Chesapeake Biological Laboratory News

Maritime Environmental Resource Center will no longer conduct Type Approval Certification testing of ballast water management systems. The Maritime Environment Resource Center (MERC) was established in 2008 by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) to facilitate the development and adoption of Green Ship and Green Port innovations with a primary goal of expanding on over twenty years of research addressing the issues of ballast water invasive species. Invasive species introduction through the release of ship’s ballast water have enormous ecological and economic impacts on coastal waters around the world.

Shipboard testing to be conducted on the vessel APL England as NEI takes the next step towards full USCG Type Approval for its Venturi Oxygen Stripping (VOS) Ballast Water Treatment System. NEI Treatment Systems announced that the container vessel APL England will be used for the shipboard testing phase of their VOS Ballast Water Treatment System (BWTS), to begin in the early summer of 2015. The APL England is a 67.9K DWT container vessel, trading between China and multiple ports on the U.S. West Coast. The vessel utilizes a VOS system operating at 1,250 m3/hr., and was installed seven years ago. The retrofit project was completed as an in-service “riding” installation.

Commercial fleet owners and marine suppliers are preparing for the industry’s first Work Boats Exchange, a hosted buyer event to be held April 9-12 at the Ritz-Carlton Fort Lauderdale. The first-of-its-kind event is not a traditional trade show, but rather a high-level, working business meeting, matching commercial fleet owners with senior-level suppliers, who are seeking to help them operate their businesses more efficiently, according to Robert Ingraham, Chief Executive Officer of Global Exchange Events, organizers of the event. The Exchange will enable fleet owners to sit down across the table in pre-arranged meetings with leading marine suppliers for 20 minutes at a time.

Hyde Marine, Inc., a Lamor Group company, has received final Type Approval for the Hyde Guardian Ballast Water Management System. The Type Approval Certificate has been issued by Lloyd’s Register on behalf of the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency to confirm compliance with guidelines contained in IMO resolution MEPC.174(58). This approval covers the complete range of Hyde Guardian systems with capacities from 60 m3/hr to 6000 m3/hr, allowing Hyde to satisfy the requirements of all vessel types and sizes.

The Delaware River Pilots Association recently contracted with Carey's Diesel to repower a vessel with a pair of Isotta Fraschini marine diesel engines, rated at 550 hp @ 2,400 rpm. This is the third vessel the Pilots Association has chosen to repower using Isotta Fraschini engines. The first Isotta Fraschini repowers were two 56,000-lb. vessels named Wilmington and Delaware. Wilmington's two 8V-72T Detroit Diesel two-cycle, eight cylinder engines were replaced with two V1308T2 MLH Isotta Fraschini four-stroke, V-8 cylinder marine diesel engines. Delaware's two 8V-92 Detroit Diesel two-cycle, eight cylinder engines were replaced with a pair of V1312T2 MLH Isotta Fraschini four-stroke, V-12 cylinder marine diesel engines.

After many months of review and many years of testing, NEI Treatment Systems’ Venturi Oxygen StrippingTM (VOS) ballast water treatment system has been issued a Type Approval Certificate of Ballast Water Management System. The Certification was issued by the Liberian Register, with technical review by the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS). Land-based biological testing was conducted by the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory (CBL) of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. U.S. Federal Government Laboratory. The testing was funded by the U.S. Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as part of the U.S. Program. In 2004, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) finalized the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments…