JFE Engineering Corporation and Panasia Co are the latest two BWMS manufacturers who filed in late March type approval applications to USCG Marine Safety Center. Until today, USCG has received 12 applications for BWMS Type Approval, while 6 manufacturers have received the final Certificate which acknowledges full compliance with the USCG requirements.
In particular, USCG Marine Safety Center announced that:
- The 11th application was received March 29, 2018, for the BallastAce system, manufactured by JFE Engineering Corporation.
• The 12th application was received March 30, 2018, for the GloEn-Patrol system, manufactured by Panasia Co., Ltd.
Following the first submission, MSC review the applications for compliance with U.S. Coast Guard regulations in 46 CFR 162.060. The remaining BWMS applications under review come from the following manufacturers: Samsung Heavy Industries (Republic of Korea), Techross (Republic of Korea), DeNora (USA) and BIO-UV Group (France). Once it has been determined that each application meets the requirements, MSC will issue each company a type approval certificate.
US regulations require all vessels trading in US waters to treat their ballast water with USCG type approved ballast water treatment system before discharge.
So far, Optimarin (Norway), Alfa Laval (Sweden) , TeamTec Ocean Saver (Norway), Sunrui (China), Ecochlor (USA) and Erma First (Greece) were able to offer BWTS in full compliance with US Coast Guard requirements.
A detailed table by USCG MSC below shows their current type approval status:
During the last GREEN4SEA Conference, Mr. Juha Kiukas, Sales Director, Trojan Marinex, noted that the BWMS market is currently becoming more mature and around 20 Type Approvals are expected up to 2019.