April 07, 2008
Hitachi Plant Technologies, Ltd
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd
Coagulation and Magnetic Separation Technology “Hitachi Ballast Water Purification
System” Obtained Basic Approval from IMO and Will Start Shipboard Testing
Tokyo, Japan, April 7, 2008 --- Hitachi Plant Technologies, Ltd. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. announced that their jointly developed “Hitachi Ballast Water Purification System” obtained basic approval from IMO (*1) in accordance with the “Procedure for Approval of Ballast Water Management Systems That Make Use of Active Substances” (*2) on April 2, 2008.
Hitachi Plant Technologies recently started shipboard
testing on a LPG tanker (Tank Capacity: 78,500 cubic meters) built by Nagasaki
Shipyard and Machinery Works of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. and owned by
Yuyo Steamship Co., Ltd. from this April. The shipboard test equipment’s treatment
capacity is 50 cubic meters per hour and testing will be conducted over one
year ending in March, 2009. The testing includes verification for Type Approval
(*3) by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan
and practical evaluations for low maintenance and durability against vibration
and corrosion.
In parallel with the shipboard testing, Hitachi Plant Technologies will conduct land-based
tests of an actual sized system with a treatment capacity of 200 cubic meters
per hour, near Tokyo Bay, attempting to obtain IMO’s final approval in July,
2009, and thereafter, Type Approval by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure,
Transport and Tourism.
Hitachi Plant Technologies is aggressively expanding our sales activities to
obtain annual orders of 10 billion Yen by FY2012.
(*1) IMO : International Maritime
Organization
(*2) Procedure for Approval of
Ballast Water Management Systems That Make Use of Active Substances (G9): to
determine the safety of active substances in Ballast Water Management Systems
concerning environmental safety. IMO reviews and gives a basic approval for use of active substances and environmental assessment
of treated water from prototype equipment and
a final approval for environmental assessment of treated water from actual
equipment.
(*3) Type
Approval : The administration of each country gives approval for equipment
performances in accordance with the Guidelines stipulated in the convention, on
the condition that land-based and shipboard testing fulfilled the requirements and
after G9 final approval.
Ballast water is
sea water used as ballast for stabilizing hull balance. It usually contains
unique plankton, viruses, mud and sand of the port where it is drawn from.
During loading at another port, most of the ballast water is discharged along
with the foreign organisms. This causes serious environmental damage to the
local ecosystem.
In response to this problem, “The International
Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments”
(Ballast Water Convention) was adopted at a Diplomatic Conference at IMO in
February, 2004. It stipulates to gradually enforce “IMO Performance Standards”
(*4), depending on when the ship was built and its ballast tank capacity for
ships engaged in international navigation, with all ships adopting the standard
by 2017.
Hitachi Plant Technologies’ originally developed
system utilizes coagulation technology generally used to remove plankton and
organisms at water purification plants and magnetic separation technology which
has been developed to remove algae in lakes or rivers. The coagulation method
differs from the sterilizing method as it doesn’t use chlorine, ultraviolet
rays, or any disinfectants. Therefore, no secondary contamination by residual
chlorine occurs.
Coagulating microorganisms into small flocs enables the use of coarse
filters, resulting in high speed treatment and a compact design.
Hitachi Plant Technologies conducted a verification test using a scale
model (treatment capacity: 50 cubic meters per hour) from September to
December, 2006 and confirmed its performance.
The need to improve shipboard functionality and knowledge of
advanced ship outfitting design is required for shipboard purification equipment.
The joint development between Hitachi
Plant Technologies, Ltd. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. enabled the inter-business
fusion to refine “Hitachi Ballast Water Purification System”
(*4)IMO
Performance Standard :
|
Organisms |
Requirements |
|
Viable organisms greater
than or equal to 50μm (*1) |
Less than 10 organisms/1 cubic meter |
|
Viable organisms less
than 50μm and greater than or equal to 10μm (*1) |
Less than 10 organisms/1ml |
|
Toxicogenic Vibrio cholerae (O1,
O139) |
Less than 1 cfu(*2)/100ml |
|
Escherichia coli |
Less than 250 cfu(*2)/100ml |
|
Intestinal Enterococci |
Less than 100 cfu(*2)/100ml |
(*2) cfu : Colony Forming Unit
(1)
Can remove plankton, viruses and mud (including
eggs of organisms and mold spores in mud) quickly and efficiently;
(2) As no disinfectants are used, there is no marine
ecocide due to residual disinfectants;
(3)
Greatly reduces mud accumulation in Ballast
Tanks (seabed mud, sand and dead organisms), prolonging the life of the Ballast
Tank's internal paint, and also contributing to
reduced mud disposal costs;
(4)
Can remove phosphorus which is an essential
nutrient of organism growth;
(5)
Flexible design and varied product range is suitable
for a wide range of capacities and can be modeled to fit into available spaces.
■ System Flow
(1)
Intake sea water is treated, by adding a
coagulant and magnetic powder to sea water in Coagulation and Flocculation
Tanks and then agitating it causes the plankton, viruses and mud to coagulate
into small 1 millimeter magnetic flocs.
(2)
Flocs can then be collected with Magnetic Discs in
a Magnetic Separator. Treated water is filtrated through a Filter Separator and
injected into Ballast Tanks.
