Tips for good service

One vital consideration for any ballast water management system (BWMS) is availability. If, for any reason, the system is out of action then the ship is severely restricted in its ability to trade. Any consumable items and necessary spare parts have to be available in ports to which the ship trades – otherwise it will not be able to discharge ballast water.

After sales service systems count for a lot when choosing a BWMS supplier. Wärtsilä, for example, can call on its service network of over 1,700 technicians in 70 locations, available at all times, to support its Aquarius BWMS range. That is not to say a smaller, more specialised manufacturer cannot provide good service. Mark Kustermans, market manager of Trojan Marinex, pointed to its two specialist partners, Damen Shipyards and GEA, which provide start-up, commissioning and operational service to its end users.

Damen is also partnered with Evoqua, while GEA is itself part of a large organisation, with a global network that can deliver parts for its own BallastMaster BWMS within 48 hours to all major ports from two logistic centres in the European and Asia Pacific regions. According to its head of marine sales, Sven Mario Jadzinski, such service should rarely be required: “The system has been designed to run safely and with 100 per cent reliability between scheduled maintenance intervals,” he assured BWTT.

Its onboard commissioning programme includes training shipboard personnel in fault diagnosis and repair and the system is designed with fail-safe technology, he said, adding: “the crew receives continuous indications that the system is working correctly, while process data such as throughput capacity and UV transmission rate are recorded and stored.”

Phil Hughes, commercial manager of Coldharbour Marine, agreed. “Owners and managers must ensure not only that the system suits their particular vessel, but that commissioning and servicing is carried out by competent engineers who are fully trained and experienced with that system, and not simply locally-based generalists hired on the basis of cost.”

Keeping track of how the system is functioning is vital. All provide onboard displays of system status and alarms, with some, such as Trojan Marinex, providing automatic shutdown if necessary. Some suppliers take this a stage further by offering remote monitoring and diagnosis capabilities. Wärtsilä is working to integrate BWMS into its remote monitoring system, while Coldharbour can offer diagnosis via remote log-in. Not all manufacturers see this as necessary or desirable. Mr Kustermans cited the limitations in ship-to-shore communications as a barrier to effective remote fault diagnosis.

Evoqua believes it can offer a service package unparalleled in the BWMS market, having recently established a partnership with Drew Marine. Evoqua’s business development manager, Ed McNally, said: “With a presence in over 900 ports worldwide, Drew’s service and logistics network offers ship operators everything necessary to comply with the self-monitoring requirements of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s vessel general permit.” This is additional to Evoqua’s own service network, which is constantly being expanded with increased part stocks, he said.

“We’re very aware that in the event of technical difficulties, vessels can become immediately non-compliant,” adds McNally. “It is crucial that any BWMS issues are resolved as quickly as possible. We aim for responses to technical queries within two hours and issues fixed within 24 hours of initial contact.”

Ecochlor pointed out that, unlike most other shipboard machinery, the BWMS runs for only a small percentage of the time, so it has found that maintenance is minimal and infrequent. It has also signed an agreement with Drew Marine to provide supply and delivery of precursor chemicals and technical support.

Hyde Marine product manager Phil Riggio agreed that after sales support is vital: “With most customers not purchasing full redundancy in BWMS, the effectiveness and availability of service support will be key to long-term performance.”