One sure way to fail a commissioning test of a ballast water treatment system is to not clean the ballast tanks and lines, panellists revealed in the Out of commission: how to respond to a negative BWMS commissioning test webinar
In the third Riviera webinar of 2022, Out of commission: how to respond to a negative BWMS commissioning test, a group of experts comprising of CTI Maritec EU area business development manager Andreas Lougridis; Chelsea Technologies sales and business development manager Michael Haraldsson; Control Union Certifications project manager and ballast water testing expert Cees van Slooten; and Lloyd’s Register principal specialist Sahan Abeysekara discussed the implications of the amendments to regulation E-1 of the Ballast Water Management Convention (BWMC) adopted by MECP 74, which requires biological efficacy testing when commissioning a ballast water treatment system on board a vessel.
The webinar was sponsored by Control Union and Chelsea Technologies.
Mr Abeysekara made the important point that commissioning testing is not the same as the testing that takes place as part of the installation of the ballast water treatment system (BWTS).
Although the same terminology is used, commissioning test refers to the amendments to regulation E-1 of the BWMC adopted by MECP 74 requiring biological efficacy testing when commissioning a BWTS on board a vessel. This amendment will come into effect on 1 June 2022.
The test is conducted on board by independent parties, and commissioning testing is successful if the indicative analysis indicates the discharge samples do not exceed the D-2 standard for the size classes analysed and the self-monitoring equipment indicates correct operation.
An indicative test is conducted on board the vessel and a detailed analysis takes place in a laboratory.
Mr Lougridis noted his company has a string of labs across the world and has conducted over 250 commissioning tests (some flags brought in commissioning test early) and identified certain failure conditions.
The number one reason for a failed test was contamination from dirty tanks and ballast lines. The lesson here is it is imperative shipowners and operators clean the sludge and sediment before the test takes place.
A portable device can be used to take an indicative test, such as FastBallast provided by Chelsea Technologies. Mr Haraldsson said the device had several stages of testing to weed out false readings.
Mr van Slooten noted that another way to clear down false readings is to use a device that digitally records video of the samples, which can be double-checked by expert analysis. Mr van Slooten is also on the IMO committee developing the protocols from indicative testing equipment and expressed regret this work had fallen behind the timetable.
In the takeaways, Mr Haraldsson noted the IMO BWMC had been in development since 2004 and there should be no further delays – perfection should not be the aim.
Certainly, ballast water treatment is an imperfect activity, with Mr Sahan noting that an incorrectly positioned sampling point could lead to failure, or in some cases, the lack of a sampling point altogether would also lead to failure of a commissioning test.
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Out of commission: how to respond to a negative BWMS commissioning test panel.
From left to right: Maritec EU area business development manager Andreas Lougridis, Control Union Certifications project manager / ballast water testing expert Cees van Slooten, Lloyd’s Register principal specialist Sahan Abeysekara, and Chelsea Technologies sales & business development manager Michael Haraldsson (source: Riviera)
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