The most commonly occurring method of Global transfer of non indigenous species has been found to be transfer through shipping industry ballast water. The resulting ecological and economical damage has been enormous and resulted in whole new market for Cumberland traditional disinfection technologies.

The IMO has developed International legislation, The International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments, to regulate discharges of ballast water and reduce the risk of introducing non indigenous species from ships ballast water.

The IMO guidelines have lead to the development and implementation of the D2 standard for ballast water treatment systems. All treatment systems must be tested in accordance with the IMO guidelines.

To ensure effective implementation of the legislation, the IMO Convention has set a roadmap for the ship owners to achieve compliance. Specific timelines have been provided for new and existing ships, additionally differentiated depending on the capacity of the vessel's ballast water tank. Importantly, the agenda outlined in the IMO Convention will influence the timeline for investments of ship owners to install ballast water treatment systems over the next 10 years.

Cumberland believes that high efficiency filtration followed by on site generation of disinfection products using electro-chlorination is the most effective technology for this application. We also believe that the inclusion of UV should be considered for the ballasting option and for smaller systems.

Our C-TREAT™ range of modular ballast water treatment systems are designed to effectively remove silt as a first stage treatment followed by biocide generation using sea water derived electrochlorination. Hypochlorite production by this method is well proven in marine applications and is an extremely effective biocide. Maintaining dead water in ballast tanks is critical in controlling re-growth during voyages. As a further stage and during de-ballasting, a neutralization stage is incorporated where sodium bisulphite is added to control residual chlorine levels in discharged water within recognized International standards. Throughout the process the C-TREAT™ ballast water treatment system continually monitors and logs the residual levels of both biocide and neutralizing agents.

Cumberland has a long history of working in off shore and marine applications and understand the critical issues of space, footprint and operating costs. Our C-TREATTM systems are designed with owners and operators requirements in mind.

Using our extensive experience in marine and rig based electro-chlorination and with our European, Middle East and Far East engineering offices Cumberland is well positioned technically and regionally to support our customer’s requirements in this new application sector.

SYSTEM COSTING

One of the key questions for the ship owners and system suppliers in the market is the pricing of ballast water treatment systems. System suppliers are likely to apportion an added value pricing level in the early stages on the market development, however it is likely that this cost plus calculation will be replaced by adjustment of prices for systems as currently available. Clearly therefore price level is still unstable and reflects the early stage of the market development.

Cumberland has designed a standard range of C-TREAT™ modular systems based on filtration and EC suitable for ballast pumping capacities of 250 m³/h to 2,500 m³/h. Capital costs are forecast at $400,000 to $1.2m, being modular these systems can be configured for higher capacities as required.