The first ballast water treatment system for operation in fresh water has been presented on the 19th February 2015 in a special eventorganized by ERMA FIRST at the HUB EVENTS cultural center.More than 250 guests from the shipping world has the privilege to learn about the latest USCG legislation in ballast water treatment by Mr. John Stewart (President of International Maritime Technology Consultants Inc and standing member of the USCG in International Maritime Organization) and Mr. Gary Croot (Former commander of USCG and current President of IMESA Inc). During their presentation the two men also pointed out the technological demands that the systems should obtain in order to comply with USCG legislation.
 
Fresh water treatment is one of the main requisitions in order to obtain the USCG certification. Dr Marcel Veldhuis (Director of Marine Eco Analytics-MEA) took the stand to explain the difficulty in treating fresh water. Due to its low salinity index and high load of organic material treating fresh water can be really challenging. Dr Veldhuis analyzed the test results coming from ERMA FIRST BWTS FIT. The system has successfully passed the conformity tests for fresh water treatment at the Institute ΜΕΑ- Marine Eco Analytics in The Netherland, which proves that the ERMA FIRST’s technology has overcome the challenges and it is suitable for treating fresh water.
 
ERMA FIRST at this point is the first company to design and manufacture ballast water treatment system suitable to treat fresh water. The system has also received type approval from the Greek Administration for operation at fresh water conditions (0.9 psu)
 
The conclusion
Treatment of fresh water is significantly more difficult compared to sea water, due to its chemical composition and high organic load. The ERMA FIRST FIT system has been certified for fresh water treatment under the most challenging conditions; this also ensures that ERMA FIRST will be certified by the USCG, since fresh water treatment is one of the main requisitions in order to obtain the USCG certification.
Source: ERMA FIRST