During his presentation at the last GREEN4SEA Conference, Mr. Juha Kiukas, Sales Director, Trojan Marinex, noted that ballast water testing is expensive and time consuming and consolidation in BWTS market will accelerate. He referred to recent USCG policy letter regarding inoperable systems and clarified that lack of consumables does not meet the ”stops of operating properly” clause and also ships with inoperable BWT system due to BWT system makers bankruptcy and non-availability of spare parts or chemicals will not receive special consideration.

  Juha Kiukas, Sales Director, Trojan Marinex presentation during 2015 GREEN4SEA Forum USCG Ballast water treatment rules are effective since 2012 and ships visiting US ports need to install a Ballast water treatment system latest by first dry-docking after January 2016. USCG AMS approval is only an interim solution and paths to type approval vary. Many ship owners question UV based solutions due to so called “live versus dead” issue”. USCG has however the ability to accept alternative test methods like the MPN, widely used for UV based systems.   Alternate Management System (AMS) is only an interim solution. It is not a USCG type approval.  Trojan Marinex was  the first company to apply in the world for USCG type approval. We know quite well the USCG type approval process.  With AMS, there are a lot of pitfalls. First of all, it is valid only for 5 years and there is the obsolescence risk. If you install an AMS system at the moment and  the supplier don’t get the USCG type approval for that system as a consequence, you may have to take it off. It is also written in the US law that after the existence of type approved system, you are not...