Treatment of ballast water; how to test a system with a modular concept?

A variety of methods were successfully applied to examine the efficacy of a modular ballast water system according to the standards as adopted by the International Maritime Organization. The ballast water treatment system had a capacity of 530 m3 h(-1) consisted of a pump system, a hydrocyclone, a 50 microm mesh-size self-cleaning filter and an installation for the addition of a chemical disinfectant (PERACLEAN Ocean). The land-based testing facility used natural sea water of high turbidity during the spring phytoplankton bloom. The mesozooplankton fraction was inspected with a standard binocular. Larger zooplankton were effectively removed with the filter; the smaller sized fraction containing larvae and nauplia were killed after chemical treatment. The phytoplankton component was monitored using flow cytometry. The huge colonies of the phytoplankton Phaeocystis globosa were disrupted in the hydrocyclone liberating the colony cells which passed as single cells through the filter. These cells remained viable but were finally killed in the secondary (chemical) step. Bacteria also passed all mechanical treatment steps unharmed but were killed in the final step. Viability tests with SYTOX Green, which were specifically designed for phytoplankton, showed that mechanical treatment did not affect the percentage of viable cells a short-term, but after several hours the viable cell counts dropped down to 70%. Phytoplankton cells recovered within a single day and formed a new dense bloom rapidly. The bacteriostatic component of the chemical disinfectant (H2O2) remained present for several days preventing regrowth of bacteria for up to 15 days after addition. In conclusion, the IMO standards were met using the modular ballast water treatment unit and the applied instruments and assays were effective and rapid tools to qualify and quantify the organisms present as well as their viability.