Ballast water separator performance for solid particulate removal

The introduction of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens to new environments via ships' ballast water (BW) and other vectors has been identified as one of the greatest threats to the world's oceans. During the last decade an increase attention had been given to the ballast water problem world wide. This research describes a treatment that can dramatically reduce the organisms' adhesive to the sea soil in ballast waters while providing economic benefits to ship owners. A cyclonic separator was under investigation to evaluate its performance in the removal of solid particulates at various operating conditions such as changing the position of the internal separator and varying the inlet mass flow rate. Three particle sizes were used to test the separator performance and determine the best operating condition which gives the highest efficiency.