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INTERNATIONAL MARITIME ORGANIZATION

IMO 

E

MARINE ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION 

COMMITTEE 

55th session 

Agenda item 2 

MEPC 55/2/3

 20 April 2006

 Original: ENGLISH

HARMFUL AQUATIC ORGANISMS IN BALLAST WATER 

 Basic Approval of Active Substances used by NK Ballast Water Treatment System 

Submitted by the Republic of Korea 

SUMMARY 

Executive summary: This document provides non-confidential information for Basic 

Approval of Active Substances used by NK Ballast Water Treatment 

System in accordance with the Procedure for approval of Ballast 

Water Management Systems that make use of Active Substance (G9) 

adopted by resolution MEPC.126(53). The relevant documents and 

dossiers have been submitted to Marine Environment Division of the 

Organization for review by the GESAMP-Ballast Water Working 

Group 

Action to be taken: Paragraph 5 

Related documents: MEPC 53/24, MEPC 53/24/Add.1 

Introduction 

1 This document contains non-confidential information regarding NK Ballast Water 

Treatment System, as part of a proposal for approval of Active Substances in accordance with 

resolution MEPC.126(53). 

2 The relevant documents and the application dossier have been submitted to the Marine 

Environment Division of the Organization to be reviewed by the GESAMP-Ballast Water 

Working Group. 

3 The applicant is applying for approval of a ballast water management system using its 

brand name (trade mark) NKO3 BWTS. This system produces a low concentration of Active 

Substances Ozone treatment by injecting Ozone into the ship's ballast water. By injecting Ozone 

into the sea water the Aquatic Nuisance Species (ANS) are killed. Ozone kills a percentage of the 

ANS by direct contact. The remainder of the ANS are killed by hypobromous acid created when 

Ozone interacts with other chemicals that naturally occur in sea water. Both Ozone and 

hypobromous acid then disintegrate so there will be no damage to the receiving water into which 
MEPC 55/2/3 - 2 - 

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the treated water is discharged. Only trace amounts of the bromine compounds remain in the 

treated water. Those trace amounts enable the ship's captain to prove to the port authority that the 

ballast water has been properly treated. 

4 Annexed to this document is a proposal for approval of Actives Substances used by a 

ballast water treatment system developed by NK Company Ltd., Korea. The technology used has 

been developed under a license from NKO3 Corporation, Korea jointly owned by NK Company, 

Ltd., Korea and Nutech O3, Inc., of the United States. 

Action requested of the Committee 

5 The Committee is invited to consider the proposal for approval of the Active Substances 

used by NKO3 system for ballast water management. 

*** 
MEPC 55/2/3 

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ANNEX 

INFORMATION FOR BASIC APPROVAL OF ACTIVE SUBSTANCES USED BY 

NK BALLAST WATER TREATMENT SYSTEM DEVELOPED BY 

NK CO. LIMITED, KOREA 

NON-CONFIDENTIAL SUMMARY INTRODUCTION 

1 Statement of the problem 

The worldwide transfer and introduction of non-indigenous species (NIS) by human activities is 

having significant and unwanted ecological, economic, and human-health impacts. Although 

most attention to date has focused on invasions in terrestrial and freshwater habitats, it is evident 

that NIS invasions have become a potent force of change in coastal marine ecosystems. Roughly 

400 marine and estuarine NIS are known to be established, and over 200 of these species may 

have occurred in a single estuary. Some of these species have become numerically or 

functionally dominant in invaded communities, where they have significant impacts on 

population, community, and ecosystem-level processes. Although many transfer mechanisms 

(or vectors) have contributed historically to the invasion of coastal habitats by NIS, shipping has 

been widely considered to be the major vector responsible for many of the known invasions. 

Furthermore, the global movement of ballast water now appears to be the single largest transfer 

mechanism for marine NIS. 

2 Current state of knowledge 

The current studies, that have been on-going for three years, have resulted in a much better 

understanding of Ozone process for ballast water treatment. The experiments have been divided 

into two general areas, chemistry and biology. 

The chemical aspects have involved making sure that an understanding of the fate of Ozone is 

better understood in ìreal-worldî application and what, if any, are the effects of it on the 

chemical properties of the water. It is clear from our studies that the life-time of Ozone is 

insufficient to be responsible for much, if any, of the effects that we have observed. However, the 

residual oxidant that is formed, bromine, is the chemical that results in the observed biological 

control that we have observed. The sea water chemistry has not been affected at all during the 

tests that have been conducted. That is, the variables such as pH, salinity and nutrient 

concentrations have not been affected. 

The biological aspects of the studies have involved examining organisms at various trophic levels 

from bacteria to larger caged organisms. In general, bacteria have consistently been reduced to 

below detection limits or > 99.99% removal; with no re-growth observed after 30 days of storage 

in the dark. Phytoplankton, dinoflagellates and microfalgellates were reduced to greater than 

95%. However, it is felt that a better indicator for phytoplankton inactivation (kill) would be to 

determine chlorophyll levels before and after treatment. An area of active investigation is to look 

at longer process times using lower Ozone doses to determine whether this approach would result 

in better control; i.e. higher ìkillî rates but with lower residual bromine levels. This will involve 

ìride-alongî studies where process times of greater than 10 hours are used. The studies with 

caged organism resulted in mixed results. It is felt that the cages themselves hamper the 

dissolution of the Ozone or transport of the residual oxidant into the cages and therefore the 

results underestimate its effectiveness. Additional studies are being conducted to better 

understand the effect of bromine on larger organisms. 
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3 Project objectives 

This final series of tests will determine the effectiveness of a new, single point injection 

technology for injecting Ozone into the ballast water. It is believed that this technology will be 

more effective in killing the invasive species, because far greater quantities of Ozone will be 

injected and the distribution of Ozone will be uniform through the ballast water. It will also be far 

less expensive to install since only a single 50 foot to 100 foot pipe, and a venturi, will be 

required to inject the Ozone into the ballast water intake pipe. 

It is also planned to definitively demonstrate that ballast water treated with Ozone will not create 

any environmental hazards when it is discharged from the ship. The injected Ozone reverts to 

oxygen within a few seconds. It is believed that any toxic levels of bromine, or bromate ion, 

created by the Ozone will rapidly disintegrate to levels that meet with yet to be determined 

discharge guidelines. 

4 Methods and program design 

It is intended to select a ship, design a single point Ozone injection system for this ship, install 

the system on the ship during a 2006 out-of-service period, and test the effectiveness of this 

system in the control of invasive aquatic species. A general plan for our scientific protocol can be 

found below. 

4.1 Goal

To establish the absolute treatment efficiency of the single point ozonation process for organisms 

at the various trophic levels in ballast water under ìnormalî ship operations. 

4.2 Treatment goal

Would be to achieve established limits, e.g. IMO treaty goals. 

5 Experimental considerations

5.1 Organisms to be studied ñ trophic levels 

.1 bacteria 

.2 phytoplankton 

.3 zooplankton 

.4 caged organisms 

5.2 Control studies 

no treatment 

5.3 Time course 

.1 TRO concentrations ñ two maximum 

.2 TRO decomposition with time (C*T) 
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5.4 WET testing 

.1 function of TRO 

5.5 Chemical characterization 

.1 water quality parameters 

.1 baseline data for each experiment 

.2 have shown extensively that none are altered ñ necessary to do more? 

.2 bromoform 

5.6 Open ocean exchange

not planned 

5.7 Laboratory experiments for selected pathogens and indicator organisms 

.1 Vibrio cholerae 

.2 Escherichia coli 

.3 Enterococcus sp. 

6 Sampling 

6.1 Multiple depths in treatment tanks 

.1 flowing water via lines 

.1 bacteria 

.2 phytoplankton 

.3 chemistry 

.2 vertical tows 

.1 zooplankton 

.3 Niskin bottles (if necessary) 

6.2 Time

.1 e.g. 0, 2.5, 5.0 7.5 and 10 hours for most parameters 

.2 0, 5.0 and 10.0 for zooplankton 

6.3 Multiple horizontal sampling points 

6.4 Seasonal sampling 
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6.5 Sampling/tests at both ports of call 

.1 north 

.2 south 

7 Analysis 

7.1 Ship board 

.1 heterotrophic plate counts (if space is available) 

.2 zooplankton (if space is available) 

.3 chemical characterization 

7.2 Shore based 

.1 phytoplankton (chlorophyll and flow cytometry) 

.2 3-D Characterization of treated and untreated water 

8 Control and monitoring 

8.1 The goal will be to incorporate both on-line, real-time measurements and individual 

sample analysis of the effluent (and the water in the ballast tank) to control the TRO. 

8.2 Monitoring will be conducted by testing TRO similar to the use of disinfection 

monitoring used in drinking water. 

9 Output and anticipated benefits 

The ongoing research has indicated that a single point injection system is an efficacious and 

cost-effective treatment system for a full scale system installation. Our proposed research will 

thoroughly examine the efficacy of this in line ozonation system on-board our test vessel. The 

benefits for preventing the introduction of ANS present in ballast water are numerous and well 

documented. Future introductions of aquatic nuisance species could result in enormous economic 

and environmental impacts. 

___________