Alfa Laval Announces PureBallast System at Seatrade Cruise Shipping Conference in Miami
Alfa Laval recently introduced its “PureBallast System,” a fully-automated ballast water treatment system. This newly-released, chemical-free method further strengthens Alfa Laval’s environmentally-friendly reputation, which was solidified with such technological developments as PureBilge, a bilge water treatment system, and PureVent, an air separator that cleans crankcase gas. At a press conference held at the annual Seatrade Cruise Shipping Conference this week in Miami, Alfa Laval provided details of their newest product.
The importance of removing microorganisms from ballast water has been brought to the forefront of the maritime world in the last few years. At the 2nd International Ballast Water Treatment R&D Symposium in July 2003, an IMO (International Maritime Organization) document affirms, “The issue of aquatic invasive species, including the transfer of harmful organisms in ships' ballast water and sediments, is considered to be one of the greatest threats to global marine bio-diversity and ecosystems, and also a significant threat to coastal economies and even public health.” This issue’s significance has been further highlighted by the IMO passing legislation that requires all vessels built in or after 2009 and all vessels by 2016 to have onboard ballast water treatment systems.
The potential market for Alfa Laval’s PureBallast system could be wide, and lucrative. The spread of invasive species, especially in the U.S. Great Lakes, has recently spawned local legislation designed to eliminate this problem. A March 2007 Alfa Laval press release states that the “system is based on AOT (advanced oxidation technology), which is a chemical-free process. The self-cleaning windows of skyscrapers and cars, for example, prevent the growth of organisms through an AOT reaction that occurs when sunlight strikes titanium dioxide.”
According to Alfa Laval, the PureBallast system works much the same way during ballasting and deballasting procedures. Water is treated by at least one Wallenius AOT unit (Alfa Laval’s patented AOT technology developed with Wallenius Water), which contains titanium dioxide catalysts that, when contacted by light, generate hydroxyl radicals. These radicals “break down the cell membrane of microorganisms - without the use of chemicals or the creation of harmful residuals.” After its short “few milliseconds” long life, each radical becomes a water molecule. This process was described as a “from nature to nature” approach by Pauli Kujala, a spokesperson for Alfa Laval at a press conference during the SeaTrade Cruise Shipping Convention in Miami Beach, FL on Wednesday, March 14.
The IMO has stringent on-land and onboard testing guidelines to approve such a system as PureBallast. According to the Alfa Laval press release, the PureBallast system has been tested at the first global ballast water treatment testing site, the NIVA (Norwegian Institute for Water Research) biological laboratory in Oslo, Norway “under the supervision of DNV and in accordance with the adopted IMO guidelines.” The press release further asserts that officials at the NIVA “confirm that PureBallast will meet the IMO discharge standards.”
Because only one system can be tested at a time at this lab and thorough testing takes months, Alfa Laval is arguably leading the race to get ballast water treatment systems approved. The next step, according to Kujala, is for the system to go through the arduous onboard testing process. However, he declared that Alfa Laval expects to have the system completely IMO approved by year’s end “at the latest.”
Although optimistic about IMO approval, when asked about U.S. approval, Kujala stated that the company is in an “ongoing discussion” with the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), but the USCG is not yet prepared to “discuss or test” the system. Kujala forecasted that the IMO will approve the system first and that the US will have to approve it later.
Meanwhile, in the United States, local efforts to limit invasive species have created headaches for shippers. In Michigan, a new law designed to do just that could possibly hurt local maritime commerce. Recently, Michigan became the first state in the nation to require that deep-draft, ocean-going vessels calling at Michigan ports have special ballast permits. The maritime shipping industry has responded by stating that Michigan's already fragile economy will again be rocked if state officials continue with the program.
The new regulations stipulate that vessels planning to discharge ballast must be fitted with approved equipment to treat their ballast discharge. The purpose of the equipment would be to eliminate potential invasive species loaded with the ballast from foreign ports. The equipment could cost in accordance with Michigan state official estimates “hundreds of thousands of dollars to install.” Industry executives say the cost is closer to $1 million per ship, once the cost of the equipment, downtime and other expenses are factored in. Noreen Comerford, Marketing Communications manager for Alfa Laval, told MarEx on Thursday that the cost varies because the shipyard does the installation. It is “labor, material, and site dependent” and “fluctuates from area to area.” The cost of the Alfa Laval unit itself can range from USD $275,000 all the way to $850,000, depending on the size of unit needed by the vessel. But the Michigan DEQ counters by saying that the costs are justified because just one of many invasive species that have been introduced to Michigan’s waters have cost the local economy more than $3 billion over the past decade.
The irony of the situation is that the technology, clearly a promising development in the fight against invasive species, is still not yet approved or mandated by the U.S. Coast Guard. When such equipment is finally agreed upon, it may or may not be for what Michigan is now calling. The end result, according to John Jamian, former acting MARAD Administrator and now the president of Seaway Great Lakes Trade Association (SGLTA), will be that ship operators - reluctant to install expensive equipment until the Coast Guard sets a local standard - will simply circumvent the law by loading and discharging cargoes in other states or worse: Canada, where the business, like so many other offshoring adventures, will simply go overseas.
Jamian’s trade group asked the state to delay the permits for a year, but those pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Jamian said, “In all likelihood, it’s less than 18 months until the Coast Guard will make a decision on codifying a standard solution for the problem of invasive species.” And, he continued, only one of the four technologies being pushed by the state of Michigan has any chance of being part of the final solution. Alfa Laval’s new product might just be the one.