Patent ID: 8038875

Claim:
A treatment apparatus for ship ballast water comprising: an opening/closing valve provided on an existing ballast-water system piping, the piping for taking in ballast water by a first ballast pump with high flow-rate/low pressure into a ship and transferring the water to a ballast tank, a branch pipe branched from a primary side of said opening/closing valve for conducting the ballast water, taken in from said ballast water system piping, to a secondary side of said opening/closing valve on said ballast water system piping, an ozone mixing device provided on said branch pipe for mixing ozone generated by an ozone generator in said ballast water, a second ballast pump provided on the secondary side of said ozone mixing device on said branch pipe, said second ballast pump operable to discharge said ballast water with a lower flow-rate and higher pressure than said first ballast pump, a slit plate provided on a secondary side of said second ballast pump on said branch pipe and having a plurality of slit-shaped openings for destroying aquatic organisms in the ballast water by a shearing force when said ballast water passes through said slit plate, a deaeration tank provided on said branch pipe for deaerating undissolved ozone from the ballast water in which ozone was mixed by said ozone mixing device, a pipe for flowing the ballast water discharged from said deaeration tank provided on said branch pipe into said ballast water system piping, a return pipe provided from a middle of said pipe for flowing the ballast water discharged from said deaeration tank provided on said branch pipe into said ballast water system piping, the return pipe for returning the ballast water to a primary side of said ozone mixing device for circulation, a pressure sensor for measuring pressure of the ballast water on the secondary side of said slit plate, and a safety valve provided on said return pipe which is configured to open when the pressure of ballast water on the secondary side of said slit plate as measured by said pressure sensor reaches or exceeds a predetermined pressure, wherein by closing said opening/closing valve, the entire amount of the ballast water taken into the ship by said first ballast pump is conducted into said branch pipe, the deaerated ballast water discharged from said deaeration tank is returned to said ballast-water system piping, and said safety valve being set to open when a pressure larger than a predetermined pressure is applied on said secondary side of said slit plate, so as to return a part of the ballast water in said branch pipe via said return pipe to said primary side of said ozone mixing device.