Using Onboard-Produced Drinking Water to Achieve Ballast-Free Management

Kun-Tu Lu, Hon-Kit Lui, Chen-Tung Arthur Chen, Li-Lian Liu, Lei Yang, Cheng-Di Dong and Chiu-Wen Chen
Additional contact information
Kun-Tu Lu: Department of Marine Environment and Engineering, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan
Hon-Kit Lui: Department of Oceanography, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan
Chen-Tung Arthur Chen: Department of Oceanography, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan
Li-Lian Liu: Department of Oceanography, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan
Lei Yang: Department of Marine Environment and Engineering, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan
Cheng-Di Dong: Department of Marine Environmental Engineering, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Kaohsiung 811213, Taiwan
Chiu-Wen Chen: Department of Marine Environmental Engineering, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Kaohsiung 811213, Taiwan

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 14, 1-12

Abstract: Based on the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments (the Ballast Water Management Convention, or BWM Convention) of the International Maritime Organization, from 8 September 2017, all ships must have an approved Ballast Water Management Treatment System (BWTS) to prevent the invasion of alien species through the discharge of ballast. Generally speaking, the need for an approved BWTS is limited to large vessels, as they are too large or too expensive for small vessels to install. This study aims to propose a simple ballast-free approach for small vessels (e.g., tugs, workboats, research vessels) that require ballast to compensate for the weight loss of fuel when sailing. Our approach involves refitting the dedicated ballast tank of these small vessels to be drinking water tanks and filling the tanks with onboard-generated distilled or reverse osmosis water to adjust the stability of the ships. We assessed our approach using three vessels. Two ships using our proposed method were certified by the American Bureau of Shipping as containing no ballast water tank, and not being subject to the BWM Convention. This study provides an environmentally harmless, easy to use, and economical approach for small vessels to comply with the BWM Convention.

Keywords: ballast; stability; BWM Convention; drinking water; distilled water; reverse osmosis; invasion; vessel; IMO (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/14/7648/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/14/7648/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:14:p:7648-:d:590964

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().