the IHS Ballast Water Guide - RWO Marine Water Technology

IHS Fairplay Solutions Guide to Ballast Water Treatment Systems Sponsored by
Treatment system
of choice –
CleanBallast
When RWO began developing a ballast
water treatment system back in 2003,
the clear goals set were to achieve a
system that fulfi lled IMO regulations and
was economical in investment and
operation, but at same time was suitable
to work in real-life conditions and able to
fulfi l future regulations.
Robustness, easy operation and
maintenance, and being suitable
for both newbuildings and
retrofi ttings, were other points
to be achieved by the BWTS.
After several years of
research and development
and comparison of various
sediment removal and
disinfection technologies,
the Bremen-based marine
water treatment company
believes it has achieved all these
key criteria with its CleanBallast
system. First orders for the twostage
CleanBallast system were
received at the end of 2007 – to
equip 20 newbuild vessels.
RWO’s CleanBallast system consists of a
two-stage process, starting with mechanical
fi ltration by Disk Filters followed by the
advanced electrochemical disinfection
EctoSys. The fi ltration process is carried out
only during ballast water uptake, whereas
Photo RWO
The EctoSys module is at
the heart of the RWO
CleanBallast system
disinfection is applied both when ballasting
and during ballast discharge. This is to
remove any organisms that either are already
present in tanks or that may regrow in the
ballast tanks during a ship’s voyage.
The modular fi ltration stage, that can be
arranged horizontally, vertically and even
as a stacked system, removes particles that
are >55μm and allows minimal use of active
substances at the disinfection stage.
The CleanBallast system ensures
minimum power consumption and is
able to operate eff ectively in all kinds
of water, regardless of its salinity
or turbidity.
An additional, optional feature
of the CleanBallast system that
is available is the Algae Monitor.
This unit continuously checks
the quality of the ballast water by
measuring the numbers of viable
phytoplankton that are present. It also
further minimises the already very
low power consumption to
produce disinfectants.
The Disk Filters consist of a
series of individual thin, grooved plastic
discs stacked on to several spines; microorganisms
and particles are caught in
the grooves and on the outside surface of
the discs. Back-fl ushing of the fi lters is
automatically triggered when a pre-defi ned
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