Author: nivaoslo

Alfa Laval has successfully completed additional tests at the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) to verify the biological efficacy of Alfa Laval PureBallast 3 without holding time.

Stephanie Delacroix, Ballast-test Facility Manager at NIVA, joined a discussion panel on NRK Ekko November 30th. The interview is conducted in Norwegian.

Please visit NRK Ekko to hear the discussion.

 The International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments (BWM Convention) requires ships to manage their ballast water to remove, render harmless or avoid the uptake or discharge of aquatic organisms and pathogens within ballast water and sediments. The convention enetered into force September 8th 2017.

“This is a landmark step towards halting the spread of invasive aquatic species, which can cause havoc for local ecosytems, affect biodiversity and lead to substantial economic loss”, said IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim in a press release.

“The requirements which enter into force today [September 8th] mean that we are now addressing what has been recognized as one of the greatest threats to the ecological and the economic well-being of the planet. Invasive species are causing enormous damage to biodiversity and the valuable natural riches of the earth upon which we depend. Invasive species also cause direct and indirect health effects and the damage to the environment is often irreversible”, he said.

Lim added that the entry into force of the BWM Convention will not only minimize the risk of invasion by alien species via ballast water, it will also provide a level playing field globally for international shipping, providing clear and robust standards for the management of ballast water on ships.

Read more: NIVA approved by US Coast Guard as subcontracted test facility for Lloyd’s Register

On December 2nd 2016, the Coast Guard Marine Safety Center issued the first U.S. Coast Guard Ballast Water Management System (BWMS) Type Approval Certificate to Norwegian manufacturer Optimarin AS after a detailed review of the type approval application determined the system met the requirements. The system has been tested in close cooperation with NIVA.

The development, which adds to IMO approval and certification from a host of classification societies, means Optimarin’s environmentally friendly UV-based technology now leads the market in terms of global compliance.

– This is a huge day for our company, and our customers, says Optimarin CEO Tore Andersen.

– US Coast Guard has the world’s most stringent testing standards, meaning that once a system has approval it is assured of total global compliance, now and into the future.

In early 2015, the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) was officially approved by US Coast Guard (USCG) as subcontracted testing facility for BWMS. NIVA quickly started official USCG testing of this BWMS developed by Optimarin in freshwater, brackishwater and seawater qualities for land-based and shipboard testing. That acceptance by US Coast Guard came at the 10 year anniversary of the Test Facility at Solbergstrand. Less than two years later, the USCG-approval for Optimarin marks another milestone for NIVA’s ballast water team.

– We are proud to have been the test facility for the first BWT system supplier to obtain USCG approval, says Stephanie Delacroix, project manager and research scientist at NIVA.

– This adds to the formidable testing experiences gained since the start in 2005, and the great R&D effort of NIVA’s Test Facility for sampling, analysis methods and other required testing procedures, Delacroix says.

Read the full article at niva.no – NIVA’s collaborator Optimarin first BWT system supplier to obtain USCG approval.

Alfa Laval became the first ballast water management system (BWMS) supplier to reapply for US Coast Guard (USCG) type-approval September 21st after its first application was rejected in December. That failure was, according to a statement to Ballast Water treatment technology, because the USCG said the testing regime that it and others had used was not acceptable, so Alfa Laval commissioned new tests on its PureBallast 3 family using the CMFDA/FDA ‘stain’ test protocol.

Alfa Laval carried out their own research tests at DHI in Denmark and BallastTech-NIVA in Norway with official testing being commissioned from DHI with class DNV GL preparing a test report package. The class society is accredited as an independent laboratory by the USCG for this role.

In a statement, Anders Lindmark, general manager, said the testing involved the same hardware, power consumption and flow as the IMO-approved version of PureBallast 3.

>> Read more at www.ballastwatermanagement.co.uk

Finland’s ratification means the convention will come into force on 8 September 2017, which is now set to be a key date for shipowners, managers and equipment manufacturers around the world.
Finland’s accession brings the combined tonnage of contracting states to the treaty to 35.1441 percent, with 52 contracting parties. The convention stipulates that it will enter into force 12 months after ratification by a minimum of 30 States, representing 35 percent of world merchant shipping tonnage.

Read more: NIVA officially approved by USCG as subcontracted testing facility for BWMS

Norway is a major shipping nation and Norwegian shipowners own and operates a large part of the world fleet through shipping companies registered in other countries. The Norwegian offshore fleet and rig fleet is among the largest in the world. Thus it is natural that Norwegian actors are central in the development of technology for ballast water.

NIVA’s Marine Research Station at Solbergstrand in the narrow Drøbak Sound, a little south of Oslo, became the first internationally authorised full scale testing facility for both marine water and brackish water in 2005.

Read more: How NIVA deals with ballast water

After NIVA was officially approved by the US Coast Guard and DNV-GL as a test facility subcontractor for ballast water treatment in March this year, NIVA’s ballast water team has worked intensively with Optimarin, a Norwegian provider of technology based on filtration and UV-treatment of ballast water. In November they had a breakthrough.

The International Ballast Water Convention, adopted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in 2004, has for several years been near ratification and is now about to be realized. The convention will enter into force one year after it has been ratified by 30 countries – representing 35 percent of the world’s ballast water tonnage. Norway approved the convention in 2006 and there is hope that the convention will be ratified in 2015.

The US government has chosen to set their own requirements for ships operating in US waters. These requirements have forced ship owners to comply with the regulations of the US Coast Guard (USCG) as well as the upcoming ratification of the IMO Convention.

Viability versus vitality

The challenge has been that where the IMO’s accepted enumeration method of living organisms in ballast water identifies the cells being able to multiply after treatment (viability) – by the so-called culture method – the United States requires the use of living cells enumeration method that identifies the organisms as immediately dead post water treatment (vitality)- by the so-called staining method.

This is a problem, especially for ballast purification equipment with ultraviolet radiation (UV) as an important component. UV acts primarily by damaging DNA, with relatively large doses of UV needed to instantly kill an organism – but significantly less is required to stop the organism’s ability to reproduce. This is the basis of the UV method of ballast water treatment; an organism which is unable to reproduce is not considered an ecosystem threat.

Using an UV dose that kills instantly would require so much energy that it – until recently – was unrealistic to use such equipment aboard boats to treat many hundreds or thousands of cubic meters of water per hour.

It is therefore with great joy and relief that NIVA has now succeeded in showing – for the first time – that Optimarin’s UV-technology now also meets USCG requirements.

– USCG unconsciously closed the market for UV-technologies because they require the use of a staining method that overestimates the number of living organisms after UV treatment – the so-called “false positive”, says Stephanie Delacroix, researcher at NIVA and head of NIVA’s ballast team.

Find the full article on niva.no – New milestone for NIVA: Meets American requirements for ballast water management methods

18th of March 2015, U.S Coast Guard approved The Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) to perform land-based and shipboard testing of Ballast Water Management Systems (BWMS) on behalf of DNV-GL.

With this recognition, NIVA can now independently evaluate the performance of ballast water management systems (BWMS) for type approval, in compliance with International Maritime Organization (IMO) and USCG standards.

NIVA is the third non-american facility that offers USCG testing services, and only the second in Europe.

The recent approval of NIVA to perform land-based and shipboard testing of Ballast Water Management Systems on DNV-GLs behalf adds to the formidable testing experiences gained since the start in 2005, and the great R&D effort of NIVA’s Test Facility for sampling, analysis methods and other required testing procedures.

NIVA has already started official USCG testing of Optimarin BWMS in fresh, brackish and seawater.

Find the full article on niva.no – NIVA officially approved by USCG as subcontracted testing facility for BWMS