Page 47: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 2026)

INSIDE THE ERMA TECH GROUP

Building, Acquiring

Multiple Technologies

ERMA FIRST entered the ballast water market with electrochlorination technology. Today, however, the com- pany stands apart for o? ering one of the industry's broadest treatment port- folios through both internal develop- ment and strategic acquisitions, includ- ing Ecochlor, RWO and oneTANK.

Polychronopolou says that transforma- tion wasn't accidental.

"It was both," she says when asked whether diversi? cation was driven by strategy or market demand. "From the beginning, our strategy was to provide shipowners with the best ballast water management solution for every vessel, not to promote a single technology."

Experience quickly demonstrated that every ship presents a di? erent engineering challenge: available elec- trical power; ballast capacity; crew experience; retro? t constraints trading routes; water quality … the list goes on, and on, and each variable changes the equation. The result is a portfolio designed around applications rather than products.

Electrochlorination remains the backbone of the business through

ERMA FIRST FIT and ERMA FIRST

FLOW, particularly for medium and large commercial vessels. Ecochlor's chlorine dioxide technology ? lls an entirely di? erent niche where electri- cal power is limited or operational ? exibility is paramount. oneTANK ad- dresses compact installations on work- boats, o? shore vessels, tugs and yachts where conventional ballast water sys- tems simply cannot ? t. Meanwhile,

RWO strengthened both engineering capability and the company's electro- chlorination o? ering. Rather than ask- ing owners to adapt to one technology,

ERMA FIRST is adapting technology to the vessel.

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