The US Coast Guard (USCG) has granted Alternate Management System (AMS) acceptance for Wärtsilä's Aquarius Ballast Water Management System (BWMS).
This allows all US and foreign flag ships fitted with Aquarius to operate in US territorial waters and to discharge its treated ballast water for an interim period of up to five years from the ship specific implementation date.
AMS acceptance is the first stage towards obtaining full USCG type approval. Wärtsilä anticipates having all activities necessary to gain full US type approval completed within the five year interim period.
One of Two Systems without Salinity Restrictions
Based on an evaluation by the USCG, AMS acceptance has been granted for use over the full range of water salinities, that is fresh, brackish and sea water. As one of only two AMS accepted systems without salinity restrictions, this solution permits ships fitted with the system to operate in the Great Lakes region, which is important for operators in this challenging environment.
Aquarius UV Ballast Water Management
Aquarius UV is a modular ballast water management system involving filtration and medium pressure UV disinfection technology.
The system treats the ballast water using a two stage process. Upon uptake, the seawater is first passed through a back washing filter (first stage). The filtered seawater then passes through a UV chamber (second stage) where ultra-violet light is used to disinfect the water prior to its entering the ballast tank. Upon discharge, water from the ballast tanks passes through the UV chamber only for a second time.
Wärtsilä has delivered the Aquarius UV system for four new platform supply vessels (PSVs) currently being built for US based Tidewater Marine LLC. In addition, the BWMS has been retrofitted to two LPG carriers for Chemgas BV, and is being installed on an LPG carrier owned by Carbofin SpA currently trading in US waters.
