Siemens Water Technologies announced it has won the U.S. patent for a system and method to control biofouling of filters used as the first stage of treating ballast water in its SeaCURE Ballast Water Management System.
The patent, entitled “Method and System for Biofouling Control of Shipboard Components” (U.S. patent no. 8,591,740 B2), involves injection of biocide into ballast seawater before it reaches the large surface filter intakes to reduce the growth of marine organisms that can clog the filters.
The technology uses a combination of physical separation and a proprietary, on-demand treatment with biocides, produced in-situ from seawater, without the addition of chemicals. It is already incorporated in the Siemens SeaCURE Ballast Water Management System.
Vandhana Ravi, Frost & Sullivan energy and environment research analyst, says, “Effective ballast water management and cooling systems that do not require the addition of chemicals to control biofouling can offer numerous operational and lifecycle cost advantages.”
The SeaCURE system employs filters to remove or break larger organisms using a 40-micron weave-wire screen and provides reliable, non-stop operation at high sediment loads while minimizing backwash flow.
The biofouling control provided to the filter assures SeaCURE’s reliable function and minimizes maintenance requirements of the system. The SeaCURE system can be used not only for treating ballast water, but also for treating onboard cooling water circuits, Siemens said.
The SeaCURE system is designed to comply with International Maritime Organization (IMO) Convention D-2 regulations for ballast water management and received IMO final approval in 2012.