The Chinese manufacturer SunRui and classification society DNV GL celebrated last week, as Sunrui became the fourth manufacturer of ballast water treatment systems (BWTS) to obtain type approval from the US Coast Guard (USCG).
Its BalClor system treats ballast water in three steps: Filtration, seawater electro-chlorination for disinfection and neutralisation. The company is the first Asian manufacturer to be awarded the USCG type approval certificate for BWTS. As one of five independent laboratories accredited by USCG, DNV GL worked with SunRui on the testing of its BWTS.
“We would like to thank DNV GL for its continuous support and assistance. Obtaining the type approval has been a long and rigorous process and we appreciate DNV GL’s professionalism and precision during this project,” said Fu Hongtian, General Manager of SunRui.
“After winning the IMO type approval issued by DNV GL and the USCG type approval, we will continue to invest in developing equipment for preventing marine and air pollution, with DNV GL as our classification partner. At the beginning of this year, we already applied for the type approval of a selective catalytic reduction system (SCR) to remove nitrogen oxide emissions (NOx), and we will invite DNV GL to witness emission tests soon. Meanwhile, we are also working on a scrubber to clean sulphur oxide emissions (SOx) from ship emissions and we will apply for DNV GL approval for this project in the near future.”
“We would like to congratulate SunRui on this great achievement. We are very pleased that the company chose us as a partner in applying for the IMO and US Coast guard type approval,” said Vincent Li Ping Kwong, Business Development Manager Greater China at DNV GL – Maritime.
“The process has taken around three years and during this time, we were very impressed with SunRui’s commitment to making sure that their ballast water treatment system complied with the highest safety and quality standards. This was a great collaboration and we look forward to continuing this productive relationship with SunRui,” he added.
“DNV GL and its associated sub-laboratories DHI Denmark, NIVA (Norway), Golden Bear Facility (USA) and DHI Singapore have been deep into the details of USCG testing for three years and have gained a great deal of experience in what is practical and possible to achieve in complying with the regulation,” said Martin Olofsson, Senior Principal Engineer, Environmental Protection at DNV GL – Maritime.
There are now five “Independent Laboratory” accreditations for BWTS. Of 45 BWTS manufacturers who have signed a letter of intent for having their systems approved by the USCG, DNV GL is currently handling 25, making it the largest independent provider of laboratory services.
Including SunRui, only four manufacturers have been awarded a USCG type approval certificate, and all of these were submitted by DNV GL. Ballast water treatment systems must pass through an extremely stringent testing regime in order to obtain USCG type approval, including function tests, environmental tests, and land-based and shipboard testing. Manufacturers must make a significant commitment to achieving approval, as the whole process can take more than two years to complete.
Electrolytic treatment systems have a market share of around 35%, the second most commonly used system. Many of these systems also use a filter as a pretreatment. By passing an electric current through a small side-stream of seawater, they use the salt and the water molecules in a chemical reaction to generate sodium hypochlorite, a disinfectant, which is then reinjected into the ballast water to kill all organisms. Electrolytic treatment systems are well suited for use in larger vessels, such as tankers and bulk carriers, which have large ballast water volumes and high flow rates in the range of up to 8,000 cubic metres per hour.
Pictured are Fu Hongtian General Manager of Sunrui (left) and Vincent Li, DNV GL’s Regional Business Development Manager for Greater China.