Hyde Marine, one of the world’s leading ballast water treatment technology companies, will display its Hyde GUARDIAN Gold™ HG250G ballast water treatment system (BWTS) at the upcoming shipbuilding, machinery and marine technology (SMM) international trade fair, 9-12 September, in Hamburg, Germany at Hall A1, Stand 413.
The Hyde GUARDIAN Gold BWTS recently received alternate management system (AMS) approval from the United States Coast Guard (USCG), which is a critical step to achieving full USCG Type Approval. The AMS designation is an interim measure that allows the BWTS to be used on vessels for five years after the vessel is required to comply with the USCG ballast water discharge standards.
Most vessels operating in US waters with ballast capacities between 1500m³/hr and 5000m³/hr will be required to meet USCG ballast water discharge standards by the time of their first major drydocking after 1 January this year.
Providing flow rates up to 250m3/hr and designed to be skid mounted, the HG250G BWTS can be easily installed in existing ships and is ideal for crowded machinery spaces, as well as in new ship construction. The HG250G BWTS is designed for retrofits as it delivers one of the smallest, compact footprints required by a growing number of ship owners and operators.
The BWTS delivers the robust construction and technological specifications anticipated to meet future BWT regulations, which should require filtration to treat ships’ ballast water to prevent the spread of invasive species from port to port.
In addition to the HG250G BWTS display at SMM, Hyde Marine will also demonstrate a new efficient and economical on-board ballast water test system, B-box, which was recently made available from the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ). B-box is designed to help companies conduct accurate analysis regarding the concentrations of chemicals or organisms present in ballast water to help ensure ship owner compliance with pending ballast water testing regulations.
In the future, ship owners and operators will need to comply with the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments (BWMC), which the IMO adopted in 2004. The BWMC requires ships to conduct a ballast water exchange or to meet concentration-based ballast water discharge standards at ports with ballast tanks 99.99% free of living organisms and pathogens.