Anyone have real world experience with some of the new devices being marketed now? Looks like we are going through with installing these and aside from the machinery arrangement issues just wondering if they come with their own O&M issues as well. The two being looked at involve a filter and a UV sterilizer section. My understanding is they filter water [I][B]and[/B][/I] zap it on way in to tanks. During the filling the filter back flushes to sea which is kosher because you are returning the stuff to where it came from. At de-ballasting the filter is by-passed and it is just zapped as it goes over. So it seems on paper very simple. I gotta wonder about frequent filter clogging though. Another device includes a “clean in place” module which leads me to believe simple back flushing may not be good enough. Any PSC inspection issues?
I am skeptical that some little UV light is gonna kill all the stuff that wiggles in the ballast water. But hey if it is approved then go for it.
We have the first one you mentioned. The discharge water will be tested again in a month or so to determine how well it is working. It adds a few steps to ballasting but it is additional systems like these that keep me employed.
Hyde system.
I have experience with a hypochlorite-based system (basically chlorine). It essentially uses electrolysis to generate the stuff from seawater at a set concentration during loading. Bugs are eradicated pretty much right away and we are required to maintain a concentration and test at various stages throughout a voyage to prove we did it and keep the water bug-free. At discharge we store a chemical on board which is injected in the pipeline at appropriate amounts to neutralize the remaining hypochlorite prior to it going over the side.
Does it work? Well, kind of. It took years to refine the system, but is showing promise now. When it works, it works well and seems super simple. When it doesn’t, it takes a long time to diagnose and troubleshoot and keeps us scratching our heads; the manufacturer has also been less than helpful over the years. Making hypochlorite and killing bugs are easy. The tricky part has been how the system manages the neutralizing agent injection during discharge. It looks great on paper, but has proven to be much more difficult in practice. The readings the system relies on to regulate neutralization don’t follow a linear pattern, during discharge it measures for symptoms of hypochlorite and not the chemical itself, and the original equipment looked like it literally came from a swimming pool supply store.
However from what I’ve been told, of all the systems available, they are all equally screwed up in one way or another.