Innovative System for Controlling the Treatment and Disinfection of Sea Ballast Water: Danube Institute of National University “Odessa Maritime Academy”

This study is devoted to the threat to marine ecological safety associated with the presence of invasive alien species (IAS) in the World Ocean, which is among the global problems in today’s world. A number of port cities of Ukraine, such as Odessa, Izmail, Kherson, and Mykolaiv, significantly contribute to the pollution of the sea water areas with IAS. Invasive alien species that are present in sea water are supplied together with the latter into ballast tanks (to maintain balance, list, and stability of ships) and end up in the sea even after passing through the ballast cleaning system, thereby securing themselves in certain water areas and ceasing to play the sanitary role; on the contrary, they become pests, i.e., a threat to the World Ocean. There are also IAS examples depending on the countries of the World, i.e., their location. An analytical review of the ballast water management systems most famous all over the world is given, the prospects of their application for disinfection and purification of ballast water and their comparative characteristics are provided. On the basis of strict ballast water quality standard D-2 of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), scientists from the Danube institute of National University “Odessa Maritime Academy” (Izmail, Ukraine) have proposed and developed experimental innovative equipment for purification and disinfection of water ballast. Ballast water is analyzed on sea vessels entering the Izmail shipyard “Odessa Maritime Academy” for factory repair from various water basins of the World Ocean. All ships entering the factory for repairing are suppliers of ballast water samples. The constructive features of the laboratory facility allow one to study ballast water when the corresponding modules of the system pass at various speeds.