zoomImage Courtesy: Damen

On December 27, 2018, Damen InvaSave 300 mobile ballast water treatment system was transported from Damen Green Solution’s premises in Gorinchem, the Netherlands, to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to be used for a demonstration programme.

The demonstration programme is part of the Atlantic Blue Port Services project which is made possible by the INTERREG Atlantic Area Programme, an European funding programme.

Upon arriving in the port of Las Palmas, the unit will be connected to a vessel’s ballast water manifold to take on the no longer needed water and treat it to the strict D2-standard as prescribed by the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Ballast Water Management Convention.

InvaSave is said to be the world’s only land-based ballast water management system that is actually IMO-certified to carry out such a job in a single treatment step, without any holding times or use of chemicals.

This demonstration is part of the Atlantic Blue Port Services’ second Stakeholder Workshop session. Several interesting presentations are planned besides the demonstration, coming from industry, the port authority of the Port of Las Palmas as well as from the Las Palmas University.

The programme itself, a cooperation between close to 30 project partners from Spain, Portugal, France, the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands, intends to promote and develop the feasibility of, and best practices for, port reception and treatment facilities. The aim is to reduce oil and polluted ballast water discharge at sea.

“We are delighted to contribute to this important project. The importance of adequate port-reception facilities to a cleaner maritime industry is crystal clear,” Philip Rabe, Damen Green Solutions Sales Manager, commented.