OREANDA-NEWS. December 26, 2012. Wartsila, the marine industry’s leading solutions and services provider, announced that their Wartsila AQUARIUS® UV Ballast Water Management System (BWMS) has been granted Type Approval in accordance with requirements of the 2004 IMO Convention for the control and management of ships ballast water and sediments.

This endorses Wartsila’s BWMS market entry and provides ship owners with greater cost effective BWMS technology choice and installation flexibility through its modular design and approach.

Wartsila AQUARIUS® UV BWMS is the first system to have been fully endorsed and type approved by the Flag Administration of the Netherlands and is the result of a focused development program which commenced in 2010. The AQUARIUS® range of BWMS became part of the Wartsila portfolio with the acquisition of Hamworthy plc in January 2012 and further reaffirms the company's commitment to develop environmental solutions for the marine industry. Compliance with the IMO Ballast Water Convention helps protect local ecosystems from the spread of harmful invasive species and gives operational peace of mind to the ship owner operators.

The Wartsila AQUARIUS® UV BWMS is based on a two stage treatment process using proven and validated system components. Upon uptake, seawater is first passed through a back washing screen type filter. The filtered seawater then passes through a UV chamber where ultra-violet light is used to disinfect the water before entering the ballast tank. On discharge, water from the ballast tank is pumped through the UV chamber for a second time to complete the disinfection process prior to discharge. The filter is not used during discharge. The modular approach provides maximum flexibility during system design and installation where key components are positioned to suit available space, a major advantage when considering retrofit projects. Retrofit installations can be carried out either during dry docking, at the quayside or whilst the ship is in operation, thus minimising any impact on ship downtime.

Wartsila provides a complete BWMS turnkey service from concept technical support through ship survey and system design, engineering, project management, procurement, installation, commissioning and a comprehensive global after-sales spares and service support. This ensures the benefit of full lifecycle value from Wartsila, and represents best value in terms of total cost of ownership for the customer.

Working in partnership with the Netherlands’ Flag Administration, independent testing facilities and the Lloyds Register classification society, Wartsila tested and optimised the Wartsila AQUARIUS®UV BWMS during both land based and shipboard trials conducted in accordance with IMO requirements. Land based tests were conducted at the NIOZ (Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research) test facility and ship trials onboard the ‘MV TWISTER’, an LPG carrier owned by Chemgas BV.

“Receiving type approval for the Wartsila AQUARIUS®UV Ballast Water Management System is a significant achievement,” says Dr. Joe Thomas, Director, Wartsila Ballast Water Management Systems. “It has been a real team effort from Wartsila and Hamworthy engineers throughout and I express my sincere thanks to all involved in this project including the Flag Administration, our strategic partners and independent consultants, all of whom have unreservedly devoted their time and skills to secure Type Approval of the Wartsila AQUARIUS®UV within just two years.

Wartsila AQUARIUS®UV is one of three BWMS products available from Wartsila. Technology choice and supply flexibility are fundamental in partnering with customers to assess which technology best meets their needs and to delivering energy and operational efficiencies that ensure minimal total cost of ownership when meeting environmental obligations.

“There is already significant market demand for our BWMS as owners look to prepare their ships ahead of the regulatory implementation. We have secured several new build orders to date and are in advanced discussion with other owners looking to install our BWMS in the near future,” Dr Thomas says.

Wartsila’s range of environmental solutions include exhaust gas cleaning to reduce harmful emissions into the atmosphere, waste water management systems to improve the quality of discharge and inert gas systems to ensure a high level of safety onboard.