AKWA IBOM STATE UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF MARINE ENGINEERING

MAE 382
MARINE ENGINEERING & COASTAL OPERATIONS
ASSIGNMENT
PRESENTED BY:
ETIETOP, SUNNY ANTHONY
AK20/ENG/MAE/009

PRESENTED TO:
ENGR. DR. EMMANUEL ANTAI

DATE:
4TH OCTOBER, 2023.
QUESTIONS:

SECTION A;
(1) What do we classify as marine industrial water?

(2) What are the basic applications of marine industry water treatment
processes?

(3)Why does the marine industry need water treatment processes?

(4) What are water treatment processes?

(5) What are the benefits and drawbacks of considering water treatment
processes?

SECTION B;
(1) What is ballast water?

(2) Differentiate between ballast water and ballast wastewater?

(3) What is ballast wastewater treatment?

(4)Why is it important to consider ballast wastewater treatment?

(5) Differentiate or give a clear distinction between Ballasting and De-ballasting

and explain the various methods involved?

(6) Explain in details how a ship's ballast system can be operated?

(7) What are the various types of ballast water treatment processes available in
the marine industry?

ANSWERS
 SECTION A
(1)What we classify as industrial marine water or marine water classification are
enumerated below:

(a)SA: For their general condition, these classes of water are uniformly good to
excellent, natural quality. Their designated uses are for fishing, swimming and
recreation, healthy marine habitat, direct shellfish consumption, industrial supply.
Their allowable wastewater discharges are non other than clean water, drinking
water treatment, dredging and dewatering.

(b)SB: For their general condition, this class of water is uniformly good quality.
Their designated uses are for fishing, swimming and recreation, healthy marine
habitat, commercial shellfish harvesting (requires purification), industrial supply.

(c)SB/SA,SC/SA: For their general condition, this water quality is impaired. Water
quality goal is class SA, hence their designated uses the same as class SA and their
allowable wastewater discharges are equally same.

(d)SC/SB, SD/SB: For their general condition, this class of water quality is
impaired. Water quality goal is class SB, which means they have same designated
uses and same allowable wastewater discharges.

(2)The basic application of marine industry water treatment processes are:

(a) Aquariums

(b) Ballast wastewater treatment

(c) Marine process water treatment

(d) Onboard grey water recycling and reuse.

(3)The reason the marine industry needs water treatment processes is as follows:
 Contaminated water from ships is often full of toxic heavy metals such as tin
(Sn ), copper (Cu),zinc(Zn),lead (Pb),nickel(Ni),iron(Fe) etc, which are dangerous
for human health and as such can't be discharged without purification into the
public sewage system or natural receiving waters in cities (sea, river).This calls for
the necessity of water treatment processes in the marine industry.

(4)Water treatment is any process that improves the quality of water to make it
appropriate for a specific end-user. The end use may be drinking, industrial water
supply, irrigation, river flow maintenance, water recreation or many other uses
including being safely returned to the environment.

The water treatment processes include physical processes such as settling and
filtration, chemical processes such as disinfection and coagulation, and biological
processes such as slow sand filtration.

(5) The benefits of water treatment processes is that it helps on removing

contaminants and hazardous substances from the water, making it clean and safe
to drink and be used for other purposes.

However, the drawback of water treatment processes are as follows:

(a) Higher chemical requirements

(e) Degradability problems.

(b) Higher maintenance cost

(c) Sludge disposal problems

(d) Higher space and energy requirements

 SECTION B:
(1) Ballast water is freshwater or ocean water stored in a ship's hull to provide
stability and improve maneuverability during a voyage.

(2) Ballast wastewater or bilge water is the waste water found low down in the
machinery spaces of most ships. Bilge water or ballast wastewater needs to be
treated with care as it contains concentrations of various industrial fluids from the
ship's machinery spaces such as coolant, lubricant and fuel. While Ballast water is
water that has been taken onboard a vessel to ensure stability by maintaining a
low center of gravity.

(3)The ballast wastewater treatment and management is designed to remove

harmful organisms that enter ships through the ballast tanks. It uses chemicals to
kill these organisms before they reach other parts of the ship.

(4) The importance of considering ballast wastewater treatment or the aim of

ballast wastewater treatment is the elimination of invasive marine species. Thes
USDA reports that ballast water is one of the major pathways for the introduction
of non-indigenous marine species.

(5) Ballasting or de-ballasting is a process by which sea water is taken in and out
of the ship when the ship is at port or at sea.

However, to draw the dichotomy or differences between the two:

De-ballasting is removing water from ship to the sea, while in contrast,

ballasting is transferring water from the sea to the vessel.
(6)Ballast and de-ballast operations on the ship must be carried out by an
experienced and responsible officer as it is directly related to the stability factor
of the ship.

A ballast system may differ from ship to ship but the basics of all ballast systems
remain the same; filling, removing, and transferring water from one tank to other
to get the required stability for a ship.

All valves in the ballast system are normally hydraulically operated from the
remote operator station in the ship’s control centre or in the ECR in manual mode
or in automatic sequence.

The ballast pump suction and discharge valves, along with other valves, have
their fail-safe in the OPEN position so that if any valve malfunction or get stuck,
still remains open to carry out ballast operation.

Ballasting or De-ballasting can be done in five following ways:

The overboard discharge valves have their fail-safe as fail-stay position;

(a)Transferring water between tanks using gravity.

(b)Ballasting or De-ballasting tanks from the sea using gravity.

(c)Ballasting the tanks using the ballast pump/pumps.

(d)De-ballasting the tanks using the ballast pump/pumps.

(e)De-ballasting the tanks using the stripping ejectors.

(7)There are three approaches to treating ballast water; mechanical, physical or

chemical. Mechanical methods would include separation and filtration; physical
methods include ozone, electrical currents, or UV radiation, while chemical
solutions are biocides or a form of chlorination. Thus explains the various types of
ballast water treatment processes available in the marine industry.