Langh Tech unveils new BWMS

Finland-based scrubber manufacturer Langh Tech has launched its new ballast water management system (BWMS).

The launching took place on board Linda, a Feedermax vessel owned by Langh Tech’s sister company Langh Ship, on 20 September.

As explained, the in-house product development project was completed on a very fast schedule – in less than a year from first ideas to product launch.

“During autumn 2020 we started thinking that there might be a need for even more compact systems than the present ones on the market, so we decided to do one,” Laura Langh-Lagerlöf, Langh Tech Commercial Director, commented.

“We have feeder size vessels in our sister company Langh Ship’s fleet, and installing BWMS into the already fully packed engine rooms of these vessels seemed like a challenging task. Making our own compact units sounded like the most interesting and practical way forward, while of course also being challenging, but we like challenges,” she added.

In addition to the compact size in its UV-C irradiation-based treatment unit, Langh Tech said it has paid special attention to the ease of operation and maintenance of the unit.

“Existing systems with cleaning-in-place solutions do after some time anyway need to be opened, and it is usually quite a job to start opening such a unit for manual cleaning. Here we took the opposite approach. We made the unit as easy as it ever can be for manual cleaning,” Kim Tervonen, Langh Tech Product Manager, explained.

“One crew member can pull out the lamps from the reactor and all lamps will slide out in a cassette from the UV reactor box. The lamps can then very easily be cleaned by hand with a soft cloth. After cleaning the crew member simply pushes the cassette back into the UV reactor casing.”

The automation interface is also said to be optimized and easy to use. The user needs to push only three buttons to start operating, the rest is done by the LanghBW automation, which is integrated with the automation system of the vessel.

Ballast water management systems are used to purify ships’ ballast water in order to prevent the unintended spread of invasive marine organisms from one marine habitat to other. The microbiological quality of discharged water is strictly controlled and all systems need to be type approved to ensure that sufficient treatment is applied.

Langh Tech aims to fulfil these requirements with a type-approved ballast water management system that includes fine filtration and effective UV-C irradiation treatment. The system is tailored for retrofit vessels, crowded spaces and extremely challenging operating conditions.

Langh Tech has already passed all the required land-based test for USCG and IMO approvals. The tests were done by DNV at the NIVA testing facility in Norway. The shipboard testing of the system will be soon completed as well. It is carried out in Baltic Sea area which is, despite of its beauty and rich marine biota, unfortunately one of the most polluted and challenging marine environments in the world when it comes to ballast water treatment.

Manufacturing of the UV reactors takes place at the Langh Tech production facilities close to Turku in Finland. In the same facilities Langh Tech also manufactures the water treatment units for closed loop SOx scrubbers.