New Ballast Water Treatment Challenger
Auramarine Ltd is the world’s leading manufacturer of heavy fuel oil supply systems and other auxiliary units for marine and power station engines. The company is now applying its wide-ranging experience in liquid flows to a new sector that benefits the environment with its Auramarine Crystal Ballast, Ballast Water Treatment System (BWTS).
With Auramarine Crystal Ballast, extremely promising results have been obtained. The project is currently entering an intensive type approval testing phase. It is progressing on the projected schedule, and the first system type approvals and final products are expected to reach the market in the second half of 2010. With this novelty product, Auramarine is aiming for a remarkable share in the BWTS market. Up to year 2019, the market potential is estimated to be substantial, as around 50,000 ships should be equipped with BWTS.
Thanks to technological innovations featured in this system, it is energy-efficient, compact and easy to install. Additionally, Auramarine’s solution does not affect the time required for ballasting or de-ballasting operations, or increase the duration of port calls. Auramarine’s solution is based on utilising UV-C radiation. This purely physical disinfection process has been tried, tested and proven in many land and marine applications. No harmful by-products are formed in the process, nor does it require the production or storage of chemicals on board. The system presents no danger of overdose or underdose, as only naturally occurring processes are used. The process does not result in any changes in the physical parameters of the water, such as its pH value, temperature, salinity, taste, odour, or colour, and a system based on UV-C technology has a relatively low overall energy consumption.