The Revised G8 criteria stems from the original guidelines for the approval of ballast water management systems which was adopted on 10 October 2008 (MEPC.174(58)). Feedback revealed these guideline were not robust enough to ensure compliance.

The original IMO Guidelines for approval of ballast water management systems (G8) (MEPC.174(58)) were revised and approved on 28 October 2016. These revised G8 Guidelines (MEPC.279(70)) were adopted by IMO.

On 13 April 2018, the BWMS code (MEPC.300(72)) was adopted, turning the guidelines into a mandatory code with type-approval required for ballast water treatment systems installed on newbuildings on or after 28 October 2020. Systems conforming to MEPC.174(58)) can no longer be installed, only those compliant with the BWMS Code.

Therefore, time has almost run out for ballast water treatment systems seeking revised G8 type-approval.

Which ballast water treatment systems are type-approved to revised G8? This is actually quite a hard question to answer.

There is no readily accessible central database of ballast water systems showing those with IMO revised G8 type-approval and the legacy of the cyber attack on IMO has left some pages unobtainable.

The following list is based on IMO MEPC agendas, ABS data, DNV GL data (which has been involved in testing 17 systems) and Ballast Water Treatment Technology’s own database. None of the following is guaranteed and Ballast Water Treatment Technology welcomes updates from interested parties.

Ballast water treatment systems believed to type-approved to revised G8:

1. Scienco/FAST (ex-Envirocleanse) – inTank BWTS
2. Alfa Laval Tumba AB – PureBallast 3.2
3. Sunrui Marine Environment Engineering – BalClor BWMS
4. Hyundai Heavy Industries – HiBallast BWMS
5. Qingdao Headway Technology – OceanGuard BWMS
6. TeamTec Oceansaver – Oceansaver BWTS MKIIB
7. COSCO (Weihai) Shipbuilding Marine – Blue Ocean Shield BWMS
8. Panasia Co – GloEn-Patrol 2.0
9. Hyde Marine – Hyde GUARDIAN-US
10. Techcross Inc – ECS-HYCHLOR
11. Techcross Inc – Electo-Cleen
12. Wärtsilä – Aquarius UV BWMS
13. Wärtsilä – Aquarius EC BWMS
14. Elite Marine – Seascape BWMS
15. oneTank – oneTank
16. Ecochlor – Ecochlor BWMS
17. SKF Marine – BlueSonic BWMS
18. Optimarin – Optimarin Ballast System (OBS)
19. DESMI Ocean Guard – DESMI CompactClean
20. Knutsen Ballast Water – KBAL BWMS
21. Cathelco Ltd – Evolution BWMS
22. ERMA FIRST ESK Engineering Solutions – ERMA FIRST BWTS
23. Bawat A/S – Bawat BWMS MK2
24. Shanghai Lee’s Fuda Electromechanical Tech – Ballast Water Management Equipment
25. Miura Co – Miura BWMS HK-(E)C
26. Kuraray Co – Microfade II
27. De Nora – Balpure

Included in the above list are ballast water treatment systems that report having passed the required testing and whose status regarding revised G8 is unclear.

This raises the possibility of ballast water treatment systems being type-approved to revised G8 after the deadline.

by Craig Jallal