HANSA 10-2017

Schiffstechnik | Ship Technology
Moving water treatment to the next stage
Stringent regulations and tight retrofit budgets need new solutions have led to ACO Marine
developing a new wastewater treatment system instead of adapting conventional technology
The 100 th unit of the new Clarimar
MF was delivered just two-years after
product launch. A Clarimar MF-3 unit
was supplied in April for retrofit installation
to the 1973-built 58.3 m tugboat
»Lautaro« (ATF-67), operated by the Armada
de Chile. »That a new wastewater
treatment system can penetrate what is
an already established market in just twoyears
is testament to the ability of ACO
Marine’s engineering team to design systems
capable of meeting market demand
for smaller, safer and cost-effective wastewater
treatment solutions,« says ACO Marine’s
managing director Mark Beavis.
Over the past few years, ACO Marine has
invested 20% of its turnover annually into
product research and development which
has resulted in new wastewater treatment
and grease separation systems, all of which
have been designed to cost-effectively meet
stringent IMO and USCG regulations
while optimising operational performance.
»There was no point continuing with
the previous version of the Clarimar as it
was similar to other systems on the market
that adopt conventional technology.
We developed a completely new technology.
So, for us to come in with the Clarimar
MF and take orders from more established
brands in a relatively short time
is a remarkable achievement.«
The biological-type ACO Clarimar
MF system and its pollution-preventing
»bio-sword« innovation was offcially introduced
during Hamburg’s SMM exhibition,
in September 2014. »We needed
to develop a wastewater treatment concept
that was not only smaller, safer and
more cost-effective than our competitors,
but also a system that provided a physical
barrier against pollution and illegal,
or accidental, discharges. That is exactly
what we have achieved with the Clarimar
MF,« recalls Beavis. The wastewater
solution aims at balancing foot-print,
corrosion-resistance, safety, reliability
and price – backed up with a life-time
guarantee against corrosion of the tank.
The »Lautaro« installation followed a V.
Ships Offshore contract to retrofit a wastewater
management system aboard the
8234 t Dive Support Vessel (DSV) »Bibby
Polaris«. The company, a division of
Germany’s ACO Group, was tasked with
changing the vessel’s wastewater management
system to one capable of meeting
new MEPC 227(64) requirements.
However, the project was a challenge in
that available machinery space was severely
limited and the project had an assembly
time of just two weeks. »A regular retrofit
project like this would probably take twice
that time, with a considerable amount of
work undertaken by the shipyard to create
access routes through the ship’s side and
move existing equipment to clear a path
to the installation site. A conventional installation
would have meant cutting quite
a large hole into the hull and redirecting
a substantial amount of pipe work to get
the 3.82 m x 2.35 m x 2.07 m Clarimar MF-
10 unit into position, resulting in significantly
increased costs and time. But we
took a more radical approach to retrofit
installation,« Beavis says.
That radical approach was to design the
Clarimar MF for supply and installation as
a flat-pack, allowing it to be fed in sheet-bysheet
to the machinery space for final welding
in-situ. »As far as I’m aware, it is one of
Source: ACO Marine
66 HANSA International Maritime Journal – 154. Jahrgang – 2017 – Nr. 10