Development of a cost optimisation tool for the design of onboard ballast water treatment systems

The migration of non-indigenous marine species and the resulting environmental and economic damage has led to a research focus on onboard ballast water treatment systems. Such treatment systems must be designed to meet the new IMO treatment standards whilst also having minimal effects on the environment and on the operational cost and safety of the ship. Thermal treatment of ballast water appears to be a promising solution to the problem, with a two heat-exchanger high-temperature treatment system having been successfully demonstrated at laboratory and pilot-scales. An intelligent model for the treatment system has been developed and incorporated into an automated tool which may be used to optimise the system design for minimum operational or capital cost. The optimisation tool may be used to generate decision surfaces which could be used to estimate cost and area of a high temperature treatment system either at the design stage for a new ship of for retrofitting on an existing vessel.