Patent ID: 8147673

Claim:
A process for treating ballast water comprising: drawing ballast water onboard a vessel; feeding the ballast water to one or more ballast tanks; piping salt water from a salt water source to one or more hypochlorite electrolytic cells; applying an amperage to the one or more hypochlorite electrolytic cells to generate hypochlorite within the salt water; controlling a rate of hypochlorite generation by adjusting the amperage applied to the one or more hypochlorite electrolytic cells based on at least one of: a flow rate of the ballast water measured by a flow meter, and a total organic carbon content of the ballast water measured by a total organic carbon analyzer; introducing the salt water comprising hypochlorite to the ballast water; measuring the halogen content of the ballast water with a means for measuring halogen content; adding reducing agent to the ballast water in response to the measured halogen content to de-halogenate the ballast water prior to discharge from the vessel.