Exploitable results
A test mixture called 'Martob soup' was proposed and prepared. All techniques (at the laboratory scale of operation) were tested and their biological effectiveness assessed. Martob included an assessment of environmental impacts of ballast water treatment technologies tested within the project.
Safety of the selected treatment methods was investigated and Martob considered the majority of possible concerns to be related to operational aspects. Assessment of management technologies has not been limited to their biological effectiveness only, other criteria such as their compatibility with a particular ship and her route, overall cost, safety, crew, life cycle assessment, corrosion effects and many other factors have been considered here as ranking criteria with their individual weighting in the final assessment.
Many technologies tested in Martob have shown that at laboratory and smaller scale, it could be possible to comply with the Convention. Nevertheless, up-scaling such systems to cope with large discharge rates of Ballast Water on heavily ballasted ships requires significant technological development.
Internal design of ballast water tanks in new ship designs, although difficult to implement, must consider minimising the number of places where organisms could shelter and provide ease of flow and full discharge of ballast water and sludge removal. Design of ballast water treatment technologies should provide facilities for easy sampling before and after treatment for both prototypes and full-scale systems. Ballast water transfer pumps (at full size and laboratory scale) play an important role in killing organisms. If they are not a part of the treatment, sampling ports should be designed in such away to disregard pumps' effects.
To increase the level of enforceability of regulations, Martob strongly suggests that an approved procedure for 'Treatment System Type Approval' must be put in place. There must be a clear distinction between sampling for research purpose and sampling for monitoring and compliance with Regulations. Once a system has been tested and verified, coast authorities, similar to their inspections for ballast water management documents, may seek evidence of active operation of such equipment or system which could be digitally logged or monitored during operation.
Martob has paved the way towards establishment of a unified approach for treatment systems' type approval; experiences learned Martob soup and test protocols must be developed further and used in any future research. Martob suggests that additional research and development funds should be provided (through appropriate channels at national, continental and international levels) to enable technologists and scientists to proceed with further development.
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