in Danish maritime innovation, Bawat is an engineer-driven company with a deep understanding of ballast water treatment challenges. The company’s innovative system has made it a trusted for shipowners, operators and maritime stakeholders. CEO Hummer explained more to Hannah Barnett.
“We can treat all water qualities, because Hummer, CEO. “This sets us apart. It doesn’t a port or with dirty water. Our system always
one time, the water’s treated and it’s compliant. In other systems, to a very large extent, the water needs to be treated and retreated.”
Shifting the landscape
Bawat was established in 2011 with the vision to revolutionise ballast water management through sustainable, simple and cost-effective solutions. The idea was to create an alternate response to the protections established by the Ballast Water Management Convention of 2004.
“Our competitors looked at how water is treated on shore and then converted that into a marine application, we did the complete opposite, we looked at vessel operation and reality and innovated from there,” said Mr Hummer. “That’s how we came up with the innovative idea of using heat.”
The company operates across three core business pillars, all using the same proven heat-based technology. The first is a shipbased BWMS, designed for both newbuilds and retrofits, utilising waste heat from onboard systems. The second is a mobile, containerised BWMS — an adaptable solution ideal for multi-site operations. The third is Bawat BaaS (Ballast as a Service), which enables vessels to have their ballast water treated at onshore port reception facilities.
“The reality is a lot of water being discharged not living up to the discharge criteria set out by the Convention, which is where our third business pillar comes in,” explained Mr Hummer. “Our customers can deliver their untreated ballast water to our port reception facility. We treat it, making sure that the water lives up to
the Convention criteria, and we call that ‘Ballast as a Service.’
“It’s a very innovative approach to the market, and we can do it because we only handle the water once. Other current technologies will not allow for that.”
Bawat is developing a ballast water compliance network across the ports of Northern Europe. The goal is to ensure that vessel operators can run their vessels more efficiently than ever, without lost time due to challenging water conditions or poor water treatment systems.
Showcasing the strength of its technology, in 2023, Bawat provided equipment to test water in the Great Lakes in the US.
The project was of particular significance because the Lakes are where the ballast water challenge originates; zebra mussels having been introduced with ballast water in the 1980s, to the detriment of marine environment and infrastructure.
“Nobody had ever run a good test with known technologies in the Great Lakes,” Mr Hummer said. “Chlorination systems don’t work because of the fresh water. And UV systems don’t work because there’s too much turbidity in the water. There used to be a large test facility for ballast water in the Great Lakes, but it was shut down because no technologies could pass with the local water. But we tested there and were the first technology that ever passed with flying colours.”
Design genius
As part of the second pillar, Bawat has set a new standard in BWMS by offering mobile treatment services. These can occur from a dockside container, through barges or having been temporarily installed on a vessel. The mobile unit is manufactured and built by the esteemed Damen Shipyards from the Netherlands.
“This is a very good example of what Damen can do in terms of scaling up, and what we can do in terms of technology, creating a successful joint venture,” Mr Hummer reflected. “Together, we have brought the solution to market.”
The Bawat technology works completely independently of water quality, with no mechanical filtering or chemicals, and with the highly innovative one-pass method. This allows for a very efficient system.
“There are all kinds of marine infrastructure out there using ballast water that do not, or cannot, have a ballast water system installed,” said Mr Hummer. “They can access our mobile system either as a service, or they can rent a unit. This has opened up a market sector for us, besides the traditional installation of equipment on board vessels.”
The partnership with Damen is also an indication of the company’s international prowess. Bawat is a Copenhagen-based business, stock listed in Sweden, with a global sales network of agents situated in the most relevant maritime hubs across the globe. The simplicity of the product design certainly allows the solution to be applicable worldwide.
“We’re an engineering company,” Mr Hummer said. “All our competitors manufacture equipment. Our model has always been to make sure that our solution is composed of standardised maritime parts. Sometimes customers have bought parts from our competitors, and they feel they need a chemical engineering degree to run it. Our technology features familiar parts that are already on-board vessels.”
Here to stay
It is no surprise that the road to develop such solutions involved plenty of investment into R&D. During that phase, Bawat also explored the possibilities of suffocating invasive species with nitrogen – with some success.
“Then we introduced heat, because we knew that excess heat would take off the bacteria part of the ballast water,”
Mr Hummer explained. “And during those tests, we found out that that heat actually kills everything. In the end, we found that simply by using heat, we had a very efficient killing machine.”
As a company that does none of its own manufacturing, Bawat relies heavily on hardware from suppliers. This means strong and trustworthy relationships throughout the supply chain are absolutely vital for the success of the company.
“Especially in the beginning, we were a company that knew a lot about how to kill things in water, but not a company that had a lot of maritime insight, and that has been part of the innovative adventure for us,” said Mr Hummer. “It has meant we had to work closely with both sub-suppliers and customers to assess their needs. It’s very
important to make sure that it’s a win-win situation for suppliers, for us and for our customers. That is how to build a strong supply chain.”
“I come from a large corporate background, and in this role, I really appreciate being close to our suppliers, our customers and to the market,” said Mr Hummer, in conclusion.
“We are a small company, building with a ‘can do’ attitude. I think that’s very rewarding.
“As a team, we make sure that our clients and the market understand what differentiates us. We are succeeding, we are growing, and we are here to stay.” n
