Wärtsilä BWMS gains AMS acceptance

Aquarius UV Ballast Water Management System

NOVEMBER 18, 2013 — Wärtsilä reports that its Aquarius UV ballast water management system (BWMS) has been granted Alternate Management System (AMS) acceptance by the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG). This allows all U.S. and foreign flag ships fitted with the Wärtsilä Aquarius UV BWMS to operate in U.S. territorial waters and to discharge its treated ballast water for an interim period of up to five years from the ship specific implementation date.

AMS acceptance is the first stage towards obtaining full USCG type approval. Wärtsilä anticipates having all activities necessary to gain full U.S .type approval completed within the five year interim period.

Based on an evaluation of the Wärtsilä Aquarius UV BWMS test data by the USCG, AMS acceptance has been granted for use over the full range of water salinities, i.e. fresh, brackish and sea water. Wärtsilä says that as one of only two AMS accepted systems without salinity restrictions, the Aquarius UV solution permits ships fitted with the system to operate in the Great Lakes region.

“AMS acceptance is an important milestone in providing shipowners with a BWMS that enables true global operations, and is a key part of the Wärtsilä BWMS Partnership programme, which aims to support our customers in meeting their environmental compliance objectives,” says Joe Thomas, Director, Wärtsilä Ballast Water Management Systems.

Wärtsilä has already delivered the Wärtsilä Aquarius UV system for four new platform supply vessels (PSVs) currently being built for Tidewater Marine LLC. In addition, the Wärtsilä Aquarius UV system has been retrofitted to two LPG carriers for Chemgas BV, and is being installed on an LPG carrier owned by Carbofin SpA currently trading in U.S. waters.

The Wärtsilä Aquarius UV is a modular ballast water management system involving filtration and medium pressure UV disinfection technology. It is designed to provide a safe, flexible and economical process.

The system treats the ballast water using a two stage process. Upon uptake, the seawater is first passed through a back washing filter (first stage). The filtered seawater then passes through a UV chamber (second stage) where ultra-violet light is used to disinfect the water prior to its entering the ballast tank. Upon discharge, water from the ballast tanks passes through the UV chamber only for a second time.

Wärtsilä is preparing an AMS application for its Aquarius EC BWMS , which uses electro chlorination rather than UV technology, so as to provide customers with fully approved technology options upon completion of the approval process.