Techcross Retrofits BWMS in Tanker's Engine Room

Ballast water management system company Techcross said it has installed a BWMS in the engine room of an existing tanker. This installation method, called the “Engine Room Solution”, was patented under the name of Techcross in Korea in 2016 and has been applied only to new ships so far. However, this is the first time it has been applied to an existing ship.

One set of ECS 1000B model was installed on the 50,400 PC tanker owned by Horizon Tankers Limited S.A. (under Target Marine Group), based in Greece, using Techcross’ Engine Room Solution. In general, when a tanker needs to be equipped with a BWMS, it is usually preferred to install an explosion-proof type or to build a separate room on the deck for safety reasons. Techcross said its Engine Room Solution of installation with a non-explosion proof type can help reduce more than 20% of purchasing and installation costs.

By removing the pipes installed for flow measurement during deballasting and leaving only the sampling lines, which makes it possible to achieve an additional cost savings of 2~30% in installation, the company added. Maintenance and operation costs are also reduced in the long-term perspective. 

Techcross said it will apply the same solution to the remaining seven vessels in the Horizon fleet.

The installation case was carried out in close collaboration with Techcross’ Greek engineering partner, Alpha Marine Consulting P.C. at a Chinese repair shipyard, and they are actively promoting similar projects based on this case.