Final Approval for CleanBallast
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has granted the Final Approval of Active Substances to RWO‘s ballast water treatment system CleanBallast and thereby noted that the CleanBallast system is safe for the crew, ship and environment. This final approval is one of four major steps necessary for obtaining the full type approval certificate for ballast water treatment systems. As a first step, RWO – part of Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies – received the basic approval of active substances from the IMO in October 2006 and subsequently finalised the land-based type approval of CleanBallast in 2007.
With the newly granted Final Approval, the ongoing shipboard type approval will be the last step required for obtaining the type approval certificate. Two of the required tests were successfully completed aboard a container vessel during recent months and the third, and last test necessary to complete the six months minimum shipboard testing period is scheduled to be carried out in late summer. Therefore, RWO is hoping to be issued with the full Type Approval Certificate for its CleanBallast system by the German administration in autumn 2009.
At the MEPC59 the IMO gave an equally important signal. After reviewing the available and approved ballast water technologies, the IMO decided that sufficient technologies were available for ships constructed in 2010 and therefore no changes to the Assembly Resolution A.1005(25) were needed. This means the implementation of the International Ballast Water Management Convention will not be further delayed.