Severn Trent wins deal for ballast water treatment systems

Severn Trent De Nora has received an order to supply its BALPURE ballast water treatment systems to four LNG carriers, being constructed by Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding for Mitsui O.S.K. Lines in China.

Hudong-Zhonghua has purchased four skid-mounted BALPURE BP-5000 systems for its 172,000-DWT LNG carriers, each with the capacity to treat ballast water flow rates of up to 5,000m³ an hour.

Installation of the first BALPURE system will take place in August 2012 and the installation of the remaining three will be completed by the end of 2013.

The systems were selected after a thorough technical review of competing treatment systems suitable to meet the application-specific requirements for the new LNG carriers.

The system’s slipstream treatment approach, will make use of 1% of the total ballast water flow to generate the hypochlorite disinfection solution and its design requires treatment only during the uptake of the ballasting cycle.

The system will operate autonomously throughout the ballasting/deballasting cycle and will utilise an electrolytic treatment process to generate a disinfectant solution using only electricity and seawater.

The residual disinfectant, which remains in the ship’s ballast water tanks, can be adjusted to match voyage duration, to eliminate the possible re-growth of organisms during transit and all active compounds generated in the electrolytic disinfection process are safely neutralised before deballasting.

BALPURE will also provide a virtually maintenance-free approach to ballast water treatment, by using self-cleaning electrodes that eliminate the need for chemical and mechanical maintenance.

Severn Trent De Nora – a joint venture between Severn Trent Services and Gruppo De Nora – designs, manufactures and provides electrolytic disinfection treatment solutions to marine and offshore markets.