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living organisms, “are ineffective in high
salinity waters and while an accepted
method for testing surface waters, these
rudimentary solutions do not provide a
reliable tool with which to test the efficacy
of ballast water treatment systems”.
Marc Raymond, Managing Director, aquatools,
said: “Our test protocol is based on the
bioluminescence principle, whereby the
proportion of light correlates exactly with
the number of Adenosine Tri-phosphates
found in ballast water. Other luminometers
measure the light but these use a very
rudimentary measurement ‘pen’ to take a
small sample of the water. This is ineffective since the reagent required to extract the ATP
from the organism is heavily diluted and does not provide an accurate measurement from
which to assess efficacy across the entire spectrum specified in the IMO D2 parameters list.
“We have developed a unique method for extracting the ATP from the cell walls of all
marine organisms, including those with hard shells, in a process that takes just five minutes. Our method
analyses each fraction: >50μm (most often zooplankton), 10-50μm (most often phytoplankton) and bacteria,
which other ballast water monitoring systems struggle to achieve.”
“While much focus has been given to the ballast water treatment system, there has been little discussion
about enforcement,” said Bonamin. “Existing ballast water testing methods could mean that incorrect
measurements are taken, resulting in heavy financial penalties for shipowners. We now have the technology
available to provide 100% indicative but accurate readings more or less immediately, without having to send
samples off to laboratories.”
aqua-tools’ ATP 2G technology can be used onboard vessels and by enforcement agencies to rapidly analyse
treated waters onboard vessel during the deballasting process, providing results in less than 40 minutes.
SGS Group now has agreements in place to implement ballast water compliance verification tests and
certification in seven countries, with the service available in USA, Canada, South Africa, Germany, Italy, Spain,
Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, UAE, India, China, South Korea, Australia, Thailand and Taiwan.
The 30 Rapid ATP Ballast Water test kits will now be distributed to SGS Group offices in all those countries
by which it has been contracted to carry out ballast water verification tests.
USCG TYPE APPROVAL TESTS COMPLETE FOR EVOQUA SEACURE SYSTEM
SeaCURE Ballast Water Management System (BWMS), the electrochlorination based solution pioneered by
Evoqua Water Technologies, has successfully completed all biological
efficacy US Coast Guard Type-Approval tests.
Tests were carried out under the supervision of classification
society Lloyd’s Register and the independent laboratory NSF
International will now compile test data for submission to the
USCG for imminent approval.
Matt Granitto, Business Manager, Ballast Water, said: “We
are delighted that the SeaCURE system has successfully
completed and exceeded all testing requirements and
protocols for USCG certification. It has been a lengthy process
but the importance of these tests and USCG Type Approval
cannot be undervalued.
“The testing regime we opted for was the most stringent
because it uses natural organisms in natural environments
over those that are manufactured. By using real organisms, it
takes a lot longer as nature doesn’t always have sufficiently
high organism counts.”
All testing was carried out by NSF International. The first
five tests in brackish waters took place in Baltimore
harbour in the summer of 2015 by NSF partner Maritime
Environmental Resource Centre (MERC). Another partner
laboratory, Great Ships Initiative (GSI), then carried out five
freshwater tests in the summer of 2016, with the final set of land
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