Damen to Offer ERMA FIRST's Compact oneTANK BWTS

Dutch shipbuilding group Damen has signed its first contact with ballast water treatment systems (BWTS) manufacturer ERMA FIRST. The Greek manufacturer ERMA FIRST will supply its oneTANK, which is the world’s smallest BWTS, using chemical injection methods to clean ships’ ballast water.

Damen Green Solutions has a broad selection of BWTS in its range, offering shipowners various capacities and techniques in treating their ballast water. With the addition of the ERMA FIRST oneTANK, Damen can provide clients with a solution that is not only small, but also modular. This modularity will be particularly important in Damen’s first project with ERMA FIRST, where the client was looking for a plug-and-play ballast water treatment product that could be placed on the deck of its vessel.

“Our client needed a temporary Ballast Water Treatment Solution for quite an old vessel,” said Damen sales manager, Rutger van Dam. “ERMA FIRST’s oneTANK is small enough to be housed in a twenty-foot container. This means that installation will be quite straightforward and, more importantly, at the end of the vessel’s operational life, the whole system can be removed and installed on another vessel.”

The contract broadens Damen's scope of ballast water treatment products that it can offer its clients. “We have different systems available from various manufacturers. We know the pros and cons of all these systems; they have varying capacities and use different techniques: UV, filtration, electrolysis, and now chemical injection. Whatever the client requires, we have the knowledge and experience in house to offer exactly what our they are looking for,” van Dam said.

To treat a vessel’s ballast water, the fully-certified ERMA FIRST oneTANK uses an 8.25% or 12.5% sodium hypochlorite and 30% sodium thiosulfate solution, with both chemicals being neutralized after use. “For owners working with workboats, superyachts and pontoons (smaller vessels) that are not dependent on frequent ballast operations, oneTANK is a great solution,” van Dam said.

ERMA FIRST describes oneTANK as a small scale innovative, low-cost, fully automated, IMO Revised G8 Code and United States Coast Guard compliant system. Its mixing technology is developed and patented by U.S. Geological Survey. “The oneTANK system is a game-changer for all size and type of vessels with space limitations, struggling to comply with stringent ballast water regulations. Hence, oneTANK is the ultimate solution for larger vessels’ aftpeak tanks as well as for smaller vessels, such as workboats, tugboats, semi-submersibles, fishing vessels and superyachts” says Konstantinos Dimopoulos, ERMA FIRST international sales manager.

oneTANK been tested to demonstrate removal of viable aquatic invasive species, it also ensures that residual chemical levels are environmentally friendly. The technology has undertaken significant testing for disinfection by-products in accordance with guidance from the International Maritime Organization. Dimopoulos said, “A small, simple system is also a sustainable system. oneTANK uses no exotic materials, no filtration, no transformers or rectifiers. At the end of its life, the system is fully recyclable”.