Patent Application
20210114900
The present invention relates to a method of sterilizing ballast water and a device thereof which are capable of reducing a cost of silver ion or antimicrobial agents and destroying cell walls of microorganism and bacteria in ballast water.
When the ship arrives at the destination and unloads the cargo, the vessel loses its load and causes the vessel to rise above the level, causing the hull to shake. To overcome such a problem, Ballast Water Management Convention (BWM Convention) is set by International Maritime Organization (IMO) in 2004 so that the hulls are kept balanced by ways of ballast water. Ballast is material that is used to provide stability to a vehicle or structure. Ballast, other than cargo, may be placed in a vehicle, often a ship or the gondola of a balloon or airship, to provide stability. A compartment within a boat, ship, submarine, or other floating structure that holds water is called a ballast tank. Water should move in and out from the ballast tank to balance the ship. In a vessel that travels on the water, the ballast will remain below the water level, to counteract the effects of weight above the water level. The ballast may be redistributed in the vessel or disposed of altogether to change its effects on the movement of the vessel.
In general, the ballast water volume of a ship is about 30%-40% of its load. Depending on the design, size and strength of the ship, a cargo ship with a load of 100,000 tons, for example, is up to ballast water. When the ship enters the port to load cargo, it will discharge the ballast water inhaled, and a large amount of ballast water carries a large number of unknown aquatic lives. It is also brought to the sea near the unloading port with the ship from all over the world, which may cause serious biological pollution problems.
The problems caused by modern shipping ballast water, such as the outbreak of cholera in three different port cities in Peru in 1991, are the tragedy that caused the improper management of the ballast water discharge from ships and caused thousands of deaths. An epidemic was spread to South American countries. It was only gradually eliminated in 1994, but a total of nearly 10,000 people died of cholera. The disaster was very heavy.
Another merchant ship sailing in the Asia-Pacific region was at the end of the 20th century in Hong Kong and the coastal ports of mainland China. The red tide bacteria were released due to the discharge of ballast water, which caused fisheries in Hong Kong and mainland China to reach nearly 10 million US dollars. Cases such as severe losses are extremely harmful to life or the environment.
In recent decades, ballast water has become a major issue in international efforts to reduce pollution from ships. Traditional ballast water treatment includes filtration, pharmaceutical, catalytic, deoxygenation, ionization, ozone treatment or Ultraviolet irradiation and other methods to treat ballast water, wherein the over-cracking method is used to remove small insects and plankton in ballast water; the pharmaceutical method uses a ferric acid or the like as a water purifying agent to eliminate the small amount remaining in the seawater. Microorganisms; catalysis, deoxygenation, ionization, ozone treatment or ultraviolet radiation each cause organisms to die by different mechanisms; traditional treatment systems usually need to include a Filter Unit, a UV Unit, and an Operation Control Panel (Operation and Systems such as Control Panel, Piping System, and Electric System are complex, and because of the high cost of chemicals, the general ballast water system costs about $3 million to $1 million, and subsequent maintenance costs. And the cost of consumables is also the point of cost considerations, and every major international port in Taiwan has many different countries every year. All kinds of merchant ships enter and leave, a large number of ballast water carrying a large number of unknown aquatic organisms are also brought from all over the world and discharged in the waters near the ports. The problems that may be caused by the people and relevant units are closely watched and actively guarded.
At present, more than 53 countries in the world signed the D-2 Ship Ballast Water Management Convention in October 2016. The signatory of the International Ships Ballast Water and Sediment Management Convention (BWM Convention) has reached 52 countries, accounting for 35.14 of the total tonnage of merchant ships. %, meeting the conditions for entry into force, the Convention came into effect on Sep. 8, 2017, while Table 1 below specifies the performance standards for ballast water in D-2, and the performance standards for ballast water treatment are specified in Annex D-2 of the BWM Convention. Allowable concentrations of living organisms and indicator microorganisms.
Vibrio
cholerae
E. coli
Enterococci
The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages.
The primary aspect of the present invention is to provide a method of sterilizing ballast water and a device thereof which are capable of reducing a cost of silver ion or antimicrobial agents and destroying cell walls of microorganism and bacteria in ballast water.
To obtain the above aspect, a method of sterilizing ballast water provided by the present invention contains providing a device mounted in a pressurized cabin of a ship, the device includes: a first sterilization unit, multiple second sterilization units, and a third sterilization unit, wherein the first sterilizer includes a first valve connected with a first pump via at least one first pipe, the first sterilizer is connected with a first end of the first pump, and the at least one first pipe is connected with a second end of the first pump, and the multiple second sterilization units are accommodated in the pressurized cabin and are soaked in ballast water of the pressurized cabin.
A method of sterilizing the ballast water provided by the present invention steps of:
S1. feeding seawater, wherein the seawater is fed into the first valve from an exterior of the ship, and the first pump pumps the seawater into the first sterilizer via the at least one first pipe;
S2. magnetizing, wherein the first sterilizer has multiple magnetization elements so that after the seawater flows into the first sterilizer, a magnetic field of the multiple magnetization elements destroy cell walls of microorganism and bacteria in the seawater, and the seawater is fed into the pressurized cabin so as to produce the ballast water; and
S3. inhibiting a growth of the microorganism and the bacteria, wherein when the ballast water contacts with the multiple second sterilization units of the pressurized cabin, the multiple second sterilization units release silver ion or antimicrobial agents so as to inhibit a growth of the microorganism and the bacteria in the ballast water, wherein an amount of the silver ion or the antimicrobial agents is reduced after the Step S2.
With reference to
The first sterilizer 10 includes a first valve Vi configured to guide seawater O into the ship B, a first pump P connected with the first valve Vi via at least one first pipe 101 and configured to pump the seawater O into a first sterilizer 11, wherein the first sterilizer 11 is connected with a first end of the first pump P, and the at least one first pipe 101 is connected with a second end of the first pump P, such that the seawater O flows into the pressurized cabin C to produce ballast water CW.
The multiple second sterilization units 20 are accommodated in the pressurized cabin C and are soaked in the ballast water CW of the pressurized cabin C.
The third sterilization unit 30 is mounted in a predetermined position of the ship B and includes a second pump P configured to pump the ballast water CW out of a second valve Vo from the pressurized cabin C via a second sterilizer 31 and a second pipe 301, wherein the second sterilizer 31 is connected with a first end of the second pump P, and the second pipe 301 is connected with a second end of the second pump P.
Referring to
S1. feeding the seawater O, wherein the seawater O is fed into the first valve Vi from an exterior of the ship B, and the first pump P pumps the seawater O into the first sterilizer 11 via the at least one first pipe 101, wherein the first sterilizer 11 is connected with the first end of the first pump P, and the at least one first pipe 101 is connected with the second end of the first pump P;
S2. magnetizing, wherein the first sterilizer 11 has multiple magnetization elements so that after the seawater O flows into the first sterilizer 11, the magnetic field of the multiple magnetization elements destroy cell walls of microorganism and bacteria in the seawater O, and the seawater O is fed into the pressurized cabin C to produce the ballast water CW;
S3. inhibiting a growth of the microorganism and the bacteria, wherein when the ballast water CW contacts with the multiple second sterilization units 20 of the pressurized cabin C, the multiple second sterilization units 20 release sterilizing substances (such as silver ion or antimicrobial agents) so as to inhibit the growth of the microorganism and the bacteria, wherein an amount of the silver ion or the antimicrobial agents is reduced after the Step S2; and
S4. discharging the ballast water CW, wherein the ballast water CW is pumped out of the pressurized cabin C by the second pump P via the second sterilizer 31, the second sterilizer 31 has multiple magnetization elements so as to produce a magnetic file to destroy the cell walls of rest microorganism and bacteria in the ballast water CW, and the second pump P further pumps the ballast water CW out of the second valve Vo via the second pipe 301.
As shown in
As illustrated in
With reference to
As illustrated in following list 2, a result of the device and the method of the present invention is shown after testing the device and the method for 120 hours according to the Section D-2 of the Ballast Water Management (BWM) Convention, wherein a control group and a test group are set in each predetermined testing time.
Thereby, the device and the method of the present invention are capable of reducing a cost of silver ion or antimicrobial agents and destroying the cell walls of the microorganism and the bacteria in the ballast water.
While the preferred embodiments of the invention have been set forth for the purpose of disclosure, modifications of the disclosed embodiments of the invention as well as other embodiments thereof may occur to those skilled in the art. The scope of the claims should not be limited by the preferred embodiments set forth in the examples, but should be given the broadest interpretation consistent with the description as a whole.
