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Ballast Free Ship Design

INTRODUCTION:
Ballast water is fresh or seawater, held in tanks and cargo holds of ships to increase stability and
manoeuvrability during transit. Ballast water is essential to the safe and efficient operation of modern
ships, providing balance and stability to un-laden ships (often returning empty during return voyages) as
well as loaded ships. Its superb operational advantages, however come at a cost.

It poses serious ecological and health threats due to transfer of a multitude of marine species (non-
native species) into an altogether different host environment containing different native species.

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e.g.- The ballast water is taken from coastal port areas(source point) and transported inside the ship to
the next port of call(destination point) where it may be discharged, along with all the surviving organisms.
This way, the ballast water may introduce organisms into the port of discharge which do not naturally
belong there. These introduced species are called exotic species. Populations of exotic species may grow
very quickly in the absence of natural predators. In this case they are called invasive. However, most
species cant survive in the new surroundings temperature, salinity etc. (Remember, Survival of the
fittest?) being less than optimal. Thus only a few species are successful invaders, however those that do
survive, establish a population and have the potential to cause major harm! Aquatic invasions are
considered the second greatest threat to global bio-diversity after habitat loss, are virtually irreversible,
and increase in severity over time. If that is the case, then one cant even imagine the damage, caused by
transfer of 3 to 5 billion tons of ballast water each year.

SOLUTIONS:
NO BALLAST SHIP (NOBS) CONCEPTS:
There are mainly three projects in which the concept of a ship with zero ballast water has been
developed:
Delft University of Technology (DUT)-Monomaran Hull.
Det Norske Veritas(DNV)-Volume Cargo Ship
Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering(DSME)- Solid Ballast Ship
1. The Monomaran Hull An unloaded rolling ship (without ballast water) requires
adequate stability. DUT proposed a monomaran hull by adopting a catamaran shape to the base
of the broad single hull.
2. Volume Cargo Ship - DNV proposed a design similar to DUT but with a trimaran hull
shape thus imparting high level of stability.
3. Solid ballast ship In this case, the ballast water is replaced by 25 tonne Solid ballast in
standard containers. However the application of this method is limited to container ships only.
The hull form (size) remains the same.
Another solution to this problem is the Yokohama buoyancy control compartment concept, which converts
conventional ballast tanks into a series of buoyancy control compartments.
(Fig. 1: Comparison between conventional ballasting and ballast free ship design. (Courtesy:
www.nsdrc.com/Publications-"Development of a ballast free ship design" by Avinash Godey,
Prof. S.C. Misra, Prof. O.P. Sha)
Each compartment is flooded to provide adequate draught in the unloaded condition then continuously
flushed at normal voyage speeds to ensure efficient exchange without the need for pumps. Each
compartment is fitted with intake and outlet valves that are optimally designed and positioned for each
compartment so as to maximize its flushing rate during normal voyage speeds.

Although ballast water treatment is an effective way of tackling ballast water issues.
The details of it will not be discussed in this article.

The Ballast Free Ship (BFS):


When a ship moves forward it produces regions of increased water pressure near its bow and reduced
water pressure at its stern. This pressure differential is utilised to drive water through a set of these
below-waterline corridor (trunks) without the need for pumps. Although this leads to slight increase in the
resistance of the ship, the discharge of the trunk flow into the upper half of the propeller disc tends to
smooth out the inflow to the propeller, allowing the propeller to operate at higher propeller efficiency and
thus compensate for the added resistance to some extent.

Fig.2:Rendition of the concept behind ballast free ship design (Copyright: Learn Ship Design)
Fig.2:Rendition of the buoyancy control compartments with provisions for flushing water at
normal voyage speeds. (Copyright: Learn Ship Design)

However, it also has to overcome some other challenges like:

1.) Loss of cargo carrying capacity- due to ballast water volume restraint. As its quite difficult to sustain the
cargo carrying capacity and also the same ballast water volume

2.) Loss of ship strength- There would be a total redesign of the double bottom. As the conventional
transverse framing will create difficulty for ballast water to flow through the tunnels. Hence this elimination
will enhance the flow of ballast water at the cost of ships strength.
Classification societies might not permit the elimination of all of these frames. Moreover, watertight trunk
boundaries will be required at transverse locations. Longitudinal stiffeners could be replaced with
sandwich panels, thereby improving the flow. Thus compensating for the loss of strength.

3.) Increase in ships resistance- due to disturbance from discharge of ballast water into the flow around
the propeller The introduction of a plenum at the bow and stern of the ship, as well as the location of the
plenums will affect the resistance of the ship, increasing fuel consumption.

Also, the increased ballast water flow velocity at discharge location will increase resistance as shown
experimentally.

Equipped with such technology, we can hope to minimize our environmental footprint to the greatest
possible extent in the different spheres of conflict with the marine ecosystem

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