BIO-UV Group unveils BIO-SEA Easy-to-Fit to meet emergent yacht sector BWTS retrofit market
BIO-UV Group has unveiled a modified, more compact version of its low flow rate BIO-SEA ballast water treatment system (BWTS) to meet market demand for retrofit installations aboard luxury yachts and other vessels where engine room space is limited.
The BIO-SEA Easy-To-Fit skid is a modified version of its small flow rate range of BIO-SEA 30, 60 and 90 units but incorporates a bolted frame. This allows the system to be delivered as a “flat pack” solution and be rebuilt onboard, making a skid version possible even for retrofit projects, reducing shipyard installation costs and time.
Where yacht machinery spaces are long and narrow, the dismountable BIO-SEA Easy-to-Fit frames can also be split into two separate skids, with mechanical parts and pipework on one frame and electrical components on another. Everything is embedded onto the skid frame(s) with no need for an additional power cabinet.
Ludovic Rouzel, BWT Contracts Manager, BIO-UV Group, said: “For many yacht owners and builders, system footprint is an important consideration. As a flat packed, split-skid solution, we are able to simplify the installation process and reduce installation costs and time as a BIO-SEA Easy-To-Fit system can easily fit through existing hatches and doors, without having to cut access holes into the vessel. It is the most compact BWTS on the market, with a footprint of only 1.5m2.”
Unlike other systems designed for low flow rates of between 10 to 90m3/h, BIO-SEA’s filters and valves are designed specifically for the system’s capacity. Competing systems often incorporate filters and pipework much larger than their flow rates actually require, resulting in an overall greater footprint.
BIO-UV can supply each BIO-SEA Easy-To-Fit unit with CuNiFe pipework and high gloss finishing, something which Rouzel says is “typically, a key specification for high-end yacht projects”.
Xavier Deval, BIO-SEA Business Director, says: “While naval architects now figure the inclusion of a ballast water treatment system into newbuild yacht design, the cramped machinery spaces on older vessels can be problematic for ballast water treatment retrofits – a new and emerging market for us.
“We anticipate a hike in retrofit projects as existing yachts look to comply with the more stringent D2 standard as they approach their next IOPP (International Oil Pollution Prevention) surveys. We developed BIO-SEA Easy-To-Fit specifically to meet the retrofit requirements of this sector.”
The French company, a pioneer in UV-based water treatment technology, is currently involved in a project to retrofit a BIO-SEA unit to a 126m mega yacht in the Netherlands and in April this year supplied a BIO-SEA 30 unit for retrofit to a 45m yacht in Italy.
Newbuild projects to which BIO-UV has been contracted to supply BIO-SEA units include a 45m yacht under construction in Italy and three Netherlands-built 60m yachts.
BIO-UV Group will officially unveil the BIO-SEA Easy-To-Fit BWTS at the Monaco Yacht Show, between 25th and 28th September, in the Quai Albert Ier area, on stand AL28.
