There are a large number of on-board test kits available and a simple internet search will find many of them. The French company Aqua-Tools, for example, specialises in water microbiology in a number of sectors and has developed a ballast water monitoring kit that it says will track all micro-organisms in three minutes. It has developed this in partnership with SGS and LuminUltra of Canada, which makes the measuring instruments.
UK company Marine Testing Solutions includes a ballast water testing option among its range of products. Its MTS-K100188 kit contains a range of testing solutions and hardware and is described as being easy to use and reliably accurate.
The UK and German Tintometer Group offers a ballast water test kit under its Lovibond brand name that includes a Fluorometer, a chlorine analyser and a salinity refractometer. It will confirm compliance to the D1 and D2 standards and promises “results in seconds”, the company’s literature notes.
Germany’s CM Technologies offers a test kit that it says will provide simple and accurate testing for a range of bacteria, for viable organisms and salinity. The kit will “provide all equipment to ensure and prove compliance with the IMO’s Ballast Water Convention,” the company’s website says.
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