Invited Talk

Non-regulatory technical and operational criteria for ballast water management systems
Mesbahi E^*
School of Marine Science and Technology, Newcastle University, Armstrong Building, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK
^*Email: ehsan.mesbahi@ncl.ac.uk

G8 provides technical and operational requirements for Ballast Water Management System (BWMS) type approval. Other criteria which would make a design suitable for onboard ship applications and consequently would provide marketability for the final design are not in the remit of IMO or any other regulatory bodies.

Compliance with G8 and approval of IMO may not necessarily be the final verdict on suitability of a management system for onboard ship implementations as well as satisfying ship-owner, operator and builder’s perspectives.

This presentation intends to provide a comprehensive set of criteria for assessment of a BWMS and open a wider discussion on technical and operational aspects of implementing IMO guidelines.

Keywords: G8, IMO, Criteria, Ballast water management system, Guidelines

Methodology for sustainability assessment of ballast water management systems
Basurko OC, E Mesbahi^*
School of Marine Science and Technology, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
^*Email: ehsan.mesbahi@newcastle.ac.uk

The search for sustainable technologies has become an emerging subject worldwide and shipping is not an exception. Researches on ballast water treatment are increasing, and following current trends in other disciplines, they will soon be subjected to a sustainable assessment in order to optimise the design and meet current societal needs.
In parallel to the problems behind the introduction of alien species, ballast water management can also generate additional costs and negative impacts to environment and crew. Although an assumed technology complies with the IMO requirements, it might not present an acceptable sustainable footprint. The nature of materials used for building the equipment, the energy requirement for running the treatment, health hazards crew may face due to contact with the equipment, cost of treating a volume of ballast water and other parameters could make one treatment more preferable than other.
This paper highlights the need for developing sustainable ballast water management systems and it proposes a structured assessment methodology for achieving this. The methodology analyses each sustainability stream separately and it joins them together for obtaining an overall sustainability index. There is also a review of common pollution agents, cost drivers and parameters affecting the wellbeing of crew that ballast water management system could present.
A sustainable ballast water management could be one of the steps for helping maritime transport get on the right direction towards sustainable shipping. Examples for obtaining a sustainable treatment could go from choosing a sustainable treatment to modifying, for example, materials and consumables that are being used on a specific technology.

Keywords: Ballast water treatment, Sustainability assessment, Methodology, Environmental impact, Cost, Social impact

Modelling, simulation and optimisation of an onboard ballast water treatment system
Pazouki K, E Mesbahi^*, KJ Carney, JE Delany
School of Marine Science and Technology, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
^*Email: ehsan.mesbahi@ncl.ac.uk

Design, development and optimisation of ship board ballast water treatment systems, when compared to land-based water treatment systems, due to their different technical and operational requirements, demand a different approach. In this paper modelling and simulation of an onboard electro-chemical system which is capable of producing a combination of chemicals with proven record of success in treating freshwater is addressed. Data-driven models, using intelligent algorithms have been introduced and their application in simulation and prediction of system’s behaviour in unknown operational conditions has been discussed. Development of system’s performance maps under varying operational conditions and design settings have been developed and presented. Finally, an attempt has been made to mathematically model the biological performance of proposed ballast water treatment system.

Keywords: Ballast water treatment system, Intelligent algorithms, Modelling, Simulation, Optimisation, Biological effectiveness

Ballast Water Management (BWM) program in the United States
Jacob Varghis^*
Chief of vessel safety and compliance program, US Coast Guard, Coast Guard Island, Alameda, California, USA
^*Email: Jacob.varghis@uscg.mil

The Department of Homeland Security, through the US Coast Guard (CG) is the Federal agency authorized to develop a national regulatory program to prevent ANIS into U.S. waters. Through the Nonindigenous Aquatic Nuisance Prevention and Control Act (NANPCA) of 1990 and National Invasive Species Act (NISA) of 1996, the CG has developed and continues to develop numerous regulations.

Currently the CG is engaged in a rulemaking process that would set a performance standard for the BW discharge. The ANPRM was published on March 4, 2002 to start the rulemaking process. The CG also has taken action to establish a quantitative ballast water treatment performance standard, protocols for testing, verifying, and reporting on treatment technologies; and a program for experimental shipboard installation and operation of promising technologies. NANPCA authorized the CG to develop regulations for a mandatory BWM program for the Great Lakes and Hudson River and were enacted in 1993 and 1994 respectively.  On July 28, 2004, the CG published regulations establishing a mandatory BW management program for all vessels with BW tanks. The CG may now impose a civil penalty of up to $27,500 per day or Class C felony charge for non-submittal of BW reporting forms. On January 2, 2004 the U.S. Coast Guard announced a program to facilitate the installation of experimental shipboard ballast water treatment systems on both foreign and domestic vessels. This Shipboard Technology Evaluation Program (STEP) aims to promote research and development of shipboard BW treatment systems through regulatory incentives, creating more options for vessel owners seeking alternatives to ballast water exchange. Some vessels calling on the Great Lakes declare No Ballast Onboard (NOBOB), but may contain residuals or sediments that have the potential to carry NIS. In 2005 the CG established a policy of best management practices for NOBOB which strongly encouraged saltwater flushing.

Keywords: US Coast Guard, BWM program, Shipboard Technology Evaluation Program

Self validating, electronic Ballast Water Reporting Form (BWRF)
Singh K ¹^*, K Mapari ¹, K Venkat¹, SS Sawant¹, ACAnil¹, A Chatterjee²
¹National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula, Goa, India,
² Directorate General of Shipping, Mumbai, India
^*Email: ksingh@nio.org

Ballast water Management Program, India has  developed a self correcting, easy-to-use-and-download electronic Ballast Water Reporting Form for use on ships. The form follows the IMO (International Maritime Organisation) format. Since such a form must be loaded and used by one of the ships officers, who may not necessarily be an experienced computer user, the overriding concern in this exercise has been software that can be easily downloaded and used. After interaction with the intended users, due to expensive internet charges on ships, the size of the software and of the output data became an important concern, with a good amount of effort expended on minimizing file sizes.

The form may be filled up using the commonly available browser Internet Explorer (versions 5.5 and above). The form itself is less than 250 KB in size and may easily be mailed to the ship as an attachment. Since the form runs on a browser, there is no installation procedure that the computer user need follow.

The form is self validating, with over 20 validations in use. These are documented on the supporting website, http://www.bwmindia.com. The primary functions of the website are: to make available the Ballast Water Reporting Form for downloading by the ship users and to serve as a data depository for the validated forms.

The validated output is stored to an XML file. The output file may be e-mailed to the port authority in question. During trials, a raw data format was also developed as Indian shipping companies were not comfortable with the extra cost of e-mailing the relatively larger XML data file.

A later version of the form offers more functionality, has an install program and is also much larger in size (2.6 MB after compression). The application can be mailed on a CD or can be downloaded from the website. Features of this version are: printing out the form in the IMO format and loading previously filled forms for viewing, automatic emailing of the filled up form, saving a partially filled up form. The two versions have different intended users and both versions are concurrently in use.

Keywords: Self validating BWRF, IMO format