Damen Shipyards Group is set to unveil a pioneering new mobile ballast water treatment (BWT) unit at the Posidonia exhibition in Athens next week.
The new in-house technology bolsters Damen’s Ballast Water Centre of Excellence, which advises fleet managers on total BWT solutions for retrofits and newbuilds worldwide.
Developed in-house, the fully containerised, mobile Damen InvaSave BWT unit provides ship owners with a cost-effective alternative to retrofitting fixed BWT systems.
Damen has also developed the world’s first mobile treatment vessel to operate in ports and support ship deballasting operations.
The first of these customized Damen barges, fitted with Damen InvaSave units, is now under construction for service in the Dutch ports of Eemshaven and Delfzijl.
This mobile solution treats ballast water only at the point of discharge, in contrast to fixed on-board BWT installations that also need to treat ballast water at intake.
Damen can deliver the system as a separate mobile container, which can be put on board or moved around the port on a truck. Each Damen InvaSave container unit handles 300 m3/h – it’s easy to scale up if required by using multiple container units.
The system has been successfully tested in the challenging waters of the Wadden Sea and the IJsselmeer in the Netherlands and is currently being certified by the Dutch Flag State.
“This is all in-house technology and is very simple to use – essentially it is a plug & play system in one container,” said Gert Jan Oude Egberink, Damen Manager Ballast Water Treatment. “Vessels only need to have a deck connection. Using this mobile treatment unit, owners and operators will be fully compliant with both the IMO and US regulations.”
[mappress] May 28, 2014