Finnish scrubber manufacturer Langh Tech has unveiled a new in-house developed compact ballast treatment system with a video link to the installation onboard Linda, a vessel owned by sister company Langh Ship

According to Laura Langh-Lagerlöf, Langh Tech Commercial Director, development of the LanghBW systems including land testing for both IMO and USCG type-approval has been achieved in under a year.

During the design phase, the crew onboard Langh Ship’s vessels was involved into the development process to ensure the system’s suitability for demanding onboard environment and challenging operating requirements.

The system is a UV-based treatment system which combines fine filtration and efficient UV-C treatment. A 20 micron filtration mesh removes all large size organisms from the intake ballast water and UV-reactor installed downstream the filter disinfects the remaining water with high intensity UV-C irradiance. LanghBW systems has a zero hour hold time before discharge in IMO areas and 24 hours in USCG areas. This means that in IMO areas, water treated twice can be discharged instantly without any retention time. During the discharge operation the filter is bypassed and only second UV-dose is applied.

The flow rate of available systems varies from 100 m³/h to 1800 m³/h but even bigger systems can be built whenever needed. The scalability of LanghBW Systems is basing on one reactor design. One UV-reactor is capable of treating 100-300 m³/h of ballast water and the desired flow rate is achieved by installing multiple reactors in parallel. Using only one reactor type simplifies the design and installation work and makes the operation and maintenance easy and straight forward. The reactor design itself provides an effective way for UV-treatment, therefore lowering the system’s power consumption and making the system capable for efficient operation in high turbidity waters with UVT down to 45%.

Shipboard testing of the system will be carried out on Linda which operates in the Baltic Sea.