Oceansaver has achieved a milestone for the ballast water treatment industry with the commissioning of the first treatment system to include filters on a crude oil tanker in Korea.

The 159.000 DWT Suezmax tanker, Ottoman Integrity, is being delivered from a Korean shipyard for Turkish owner Gungen Maritime & Trading, and the installed OceanSaver system is capable of treating ballast water at a rate of 2 x 2.500m3/h.

OceanSaver’s Mark I technology has been installed, which includes filtration, cavitation, disinfection and nitrogen super saturation. The filter and cavitation units are installed in the vessel’s pump room with the disinfection unit and nitrogen system in the engine room and casing area, respectively.

Filtration of sediment and biological material from the uptake water is achieved by in-organic fully automatic back-flushing filters. At the shipowner’s request, the filters were operated for over 70 hours during sea trial, without any operational issues or constraints, performing according to specifications and yard, owner, class, charter and OceanSaver’s full satisfaction.

Owner Osman Gungen picked up the vessel’s first cargo end November where the OceanSaver system was part of normal operations. His advice for other shipowner’s: “In order to get the best possible system for your type of vessel, it is important to keep a close cooperation with your selected maker all the way through the project from early sales stage until first cargo is onboard.”

The partnership with OceanSaver has worked to Mr Gungen’s extreme satisfaction. “The system has been perfectly designed into the vessel,” he said. “The sub-components selected from OceanSaver show that the company does not balance on a thin line.”

“The nitrogen super saturation component offers shipowner’s the potential for reduced vessel maintenance costs through the improved corrosion performance of inerted ballast tanks. It is particularly suited to newbuildings or high specification, specialist vessels and is an optional item in the OceanSaver Mark II system”, said Tor Atle Eiken, Senior Vice President Sales & Marketing, OceanSaver.

The key features of the OceanSaver system with respect to ballast water treatment area are:

•  Capable of large flow capacities

•  EX Approval (gas hazardous areas)

•  Small footprint and high modularity (flexible component location)

•  Maintenance cost savings due to reduced corrosion