Project description
Enhancing shipping sustainability, both environmental and financial
Large commercial shipping vessels have big machinery spaces where fuels, lubricants and other oily chemicals are used in high volumes. During operation or maintenance, some of these can leak from pipes or machines. These oily materials together with saltwater and anything else resulting from washing down the engine room, including washing chemicals, rust, sewage leaks, soot, dust and bacteria, make up bilge water. This wastewater must be treated for discharge at sea, and better ways to do this are needed. The EU-funded ElectroSAnMBR project is developing a biological bilge water treatment method that will both protect the environment and reduce treatment costs.
Objective
Bilge water is the main pollutant of shipboard wastewater; it can be briefly defined as saline, oily and greasy wastewater with a high COD (> 3-15 g COD L-1). The discharge of oil residue to marine environments is prohibited according to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) regulations (MARPOL 73/78) and the European directive 2000/59/EC. However, due to the fact that the major part of the oil in bilge water is emulsified, the physical methods may fail to satisfy the targeted treatment levels and contribute significantly to operational cost. Few studies are so far available for the use of biological methods for real bilge water treatment.
Electro-SAnMBR” project will develop an innovative technology consisting of an electrolysis cell (EC) inside a Submerged Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactor (SAnMBR) for the treatment of real bilge water. The electrochemical system will be consisted by a pair of electrodes (anode and cathode, without an ion exchange membrane) inside a SAnMBR. This e-SAnMBR system will be developed and optimized at a laboratory scale at Environmental Engineering Laboratory (EEL) Cyprus University of Technology (CUT), then it will be operated at pilot scale at Ecofuel Cyprus Ltd and the microbial profile in bioreactors will be examined at Environmental Bioprocessing laboratory (EBL) at CUT. The electrodes will be constructed at the Nano/Micro Mechanics of Materials Lab (NMML) at CUT
The research will be mainly implemented by Dr Gatidou and will involve novel aspects from many disciplines such as molecular microbiology, material science, environmental biotechnology, chemical engineering and environmental analysis and will also involve testing of bioreactors at industrial pilot scale level (Ecofuel Ltd). In addition, potential success of the project could lead to immediate application of the research findings by the company (Ecofuel Ltd) but also to future commercialization of the results
Fields of science
Not validated
Not validated
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringwater treatment processeswastewater treatment processes
- engineering and technologyenvironmental biotechnologybioremediationbioreactors
- natural scienceschemical scienceselectrochemistryelectrolysis
- engineering and technologychemical engineering
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiology
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EFCoordinator
3036 Lemesos
Cyprus