Page 71: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 2013)

www.marinelink.com 71Headhunter Completes AET Tankers Install Headhunter, Inc., completed the installa- tion of the company?s Tidalwave HMX sewage treatment plant on the Þ rst of two specially outÞ tted Aframax tankers owned by AET Tanker Holdings of Kua- la Lumpur, Malaysia. AET is a global leader in petroleum shipping with a ß eet of more than 80 vessels. The two Afra- max tankers have been chartered for 20 years to Marine Well Containment Com- pany of Houston, Texas. The Tidalwave HMX systems are USCG-certiÞ ed and BV-approved to IMO MEPC 159(55) standards. They can process up to 50,000 gal. (187 cu. m.) per day and use ß occulants, chemical oxidation, hydro-maceration and patented crossß ow separation tech- niques to destroy inß uent biomass. The six-stage process provides treatment of black and gray water and a sterile efß u-ent for disposal. www.headhunterinc.com ClassNK: AIP for Minimal Ballast Water VLCC Design ClassNK granted AIP (Approval in Prin- ciple) to the MIBS (Minimal Ballast Water Ship) VLCC design developed by Namura Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. in coop-eration with the Shipbuilding Research Centre of Japan. Although the IMO?s Ballast Water Man- agement Convention has yet to enter into force, installation of ballast water treatment systems are already presenting owners with both Þ nancial and technical challenges. Namura?s new MIBS VLCC design, addresses the challenges via the use of a revolutionary new hull form, which greatly reduces the amount of bal-last water necessary for safe operations. The MIBS design reduces the weight of ballast water required in normal ballast conditions by around 65%, paving the way for the use of smaller ballast wa-ter treatment systems and reducing fuel consumption.This new MIBS design builds on a pre-vious Non-Ballast Water Ship (NOBS) design project promoted by the Japan Ship Technology Research Association as part of a Japanese national project under the initiative of Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and sup- ported by Japan Railway Construction, Transport and Technology Agency and The Nippon Foundation, and further de-veloped by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, IHI Marine United (now Japan Marine United), Shipbuilding Research Center of Japan and ClassNK. While the NOBS project succeeded in creating tanker de-signs which could operate without the need for ballast water, the extremely wide hull shape limited its commercial applications. The MIBS design however, incorporates features from the NOBS design with a ß atter bottom and standard breadth hull. This allows for a dramatic reduction in the amount of ballast water needed, while maintaining the dimen-sions of a standard VLCC. www.classnk.or.jp MR #4 (66-74).indd 71MR #4 (66-74).indd 714/2/2013 5:06:05 PM4/2/2013 5:06:05 PM