is also a sustainable system. oneTANK uses no exotic materials, no filtration, no transformers or rectifiers. At the end of its life, the system is fully recyclable.”

Erma First business development manager and president of HemExpo, Eleni Polychronopoulou, says: “We are very happy to be working with Damen on this project. We will support their client with our extensive knowledge of ballast water treatment systems wherever we can.

“Furthermore, such industrial participation is a key part of the modern shipbuilding industry. May this cooperation be a sign of things to come.”

Throughout the world, Damen has been involved in national shipbuilding projects that have combined its own shipbuilding expertise with the capabilities of local industries and workforce.

“We don’t just build ships in our own yards – we can also help our clients build their vessels in the yard of their choice in collaboration with its local industry,” says Damen’s industrial participation manager, Marijke Winiarski. “Contracts like this with Erma First are an example of Damen’s approach towards the involvement of local industries in our projects, paving the way for local companies to benefit from its international opportunities, while simultaneously helping Damen to develop new partnerships, such as this one with Erma First.”

INDUSTRY ASSISTANCE

Wavefront Leasing has set up a fund to finance ballast water management systems. Assistance includes providing financial support to industry players to ensure they comply with International Maritime Organization and US Coast Guard requirements and the company can also offer thirdparty finance to enable companies to finance the investment in BWMS.