By
Rebecca Gibson |
Foreship is to help Norwegian Cruise Line ensure that the Ballast Water Treatment Systems (BWMTS) it plans to install onboard five of its ships will comply with the International Maritime Organization’s Ballast Water Management (BWM) Convention requirements.
The Ballast Water Management Convention enters force on 8 September 2017 and requires all ships affected to have a treatment system that neutralises any invasive species discharged in ballast water in time for their first IOPP renewal survey. This means that most ships will need to install a BWTS between 2017 and 2021.
Following a successful project it has already completed on Norwegian Dawn, Foreship will provide surveys, installation feasibility studies, design drawings and class approval documentation for Norwegian Pearl, Norwegian Sky, Norwegian Jade and Norwegian Spirit.
“Environmental responsibility is a core value for Norwegian and we welcomed the clarity brought by entry into force of the BWM Convention,” said Giovanni Canu, the cruise line’s vice president of Technical Operations. “Work to install compliant BWMTS on Norwegian Dawn began within a month of ratification. Foreship quickly showed its value in ensuring the project proceeded smoothly to class requirements, leading us to extend to five ships. We need to manage BMTS installations effectively fleet-wide; there will be high demand once shipping moves decisively on compliance.”
Foreship will provide mechanical and electrical design work that meets DNV-GL requirements, take in diagrams for BWTS foundation support structures, piping routing, machinery arrangements, cabling diagrams and systems integration. The company will also help with on-site installation, which will largely be carried out while the ships are in service.
“We are an independent consultancy and recommend shipboard systems in the configurations which are most beneficial for each ship,” said Kim Palén, operations manager at Foreship. “In the case of Norwegian, Alfa Laval’s PureBallast 3.1 BWMS had already been selected, with switchboards and automation cabinets also common across the ships, so we have taken a unified approach. Nevertheless, our technical background reports have shown that flexibility is required to take account of variations between different vessels: even sister ships can become more like cousins after different service and refurbishment histories.”