The Environment
Ballast Water Treatment Through Biodispersion
By Satya Ganti, president,
Sarva Bio Remed; and Stewart
Hutcheson, president. Safety Zone
The process of bioremediation of waste
oil through patented biodispersion tech-
nology, consists of a breakthrough in
ballast water treatment, which has been
discovered via research based on the
evaluation of SpillRemed (Marine),
which was developed on the basis of
biodispersion technology for remedia-
tion of bilge water on boats and ships in
an effort to develop an environment
friendly solution to the problem of oper-
ational discharges by ships.
A study was conducted on board
cruise ships equipped with oil water sep-
arators. SpillRemed (Marine) is consid-
ered a suitable replacement to chemical
dispersants.
Although in volumes as large as found
on such ships, it is not possible to com-
pletely remediate the bilge water, by dis-
persing the oil in the water it will be pos-
sible to improve the separation of oil
water separators.
The following is a selection of prelim-
inary results based on the research con-
ducted on a variety of ship types.
Introduction
According to a United Nations Envi-
ronment Program survey of 1997, more
than 30,000 mt of oil is released in the
oceans every year. Ships contribute a
very small share of 12 percent through
discharges regulated by the MARPOL
73/78. which has been accepted by most
of the maritime and flag nations in the
world.
Bilge water stored in the bottom part
of the ships does not contribute in this
for the simple reason that ships are not
allowed to discharge bilge water con-
taining more than 15 ppm of oil.
This has put heavy responsibility on
the ship operators. In order to achieve
the international standards of discharge,
the ships will have to install oil water
separators to separate oil and discharge
water as per the international guidelines.
Dispersion of bilge water subsequent to being treated with SpillRemed (Marine) for 48 hours.
The ships will have to keep the waste oil
exceeding the above limit in their holds
and should discharge only at receiving
facilities available at each port.
However, there have been a couple of
incidents where these discharges have
been made by the ships in violation of
the guidelines indicating that these ships
may have found it difficult to follow the
protocol since it affected their schedule
or from operational necessity. Bilge
water is probably the single largest
source of waste oil produced from mar-
itime activities, and it does not find any
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