A review of developments in ballast water management

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 298-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajoo Balaji ◽  
Omar Yaakob ◽  
Kho King Koh

Transportation and translocation of non-native species by ships through ballast water is one of the current issues the shipping industry is trying to address. The Ballast Water Convention is nearing full ratification after which treatment of ballast water will become mandatory for most of the trading merchant vessel categories. Ballast water management systems employing various technologies are commercially available but at high costs. Economics apart, the efficiency of these technologies and realistic ways to ensure compliance with stricter requirements of some Administrations are issues that need to be focussed upon. With the report of the Environmental Protection Agency as an assessment reference, this paper reviews the treatment technologies. Juxtaposing reports of Lloyd’s Register on the status, a concise overview of the technologies has been projected. A sustainable ballast water management based on data and assessments is proposed. The management must be extended to both shore and on-board platforms for practices, treatment, sampling, testing, and recycling. An exemplar system harvesting shipboard waste heat is projected as a route for thermal treatment in combination with technologies showing potential for optimized ballast water management.

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (9) ◽  
pp. 283 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leo Čampara ◽  
Vlado Frančić ◽  
Lovro Maglić ◽  
Nermin Hasanspahić

Along with the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United States Maritime Administration has developed its own ballast water management legislation under the dual authority of the US Coast Guard and the Environmental Protection Agency. The IMO and US ballast water management regulations are globally recognized as the most significant and influential regimes. Complexity and certain regulatory differences pose considerable concern amongst all stakeholders in the shipping industry, predominantly ship owners and ship operators. This paper presents a conceptual study which overviews, emphasises, and compares key provisions of these two sets of regulations by targeting and unveiling significant points from their perspective since they represent the largest group of stakeholders. Therefore, the paper aims to support shipowners and operators in better understanding the Ballast Water Management regulations and their differences. In addition, the study may benefit in choosing an adequate ballast water treatment system to be installed onboard ships, considering the sea areas where ships intend to operate. Finally, the paper can also help policy makers understand those differences that could present a major barrier in the efficient and smooth ballast water management implementation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 2140-2160
Author(s):  
Carlos Francisco Simões Gomes ◽  
Luiz Flavio Autran Monteiro Gomes ◽  
Luís Alberto Duncan Rangel ◽  
Fabrício Maione Tenório ◽  
Marcos dos Santos

This paper approaches the problem of ballast water treatment in ships. This has been identified as one of the four greatest threats to the world’s oceans. Solutions that have been considered for solving the problem are alternative water treatment technologies. In the case study reported in this paper three major water treatment technologies have been evaluated with the help of twenty-six criteria, quantitative as well as qualitative by using two discrete multicriteria methods, TODIM and THOR 2. The THOR 2 consists of the axiomatic evolution of the THOR method and both THOR 2 and THOR are made available through the THOR Web platform. Five groups of evaluation criteria are then considered: practicality; biological effectiveness; cost/benefit ratio; time frame for the implementation of standards; and environmental impact of the process' sub-products. In this paper a case study on choosing a ballast water treatment technology is presented. Three alternative ballast water management technologies are proposed by experts in the field and are evaluated with the help of twenty-six criteria, quantitative as well as qualitative. Each ballast water management method is described by a list of twenty-six attributes or criteria. After setting the problem in a clear way and consulting different experts, the two separate applications of both TODIM and THOR 2 are performed. What is denoted as Management Method #1 is indeed chosen as the best alternative according to both methods. The conclusion is that those two methods, although conceptually and analytically quite different, lead essentially to the same main results.  Two other applications of both TODIM and THOR have indeed confirmed the convergence of results in spite of the conceptual and technical differences between the two methods. This suggests that formulating a decision problem in a correct, clear-cut way can be at least as important as the technical characteristics of the method per se.


Water Policy ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 964-982
Author(s):  
F. P. Ndlovu

This article contains a study of international and national measures dealing with the potential threat of pollution and the introduction of alien species that may come from the discharge of improperly treated ballast water. Ballast water management policy, law and coastal biosecurity strategies are considered. There are challenges to achieving the ideals of ballast water laws, as correctly pointed out by President Denholm of the Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO), such as the cost of achieving these measures in today's economic climate; however, this article emphasizes the long-term effects of ignoring proper ballast water management. This article encourages a sustained commitment to strategies aimed at dealing with pollution and the harm that may be caused by marine invasive species that often find their way around the world as a result of ballast water discharges. With the imminent implementation of international law on ballast water and a federal court of appeals in the United States ordering the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to rewrite a portion of its ballast water dumping rules, ballast water policy justly deserves unrelenting global attention.


Author(s):  
Xueqian Zhou ◽  
Hexing Song ◽  
Chenfeng Li ◽  
Huilong Ren ◽  
Siyu Wang

The minimal ballast water crude oil tanker has the design of a trapezoidal-shape inclined bilge entirely instead of the regular U-shaped tanker, also known as the trapezoidal tanker, which reduces the amount of the ballast water. This type of ship does not only reduce the cost on ballast water management, but also is beneficial to the environment for reducing the risk of water pollution. Since it is a new design, there are no applicable specifications for the assessment of structural strength at present. In order to find out characteristics of the yielding and buckling strength of this type of ship, the strength of a conventional tanker and a trapezoidal tanker are calculated by a finite element method and then compared with a variety of cases. It can be seen that the trapezoidal tanker has lots of advantages in strength and lighting weight.


2018 ◽  
Vol 182 ◽  
pp. 02004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcin Bielski ◽  
Jacek Wachowicz ◽  
Ryszard Bielski ◽  
Arkadiusz Adamczyk ◽  
Hendra Jantanata

Diagnostics in ballast water management is the main remedy to protect against the threat of spreading invasive species that can be carried in ships' ballast tanks. This phenomenon is getting better known and understood. New and more effective methods of preventing threats related to this are being developed. Procedures are created to ensure environmental safety in the face of ever-increasing transport by sea. The article characterizes both the background of the problem, basic diagnostic medics used in ballast water management, as well as procedures and basic techniques used to ensure the safety of the natural environment..


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seungshic Yum ◽  
Bong Gil Hyun ◽  
Kitae Rhie ◽  
Kyoungsoon Shin

Rapid and simple analytical methods for viable microorganism detection in ballast water are required to evaluate the efficiency of ballast water treatment system. During the course of systematic investigation of the cytotoxicity and apoptosis assays, it was found that the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and luminescence based cell viability assay, in other word, an ATP assay was the most sensitive and applicable to ballast water management (BWM). The assay was applied to cultured microalgae samples, and it could detect the existence of 5 viable cells in 100 μl. Comparably low luminescent values were detected in two cultured diatom species than in cultured dinoflagellates. This result might be caused by the small cell volume in diatom species. Following a regression model between ATP concentration and cell volume, an ATP guideline (876 – 109246 relative luminescence units: RLU) was developed for the evaluation of treated ballast water. ATP assay was also applied to the evaluation of ballast water treatment system (BWTS). The luminescence value which obtained from the ATP assay also showed a good correlation with the presence of living natural plankton cells with comparably low luminescence values than the cultured species. The low ATP concentration in natural plankton cells may reflect a decline in their biological activity because of extended exposure to dark conditions. ATP assay could be a suitable method for the monitoring of ballast water management compliance even though the results of this study need further validation.


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