DHI has agreements with three independent laboratories that are recognized by U.S. Coast Guard for the evaluation of BWMS type approval tests: DNV GL, Lloyd’s Register and Korean Register. The collaboration with DNV GL and Lloyd’s Register has developed through many projects, while DHI has not yet conducted type approval testing together with Korean Register. Several manufacturers from China, Japan and Korea, however, have been testing their BWMS at DHI’s test facility in Denmark, and it is the ambition of DHI to continue and expand the dialogue with manufacturers in Asia.
The experienced team and flexible work processes are the reasons for the efficient BWMS type approval testing at DHI. The land-based test facility usually accommodates five different BWMS, and an extra connection point for a sixth BWMS was established in 2018. The extra connection point increases the flexibility of DHI’s test facility even further, as Gitte I. Petersen, Head of Department, explains: “Many of our customers want to expand the testing programme to include an alternative filter or to verify the biological treatment efficacy, when the ballast water is discharged with the shortest possible holding time in the ballast water tanks – we have even better possibilities to meet the needs of the manufacturers, when we are able to connect six BWMS at the test facility.”
The commercial interest is that the treated ballast water complies with the regulations and preferably can be discharged directly after treatment by the BWMS – this means that the requirements to live organisms at discharge shall be fulfilled without the extra ‘help’ provided by the die-off during the storage in the ballast water tanks. The related BWMS type approval test concept is called ‘performance testing with reduced holding time’. Before the initiation of the type approval test, the BWMS manufacturer describes the operational conditions that permit the BWMS to treat the ballast water in accordance with the regulation. This is referred to as the manufacturer’s performance claim, which shall be approved by the independent laboratory and implemented in the testing.
The manufacturers sometimes state performance claims suggesting that the BWMS can comply with the requirements with no holding time or any shorter holding time than the 24 hours prescribed in the ETV Protocol which is part of the U.S. regulation. The manufacturer and the independent laboratory may decide an operational holding time shorter than 24 hours, whereupon the treatment performance is verified at the land-based facility in tests with an appropriate short holding time. DHI is ready to provide the empirical evidence that may be required to support the performance claims by BWMS manufacturers.