On April 9, 2018, the US Coast Guard Marine Safety Center (MSC) received its 13th application for Ballast Water Management System (BWMS) type approval for the Aquarius EC system, manufactured by Wärtsilä Water Systems Ltd.
MSC will review the application, to determine if it complies with US Coast Guard regulations in 46 CFR 162.060. Once it has been determined that the application meets the requirements, MSC will issue the company a type approval certificate.
Wärtsilä received type approval from IMO in 2013 for the Electro-Chlorination system and the same design was used for the USCG application. Aquarius EC BWMS uses filtration and electro-chlorination technology, and aims at eliminating installation and operational risks.
Recently, on April 2018, JFE Engineering Corporation and Panasia Co were the latest two BWMS manufacturers who filed 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.
US regulations require all vessels trading in US waters to treat their ballast water with USCG type approved ballast water treatment system before discharge.
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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.
The tables by USCG MSC below show 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.
