BWTS – Officer of the Watch

Ballast Water Treatment Systems Selection and Use

July 11, 2013 by Officer of the Watch Leave a Comment

If someone wonders why to install a Ballast Water Treatment System, the answer is that it has to do with legislation; one comes from IMO and the other one from USCG. These two are the driving force for all of the suppliers to develop a system and for the shipowners to install a system at some point from today until 2016 and onwards. But before choosing a system, the available technologies have to be checked. I dare to say that nowadays the technologies are pretty mature and there are quite a few of them, so many choices exist for different shipowners, types of vessels and trading routes.

Minimal Ballast Water VLCC Design

May 9, 2013 by Officer of the Watch Leave a Comment

On 25 February 2013 Namura Shipbuilding acquired AIP (Approval in Principle) from NKK regarding the MIBS (Minimal Ballast water Ship) VLCC project, for which the company has been working for years together with Shipbuilding Research Centre of Japan and with the support of Japanese Government. This tanker design reduces the weight of ballast water required by about 65 percent compared with a conventional hull form.