Ballast Water Management Systems for Vessels

Abstract

In this chapter we focus on ballast water management systems (BWMS) which are currently in use as well as treatment approaches manufacturers have chosen for the development of future BWMS. The main purpose of this review is to identify the current availability of BWMS technologies worldwide. Until January 2014 we brought together information of 104 different BWMS. To achieve the ballast water discharge standards, different water treatment technologies are used, mostly in combination, and applied in different stages of the ballasting process. In general, the treatment processes can be split in three stages, i.e., pre-treatment, treatment and residual control (neutralisation). Among the 104 BWMS identified, 100 apply their treatment at the uptake, some of those BWMS require also a treatment during ballast water discharge (in-line treatment) and three BWMS apply treatment only during the voyage (in-tank treatment). The majority of BWMS use filtration or a combination of hydrocyclone and filtration as pre-treatment separation step. The dominating treatment processes are to use an active substance, mostly generated on board by electrolysis/electrochlorination. The second most frequent treatment process is UV. BWMS to be installed for operation on vessels need to be type approved by a state. By the writing of this chapter more than 30 BWMS were type approved. It should be noted that the development of BWMS is a very dynamic market with newly proposed BWMS appearing almost on a monthly basis. The chapter also outlines how BWMS are applied on vessels, their capacities and installation requirements, which BWMS were type approved, and what projected global market for BWMS may exist. A recent calculation on the estimated value of the global market for purchasing and installing BWMSs resulted in an estimated turn-over of possibly $50–74 billion. The chapter ends with a list of manufacturers, commercial names of their BWMS, applied treatment technologies used and links to BWMS web pages where available.