Page 12: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (January 2019)

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INSIGHTS: BWMS

William Burroughs is a Senior Principal Engineer at ABS responsible for promoting environmental related services and providing guidance in support of international, national and regional marine environmental regulations.

BWMS ... & the Survey Says ...

ABS has just completed its second comprehensive survey of the shipping industry’s progress towards global compliance with ballast-water regulations, ? nding just over a third of installed management systems (BWMS) to be fully operational.

he survey’s ? ndings, which were supported by a se- ries of workshops in New Orleans, Shanghai, Hong

Kong and Singapore, included feedback from more

T than 60 shipowners and almost 500 ships, including bulk, gas, product, heavy-lift and vehicle carriers, as well as containerships.

Conducted to form an accurate picture of the operation and installation challenges of achieving compliance, the survey in- cluded seven main types of ballast water management systems supplied by approximately 30 different vendors.

Main BWMS technologies included (proportion of response): • Filtration + Side-stream EC + Neutralization (29%) • Filtration + UV Treatment (20.7%) • Ozone Treatment + Neutralization (19.9%) • Filtration + Full Flow (In-line) EC + Neutralization (17.8%) • Full Flow (In-line) EC (7.5%) • Filtration + Chlorination via chemical addition (5%) • Filtration + Deoxygenation (0.2%)

With compliance deadlines on the horizon for

With compliance deadlines on the horizon for many shipown- ers, the study revealed a critical need for owners to start their many shipowners, the study revealed a critical need technology-selection process, and to resist buying BWM sys- for owners to start their technology-selection pro- tems based on initial price alone.

cess, and to resist buying BWM systems based on

Crews need to be trained as early and as thoroughly as possi- ble to lessen dependence on the widely disparate levels of tech- initial price alone.

nical support being offered by the vendors. The ? ndings should encourage shipowners to ensure that at least one company engi- neer is intimately involved in the systems installation process,

Photo: ABS 12 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • JANUARY 2019

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