Japanese Shipyard Orders CleanBallast

Sumitomo Heavy Industries (SHI-ME) decides for the RWO ballast water treatment system

RWO Marine Water Technology, 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 which will be built for a European 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.

"Besides its very low energy consumption, high product quality and simple system configu-ration, its disinfection performance in low conductivity water without dosing chemicals and no risk of re-growth of organism during voyage are the reasons SHI-ME decided applying CleanBallast," says Akihiko Masutani, Project Manager of SHI-ME.  “In addition, CleanBallast also works in intermittent operation or even in turbid water and has a number of further positive features" he added.  Akihiro Shirai, Deputy General Manager of SHI-ME, says "RWO's long time experience in the marine water treatment business field and its excellent technical background will promise us good future and mutually beneficial relationship." 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, 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. 

Many years of experience in the treatment of water and wastewater on board ships and offshore platforms helped the Bremen company in the development of the modular system, which stands out for its technological reliability, sustainability and economical operating and investment costs. 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.

To date, RWO has received orders for more than 40 CleanBallast systems. By the beginning of May, 32 ballast water treatment units from the Bremen company were already in successful commercial operation. CleanBallast is thus one of the few systems that is type-certified and can demonstrate a long, commercial service life. 
 

Source: RWO GmbH