SYSTEM AND METHOD OF BALLAST WATER TREATMENT WITH CONTINUOUS BIOFOULING CONTROL

• US 20150183663A1
• Filed: 08/28/2013
• Published: 07/02/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sembcorp Marine Repairs & Upgrades Pte Limited
• Original Assignee: Sembawang Shipyard Pte Limited (Sembcorp Industries Limited)
• Inventors: Chew, Hwee Hong, Kuik, Sow Hong, Chew, Tee Tank, Chua, Chee Yong
• Granted Patent: US 10,457,570 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B63J 4/002 for treating ballast water
• CPC Class Codes: C02F 1/001 Processes for the treatment of water whereby the filtration technique is of importance C02F1/44 takes precedence; construction of filters in general B01D24/00 - B01D41/00
• CPC Class Codes: C02F 1/32 with ultraviolet light
• CPC Class Codes: C02F 1/325 Irradiation devices or lamp constructions
• CPC Class Codes: C02F 1/38 by centrifugal separation
• CPC Class Codes: C02F 1/487 using high frequency electromagnetic fields, e.g. pulsed electromagnetic fields
• CPC Class Codes: C02F 2103/008 Originating from marine vessels, ships and boats, e.g. bilge water or ballast water
• CPC Class Codes: C02F 2201/3222 Units using UV-light emitting diodes [LED]
• CPC Class Codes: C02F 2303/04 Disinfection
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 70/00 Maritime or waterways transport

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention relate to ballast water treatment system and method onboard ships or sea-going vessels. The system includes a filtration system, a UV disinfection system and a biofouling control system, which is adapted to provide continuous control of multiplication of marine organisms even during an absence of a ballasting and a de-ballasting process.

Claims

1. A ballast water treatment system suitable for ballasting and de-ballasting water on ships or sea-going vessels, the system comprising:

a primary filtration system adapted to remove particles from a ballast water;

an organism control treatment system comprising at least one biofouling control (BFC) unit and at least one ultraviolet (UV) disinfection chamber, wherein the UV disinfection chamber includes at least one ultraviolet (UV) lamp adapted to irradiate the filtered ballast water during a ballasting and a de-ballasting process,

wherein the BFC unit is disposed at least one of the primary filtration system, a first pipe which fluidly connects to or from the primary filtration system, the UV disinfection chamber, and a second pipe which fluidly connects to or from the UV disinfection chamber, and

wherein during an absence of the ballasting and the de-ballasting process, the UV lamp of the UV disinfection chamber is adapted to be inactivated and the BFC unit is adapted to at least intermittently generate and propagate through the ballast water a plurality of electromagnetic waves within at least one desired time-varying frequency range to continuously control multiplication of marine organisms in the ballast water and on a plurality of surfaces in contact with the ballast water.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one UV lamp is a Light Emitting Diode (LED) UV lamp.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the UV disinfection chamber further includes one of a quartz glass and a laminated glass separating the filtered ballast water from the at least one LED UV lamp.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the UV disinfection chamber further includes at least one Amalgam UV lamp.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one frequency range is within 50 Hz to 2,000,000 Hz and the plurality of electromagnetic waves have pulsed peak-to-peak voltage in a range of 12 V to 200 V as measured by oscilloscope.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one frequency range is within 50 Hz to 200,000 Hz, and the plurality of electromagnetic waves have pulsed peak-to-peak voltage in a range of 12 V to 200 V as measured by oscilloscope.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the BFC unit is adapted to generate the plurality of electromagnetic waves with different pulsed frequency ranges which are respectively selected to control multiplication of marine organisms with sizes greater than 50 μ

m, marine organisms with sizes between 10 μ

m to 50 μ

m and bacteria.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein during the ballasting and the de-ballasting process, the BFC unit is adapted to generate and propagate through the ballast water a plurality of electromagnetic waves within at least one desired frequency range to continuously control multiplication of marine organisms in the ballast water and on a plurality of surfaces in contact with the ballast water.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprises a secondary filtration system which is adapted to receive rejected ballast water obtained from the primary filtration system during the de-ballasting process, the secondary filtration system is adapted to filter the rejected ballast water.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the secondary filtration system is adapted to reduce a volume of the rejected ballast water by up to 99%.

11. A method of treating ballast water onboard ships or sea-going vessels, the method comprising:

passing a ballast water through a primary filtration system to remove particles from the ballast water;

during a ballasting or a de-ballasting process, disinfecting a filtered ballast water by a combination of ultraviolet (UV) light irradiation and biofouling control;

during a ballasting process, receiving the disinfected ballast water into a ballast tank; and

during an absence of the ballasting and the de-ballasting process, controlling multiplication of marine organisms in the ballast water and on a plurality of surfaces in contact with the ballast water by

at least intermittently generating a plurality of electromagnetic waves within at least one desired time-varying frequency range, and

propagating the plurality of electromagnetic waves to at least one of a primary filtration system, a first pipe which fluidly connects to or from the primary filtration system, a UV disinfection chamber, and a second pipe which fluidly connects to or from the UV disinfection chamber.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein disinfecting the filtered ballast water by UV light irradiation includes providing the UV disinfection chamber and at least one Light Emitting Diode (LED) UV lamp in the UV disinfection chamber.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein providing at least one Light Emitting Diode (LED) UV lamp includes providing one of a quartz glass and a laminated glass separating the filtered ballast water from the at least one LED UV lamp, wherein the one of the quartz glass and the laminated glass is adapted to remove UVA and UVB from the UV light irradiation.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein disinfecting the filtered ballast water by UV light irradiation further includes providing at least one Amalgam UV lamp in the UV disinfection chamber.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein generating a plurality of electromagnetic waves includes generating a plurality of electromagnetic waves which are within a range of 50 Hz to 2,000,000 Hz with pulsed peak-to-peak voltage in a range of 12 V to 200 V as measured by oscilloscope.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein generating a plurality of electromagnetic waves includes generating a plurality of electromagnetic waves which are within a range of 50 Hz to 200,000 Hz with pulsed peak-to-peak voltage in a range of 12 V to 200 V as measured by oscilloscope:

17. The method of claim 11, wherein generating a plurality of electromagnetic waves further includes generating the plurality of electromagnetic waves with different pulsed frequency ranges which are respectively selected to control multiplication of marine organisms with sizes greater than 50 μ

m, marine organisms with sizes between 10 μ

m to 50 μ

m and bacteria.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein during a ballasting or a de-ballasting process, disinfecting a filtered ballast water includes generating and propagating through the ballast water a plurality of electromagnetic signals within at least one desired frequency range.

19. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

during the de-ballasting process, after removing particles from a ballast water by filtration, receiving rejected ballast water at a secondary filtration system, removing particles from the rejected water by the second filtration system to reduce a volume of the rejected ballast water.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

storing the rejected ballast water discharged by the secondary filtration system, whose volume is 1% of the rejected ballast water entering the secondary filtration system.