Hapag-Lloyd Implements UV Ballast Water Treatment

German shipping company Hapag-Lloyd relies on chemical-free UV ballast water treatment from GEA for fitting its containership fleet. In April 2015, the BallastMaster ultraV 500 was technically accepted on board Panamax containership London Express (shipboard acceptance approval).

“With a throughput of 500 cubic meters per hour, our DNV-GL-certified system performs the required ballast water cleaning processes by mechanical pre-filtration with subsequent disinfection of the ballast water using UV-C and ultrasound application,” explained GEA Ballast Water Project Manager Tilo Pfützke. “The 294-meter-long freighter can therefore be used worldwide in accordance with the IMO-D-2 standards and actively contributes to the protection of the maritime ecosystem.”

Thanks to its flexible design, bespoke modular integration of the BallastMaster ultraV 500 was possible in the existing ship infrastructure of the London Express, which entered operation in 1998 (gross tonnage 53,523). 

“One particular challenge was connecting to the ship’s software system in order to guarantee easy, reliable and efficient system operation from the control room,” said Lars Voss, Hapag-Lloyd AG Senior Superintendent and Project Manager. “This was achieved perfectly with the intelligent IO control from GEA.”

The aim of the strict ballast water management currently introduced voluntarily at Hapag-Lloyd is sustainable optimization of the container fleet, which currently comprises 190 ships. In this, the world’s fourth largest shipping company is working closely with GEA, with the objective of further simplifying implementation of the ballast water treatment systems through continuous development and performance optimization, GEA said.

With the BallastMaster upgrade, Hapag Lloyd – although not yet obliged to do so for the existing container fleet according to the legal requirements – has now already voluntarily put in place the technical conditions for treatment of the ballast water on board the London Express in accordance with the requirements of the IMO convention.

The cooperation project of GEA with Hapag-Lloyd has been supported and evaluated by classification company DNV GL.