Coast Guard grants BWMS type approval to Alfa Laval, OceanSaver AS

The following is the text of a blog post on Coast Guard Maritime Commons:

(WASHINGTON) — On Friday, the Coast Guard Marine Safety Center issued the second U.S. Coast Guard ballast water management system (BWMS) type-approval certificate to Swedish manufacturer Alfa Laval Tumba AB, and third certificate to Norwegian manufacturer OceanSaver AS after a detailed review of each manufacturer's type-approval application determined the system met the requirements of 46 CFR 162.060.

The Alfa Laval PureBallast 3 system incorporates four ultraviolet reactor sizes: 170, 300, 600, 1000. The reactors can be arranged either individually or in parallel to achieve treatment capacities ranging from 85 cubic meters per hour to 3,000 cubic meters per hour. This initial approval only covers those systems which use the tested UV reactor sizes of 300 and 1000. Future approval of the 170 and 600 reactors is dependent on Coast Guard approval of the UV reactor scaling studies, which are currently under review by the Marine Safety Center.

The OceanSaver BWTS MKII incorporates an electro-chlorination, or electrodialysis, process to achieve treatment capacities ranging from 200 cubic meters per hour to 7,200 cubic meters per hour.

A copy of the type-approval certificates may be obtained by contacting the respective manufacturer.

Concurrent with the first BWMS type-approval certificate, the Coast Guard released Marine Safety Information Bulletin 14-16 which provides answers to frequently asked questions concerning the extension program, vessel compliance dates, and use of alternate management systems (AMS).

The Coast Guard’s ballast water portal provides information on BWM compliance date extensions. The site also provides access to regulations, policy letters, informational bulletins, and extension application status to help the maritime industry comply with the BWM requirements.

Please send questions not answered on Homeport regarding the Coast Guard’s BWM extension program and requests for compliance extension to: environmental_standards@uscg.mil.

By Professional Mariner Staff