ECO-OIL and TRADERE are part of the 24 partner consortium from the Atlantic Area “Blue Port Services”. This interregional cooperation is funded by the European Union and addresses the issue of ships effluents, in particular oiled water and ballast water.
The project aims at motivating discharge before treatment of ships effluents into adequate port reception facilities (PRF). For all effluents the question is to find consensus on “adequate” solutions, attractive for ship owners and manageable for the ports/PRF operators. That is also true for ballast water, a new issue addressed by the IMO Ballast Water Management Convention. The European PRF directive, within the Water Framework Directive, obliges ports to provide facilities for reception of ships waste and effluents and ships to discharge their effluents and waste in ports. The regulation does exist and ports do provide facilities for waster and effluents. However, all is about cost efficiency. Discharge at sea is still attractive when the services are "inadequate" i.e. too expensive!
The project will analyse current critics and work with concerned parties to reach consensus on "adequate" Port Reception Facilities. Enhanced services will be developed and tested, in real conditions. For both ballast water and oiled effluents, studies and tests will cover technical, economic, operational, environmental and regulatory facets of current PRF services offers.
The entry into force of the IMO Ballast Water Convention is a new challenge for shipping companies, ports and public authorities. Installing treatment on board has an economic impact. What happens when embarked systems fail? Are ships owner the only one concerned? Can't we imagine new port services for ballast water? Through the project, stakeholders of the Atlantic area will lead a joint analysis of most relevant solutions. Participating ports will have the opportunity to test in real conditions Damen's IMO certified InvaSave ballast water management treatment system, the 1st on the market today.
For further information, you can read on https://www.atlanticblueports.com