Wärtsilä BWMS Chosen By Maersk Tankers For Three Tanker Newbuildings

Maersk Tankers A/S of Denmark has selected Wärtsilä’s Electro Chlorination (EC) Ballast Water Management System (BWMS) for three new 50,000 DWT medium range (MR) tankers being built at the Samsung Heavy Industries (Ningbo) yard in China. The order was signed in the second quarter of 2016.

Ensuring compliance with the upcoming IMO Ballast water management convention is becoming a priority for ship owners, and the selection of Wärtsilä EC systems by Maersk Tankers ensures their future compliance with IMO requirements while USCG type approval is expected to be obtained by Q1 2017. The Wärtsilä Aquarius EC BWMS is compliant in all salinities. An open dialogue between the partners involved ensured that the most suitable solution was chosen, thus providing peace of mind and the lowest cost of ownership to Maersk Tankers for these important newbuild vessels.

Wärtsilä’s market leading ATEX and hazardous area installation design was custom made to meet the vessel design requirements.

“Ratification of the IMO’s ballast water treaty is very close and the major ship owners are making preparations for compliance. Wärtsilä has extensive experience and deep know-how in BWMS technology, and can offer reliability and long term support to ensure that customers have the optimal solution for their specific needs. We are both pleased and proud to have been selected to supply the systems for these vessels,” says Dr Joe Thomas, Director, Ballast Water Management Systems, Wärtsilä Marine Solutions.

Wärtsilä will supply each of the three vessels with one 1500 m3 per hour EC BWMS solution. The equipment is scheduled to be delivered to the yard commencing in December of this year.

The Wärtsilä Aquarius EC Ballast Water Management System provides robust technology for the treatment of ballast water using a simple two stage process involving filtration and electro-chlorination (EC). The system is easy to integrate and maintain, and is type approved according to the IMO Convention. It has Alternative Management System (AMS) acceptance certification from the USCG.

The importance of BWMS

Shipping is an international business with vessels travelling to and from different parts of the world. The ballast water that ships need is, therefore, taken on and discharged as required to ensure that the ship remains a safe operating platform. Thus, the ballast water can be taken from a body of water in one part of the world and discharged in another. Carried with the water is inevitably a host of microscopic marine organisms and plants, which unfortunately do not all adapt easily to their new environment. Those that do survive, however, can thrive, attack, and harm the local species and environment. When scientists brought their concerns to the world stage, the focus resulted in the IMO (International Maritime Organization) introducing the 2004 Ballast Water Management Convention. In 2013, the USCG introduced VGP 2013 legislation relating to ships sailing in US waters.

Reference: warsila.com