Jump to the main text

Hitachi Plant Technologies, Ltd.

Hitachi

Ballast water purification system(ClearBallast)

Our ballast water purification systems for ships protect ocean ecosystems and contribute to global environmental preservation.

Overview

Ballast water is sea water used to stabilize hull balance when unloading cargoes. Such sea water contains local plankton, bacteria, viruses, mud and sand of the unloading port where the ballast water is taken.
As the ballast water is discharged together with the plankton, etc. at another port, it possibly impacts the ecosystem in the sea area, causing a global-scale environmental damage.
To overcome this problem, IMO (International Maritime Organization) stipulates all new ships from 2012 (with all ships fitted by 2017) to install Ballast Water Management System on board which shall meet the Standard on the water quality.
Our system adopts the “Coagulation & Magnetic Separation Method” and realizes an environmentally-friendly water purification technology which requires no toxic chemicals.
Consequently, there is no risk of marine pollution which could be caused by residual toxic chemicals. Furthermore it can also significantly reduce mud sediment in Ballast Tank.

Features

  1. No restriction on ballast water discharge operation
    Ballast water is purified at intake, so smooth unloading and the gravity discharge can be performed without any restriction as no treatment is required when discharging water.
  2. Greatly reduces mud sediment in Ballast Tank
    By adopting coagulation method, our system can not only efficiently collect plankton, bacteria and mud but also greatly reduce mud sediment in Ballast Tank.
  3. No byproduct caused by chemicals
    As our system uses neither biological toxicity nor neutralizing chemical, no harmful byproduct is generated by chemicals.
  4. No need to inject chemicals when discharging ballast water
    In the biological toxicity tests conducted according to the IMO convention, the water treated by our system has been confirmed to have no impact on organisms even if it is discharged without being diluted. Our system requiring no chemicals at discharge of ballast water can be said to be an environmentally-friendly system.
  5. Does not damage coatings inside the ballast tank or pipes
    Because no oxidant is included in the additive agents used in our system, there is no concern about the damage on the coatings inside the ballast tank and pipes.
  6. Water salinity does not make an impact on this system treatment
    Our system where “coagulation”, “magnetic separation” and “filter separation” technologies are combined is not affected by the water salinity, so it can provide superior performance in any water area including seawater, brackish water and fresh water.
  7. Low power consumption
    Our system is energy conservation type, so it realizes low power consumption.
  8. Easy explosion prevention
    Explosion-proof measures are necessary only around the motor area.

System Overview

Pre-treatment using coagulation technology
Hitachi Coagulation Process, by mixing coagulants and magnetic powder into seawater taken by Ballast Pump, forms Magnetic Flocs that include Plankton, viruses and other microorganisms as well as mud and sand.

Image: System principle diagram
Process outline

Image: System flow diagram
System flow

Image: Device image diagram
Device diagram

Photograph: Installation example inside a ship
On-board example

An example of land-based test result (in brackish water region) [PSU: 23]
Item D-2 Standard
Requirement		 Untreated water Treated water Control
Microorganism greater than 50μm (microorganisms/㎥) <10 269,500 <10 240,666
Microorganism from 10 to 50μm (microorganisms/ml) <10 2,064 <10 888
Toxicogenic Vibrio Cholerae (O1, O139) (cfu/100ml) <1 <1 <1 <1
Escherichia coli (cfu/100ml) <250 1,596 <250 320
Intestinal Enterococci (cfu/ml) <100 <100 <100 <100
*
PSU: Practical Salinity Unit
*
For untreated water, the data is water quality immediately before starting treatment (immediately after intake). For treated water and control, the data is water quality after 5 days.
An example of onboard test result (in seawater region) [PSU: 31]
Item D-2 Standard
Requirement		 Untreated water Treated water Control
Microorganism greater than 50μm (microorganisms/㎥) <10 31,603 <1 8,392
Microorganism from 10 to 50μm (microorganisms/ml) <10 155 <1 15
Toxicogenic Vibrio Cholerae (O1, O139) (cfu/100ml) <1 <1 <1 <1
Escherichia coli (cfu/100ml) <250 <250 <250 <250
Intestinal Enterococci (cfu/ml) <100 <100 <100 <100
*
PSU: Practical Salinity Unit
*
For untreated water, the data is water quality immediately before starting treatment (immediately after intake). For treated water and control, each data is water quality after 5 days.

Specification

Specification
Ballast Pump Capacity (m³/h) Footprint (m²) *1 Electric Power
(kW)
Coagulation Tank Flocculation Tank
(Vertical Blade)		 Magnetic Separator Filter Separator Additive Processing Unit
*2		 Collected Flocs Heating Equipment Control panel
200 1.2 3.3 4.2 4.3 4.5 1.4 1.2 21
400 1.8 3.7 6.8 7.5 8.3 1.4 1.2 31
800 2.5 11 14 16 8.3 2.3 2.0 56
1,200 5.4 16 27 28 17 4.6 2.8 85
1,600 5.0 22 29 32 17 4.6 2.8 112
2,400 11 32 53 56 44 9.2 4.0 170
*1
Indicates the footprint of each component.
*2
Includes the magnetic powder injector, inorganic coagulant injector and organic flocculant injector.

Notes:
As this system enables flexible equipment layout plans depending on ship's structure, please contact us for details.

  1. Equipment can be divided into some parts and installed apart from each other, if the installation area is limited.
  2. For one of the countermeasures against the limited installation area problem, it is also feasible to utilize a water tank including a ballast tank unused as an alternative for a coagulator tank, flocculator tanks or a collected flocs heating equipment.
  3. The flocculation tank be rotated 90 degrees and installed as option.
  4. Then the flocculation tank, the magnetic separator and the filter separator can be installed in a vertical formation.

Applications

  • Shipping field
*
ClearBallast is a registered trademark of Hitachi Plant Technologies, Ltd. in Japan.

Inquiries about our products

E-mail

Telephone