• NYK Group
• Sitemap
• Japanese

 

• 2012
• 2011
• 2010
• 2009
• Before 2008

R & D for New Ballast Treatment System

November 12, 2003

NYK confirmed some positive research and development results in the purification system it has been trying to establish for ballast water (patent applied for). Since last summer, a "Cavitation method" (a phenomenon of rapidly occurring effervescence due to a sudden fluctuations in pressure) for this purification system has been explored by the NYK Trading Corp., S-MACH Engineering Corp. and Masuda Research Inc.

The system characteristics are as follows:

1. Use of a vessel's own steam.
2. "Built-in pipe" assembly configured in consideration for narrow engine room space.
3. Aquatic organisms destroyed by physical antisepsis, the result of Cavitation caused by steam.
4. Antiseptic effectiveness increased through the additional use of a modicum of ozone that generates a synergistic chemical antisepsis.

NYK confirmed the effect of the system at the Liason Center of the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology (the former Tokyo University of Fisheries), together with Fuyo Ocean Development and Engineering Co., Ltd. The experiment involved eliminating the zooplankton Artemia from test ballast water at a flow rate of 30 tons per hour (about one tenth of actual ballast flow rates).

The results of the experiment indicate 83% effective treatment in the primary stage, and almost 100% effective treatment in the secondary stage.

NYK will actively work toward putting developing technology into practice, using not only this new treatment method, but other effective treatment methods as well.

Note:

When a vessel is in ballast condition, seawater known as "ballast water" has been taken onboard during the voyage and stored in ballast tanks to enhance vessel stability and propeller efficiency. This ballast is later discharged at ports when cargo is loaded. The discharged ballast often contains marine organisms and other undesirable materials taken on inadvertently with the ballast water at the prior port, raising concerns that the ecosystem of the area in question may be adversely affected. Artemia, zooplankton is expected to have a positive effect on resistant varieties like the zooplankton Copepoda and the phytoplankton Dinophyceae.