Ship owners are now able to treat their unmanaged ballast water or load cleaned ballast water in eight different Northern European ports using Damen’s unique IMO certified InvaSave ballast water management system. In a cooperation between DAMEN Green Solutions and DAMEN Shiprepair & Conversion (DSC), this ballast water reception/bunkering service will be available in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Brest, Dunkerque, Vlissingen, Den Helder, Stellendam and Harlingen.
Damen’s InvaSave is the world’s first external ballast water treatment unit designed primarily to offer ship owners a port-based ballast water solution. With this cooperation, vessels coming into these eight ports will be able to take advantage of a one-stop-shop for their ballast water treatment requirements.
No more delays
“Our goal is to build up a reliable worldwide ballast water service network,” says Philip Rabe from DAMEN Green Solutions. “Since the IMO Ballast Water Management Convention was enforced on the 8th of September this year, some ship owners are already facing delays in ports due to unmanaged ballast water. For example, unmanned barges do not have the capabilities to perform mandatory ballast water exchanges; the D1 Standard.
“With our ballast water bunkering service we can both accept used ballast water for disposal, as well as fill up ballast water tanks with certified clean water at the port of departure. As a result, this eliminates the need for ballast water exchange.”
Offering D2 standard
This service will offer benefits to many more clients, Mr Rabe continues: “Vessels that use an on-board treatment systems and saltwater to make free chlorine will not always be able to function in freshwater ports such as Amsterdam. These vessels would need to load hundreds of tonnes of seawater to operate their on-board systems – and as a consequence, will lose precious cargo capacity.
“Using the InvaSave ballast water treatment service in the port, vessels can load clean, D2 standard, ballast water at the quay without the need to operate their own on-board treatment systems.”
Showing its commitment to build up a worldwide ballast water reception/bunkering service, DAMEN Green Solutions is in talks with several other ports and harbour service providers around the world to offer the InvaSave service.
Gorinchem, Netherlands based DAMEN Shipyards Group (established in 1927) is a globally operating company with 35 owned shipyards and numerous partner yards. DAMEN employs over 6,000 people, has built over 5,000 vessels in more than 100 countries and delivers approximately 180 vessels annually to customers worldwide. DAMEN specializes in building tugs, workboats, patrol vessels, high speed craft, cargo vessels, dredgers, offshore support vessels, oil-spill response vessels, frigates and mega yachts. Besides, DAMEN offers efficient customer support, customer financing and complete lifecycle service.
In addition to ship design and shipbuilding, DAMEN Shiprepair & Conversion has a worldwide network of 17 repair and conversion yards with dry docks ranging up to 420 x 80 metres. Conversion projects range from adapting vessels to today’s requirements and regulations to the complete conversion of large offshore structures. DSC completes around 1,350 repair and maintenance jobs annually.