Ballast Water Treatment Market Eyeing a Boom

                           Sustainable Oceans & the Ballast Boom

Environment is the fundamental resource providing us with all that we need for survival and economic development. Rights and responsibilities always go together. All of us are entitled to utilize natural resources for survival and development. But then, we are also responsible for preserving the environment. 

Ballast Water Cycle (Source: http://globallast.imo.org/problem.htm)

 

One of the expressions of this shared ecological responsibility is the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO’s) Ballast Water Management (BWM) Convention, a document that seeks to minimize the toxic effect of ballast water operations on marine ecosystems. 

Standing as it is on the threshold of enactment, the BWM Convention will gain the force of law sooner or later. And when it does, the ballast water treatment industry can look forward to a boom time as about 60,000 vessels begin a scramble to retrofit ballast water management systems (BWMS) aboard ships. 

Reliable estimates expect the industry to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 32.9% during 2013-18 and hit $8.5 billion. While welcome, the optimism is tempered by prudence for the boom may be short lived. Tottering marine ecosystems however can certainly look forward to a whiff of fresh air, dissolved in seawater that is. 

The Mechanics of Ballast Pollution

Ballast water operations are among the four principal hazards to global marine ecosystems. The other three are:

•        over-exploitation of marine flora and fauna
•        land-based sources of marine pollution
•        physical destruction / alteration of the marine habitat

Warsila Ballast Water Management System

(Source: https://www.wartsila.com/media/news/23-01-2019-efficiency-of-wartsila-ballast-water-management-systems-validated-by-strong-demand-2366434

Other threats to marine biodiversity include:

·       climate change

·       oil-gas exploration 

·       inadequate regulatory protection

·       unsustainable tourism

·       maritime accidents, oil spills, and garbage disposal from ships 

·       aquaculture

Stronger and more durable steel hulls replaced wooden hulls about 120 years ago. With this, seawater replaced sand and rocks as ballast. Ballast is critical for the stability and maneuverability of the vessel and for the integrity of the hull. But, ballast water transfers introduced a fresh ecological challenge.

Marine organisms have always taken free rides on ships. But ballast water exchanges multiplied many-fold the number of marine creatures taking free rides. Now, seawater intake and discharge occur at different locations in oceans facilitating a species transfer that spells doom for local ecosystems. 

Then again, shipping traffic has exploded in recent decades and ships presently transport 90% of the globally traded merchandise. According to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), ballast water operations transfer a stunning 3 to 5 billion tons of international waters a year. You can imagine how many million marine creatures that is. 

Wartsila Aquarius^® EC BWMS

(Source: http://www.twentyfour7magazine.com/en/issue/1/2014/#!12)  

Now the BWM Convention comes into force 12 months after 30 countries representing 35% of the global merchant fleet tonnage ratify it. As of October 2014, 43 countries contributing 32.54% of the gross tonnage have ratified it. It is only a question of time before the convention becomes operational.

BBC Research Report: Findings & Implications 

In its report, Ballast Water Treatment: Technologies and Global Markets, BBC Research estimates BWMS installation to peak at 30 BWMS a day or 10,000 a year. After most vessels are BWMS-retrofit, only new-builds, failures, and system upgrades will demand BWMS. The demand may then fall to 5 a day or 2,000 to 3,000 a year. 

These statistics are in sync with the expected alteration in the implementation schedule that may be spread over five years between 2017 and 2021. Earlier, the IMO had called for three-year compliance duration. 

In 2012, the BWMS market was at $1.4 billion. It jumped by 50% to $2.1 billion in 2013. By 2018, it is expected to clock $8.5 billion expanding at a CAGR of 32.9% for the 2013-18 period.  

Now retrofitting a ballast water treatment system is a tailored, lengthy process making shortages a genuine and haunting prospect. BWMS selection criteria includes:

·       onboard power availability

·       existing systems

·       space constraints

·       training and workload of crew

·       sailing routes 

·       ship owner-manager preferences 

Popular Ballast Water Treatment Systems

Better known BWMS include:

·       Wartsila’s Aquarius^® EC (Electro Chlorination) BWMS

·       Optimarin Ballast System (OBS)

·       Evoqua’s SeaCURE^TM BWMS

·       Wartsila’s Aquarius^® UV (Ultra Violet) BWMS

·       BIO-UV’s BIO-SEA^® BWMS

All BWMS employ the following two actions (in that order) for their operations:

·       Separation eliminates larger unwanted elements through filtration or sedimentation

·       Disinfection neutralizes or destroys marine creatures in water employing:

Ø  Chemical Processes such as chlorination

Ø  Physical Actions such as ultraviolet irradiation, ultrasonic treatment, cavitation, heating, or gas injection  

Finally

In nature there are no rewards or punishments, only consequences. The problem is, the consequences are spread across generations. This takes the urgency out of the equation and makes many underestimate the challenge. What we forget is our children face the consequences. Try that as a sleeping pill. 

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