I:\MEPC\55\2-3.doc For reasons of economy, this document is pr inted in a limited number. Delegates are kindly asked to bring their copies to mee tings and not to request additional copies. 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 ORGANI SMS 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 ap proval 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 Or ganization 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 sy stem 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 re mainder 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 whichMEPC 55/2/3 - 2 -

I:\MEPC\55\2-3.doc the treated water is discharged. Only trace am ounts 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 b een properly treated.

4 Annexed to this document is a proposal fo r 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 Cor poration, 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 pr oposal for approval of the Active Substances used by NKO3 system for ballast water management.

***MEPC 55/2/3

I:\MEPC\55\2-3.doc ANNEX

INFORMATION FOR BASIC APPROVAL OF ACTIVE SUBSTANCES USED BY

NK BALLAST WATER TREATMEN T SYSTEM DEVELOPED BY NK CO. LIMITED, KOREA

NON-CONFIDENTIAL SU MMARY INTRODUCTION

1 Statement of the problem

The worldwide transfer and introduction of non-i ndigenous species (NIS) by human activities is having significant and unwanted ecological, economic, and human-health impacts. Although

most attention to date has focuse d on invasions in terrestrial and fr eshwater 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 inva ded communities, where they have significant impacts on population, community, and ecosystem-level pro cesses. Although many tr ansfer mechanisms (or vectors) have contributed historically to th e 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 wate r 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, ha ve resulted in a much better understanding of Ozone process fo r ballast water treatment. The e xperiments have been divided into two general areas, chemistry and biology.

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

better understood in ìreal-w orldî application and what, if a ny, 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 chem istry 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 st udies have involved examining or ganisms at various trophic levels from bacteria to larger caged or ganisms. In general, bacteria ha ve consistently been reduced to below detection limits or > 99.99% removal; with no re-growth observed afte r 30 days of storage in the dark. Phytoplankton, dinoflagellates and micr ofalgellates were reduced to greater than 95%. However, it is felt that a better indicato r for phytoplankton inactivation (kill) would be to determine chlorophyll levels before and after treatme nt. An area of active i nvestigation 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 w ith lower residual bromine levels. This will involve ìride-alongî studies where process times of gr eater 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 tran sport of the residual oxidant in to the cages and therefore the

results underestimate its effectiveness. Add itional studies are bein g conducted to better understand the effect of bromine on larger organisms.MEPC 55/2/3

ANNEX Page 2

I:\MEPC\55\2-3.doc 3 Project objectives

This final series of tests will determine the effectiveness of a new, single point injection technology for injecting Oz one into the ballast water. It is be lieved 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 onl y 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 a ny 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-servic e period, and test the effectiveness of this system in the control of invasive aquatic species. A general plan for our scie ntific 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 establishe d limits, e.g. IMO treaty goals.

5 Experimental considerations

5.1 Organisms to be studi ed 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)MEPC 55/2/3

ANNEX

Page 3

I:\MEPC\55\2-3.doc 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 ar e 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 samplingMEPC 55/2/3

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I:\MEPC\55\2-3.doc 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-li ne, 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 indicate d that a single point injecti on 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 wate r are numerous and well documented. Future introductions of aquatic nuisance species could result in enormous economic and environmental impacts.

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