Japanese Shipyard Decides Upon Ballast Water Treatment System

RWO Marine Water Technology (Germany), a part of Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies, has received an order for three of its ballast water treatment systems CleanBallast™ from the Japanese shipyard Sumitomo Heavy Industries Marine & Engineering Co. Ltd. (SHI-ME). The shipyard located in Yokosuka, Japan, has built in excess of 1,300 ships. Specialising in medium-sized tankers with high added value SHI-ME has a reputation in the industry as one of the technology leaders. The ballast water treatment plants of the long-established Bremen company RWO will be installed in 2012 in three Aframax tankers currently being built for a Cypriot shipowner.

The CleanBallast™ ballast water treatment system, with a maximum capacity of 3,000 m³/h, will be equipped with several of RWO’s advanced disinfection systems operating in parallel. This allows the system to cater for differing rates of ballasting and de-ballasting.

"Aside from its very low energy consumption, vibration resistance and high product quality, our system’s option of intermittent operation was the reason why the Japanese shipyard SHI-ME decided for CleanBallast™," says Steffen Schlöricke, RWO Product Manager. “Additionally, CleanBallast™ also works in low conductivity water needing no external additional chemicals for the disinfection," he adds. The shipyard has already signed a letter of intent for two further RWO ballast water treatment plants with discussions for additional ships in the series at an advanced stage.

The fully IMO type-approved CleanBallast™ technology has been developed by RWO since 2003, and has been technologically refined over the years and extensively tested in real-life conditions. Even under extreme situations, such as high sediment concentrations, CleanBallast™ exceeded the IMO test requirements. The design and the testing of the plant under realistic environmental conditions is an essential prerequisite in order to guarantee a rapid and safe intake of ballast water and short times in port. In addition, the efficient removal of the sediments considerably lowers tank cleaning costs and prevents the loss of valuable load capacities.  The CleanBallast™ system, which can operate not only in sea water but also in waters with low salt content, is offered for various capacities and configurations for both for new builds and retrofitting.