Consideration on the environmental acceptability and biological effectiveness of the electrochemical disinfection system for ballast water management

This paper considers the matter of safety, environmental acceptability, practicability, and biological effectiveness for the electrochemical disinfection system, Electro-Clean(TM). This electrochemical disinfection system uses various active substances produced from electrolysis of sea water. These active substances attack simultaneously an organism or organisms for disinfection so that synergy effect can be expected. Active substances are not added to the system but produced during electrolysis of sea water. Some of active substances with a lifetime in nanoseconds like as Hydroxyl Radical are not remain until to ballast tank in a ship. The other active substances remain in the ballast tank water and the discharge water but concentration of the active substances are not so high. So treated ballast water can be discharged into the environment without any conditioning. There are no waste streams that have to be disposed of and require special concern during the system operation. Biological efficacy tests are conducted for this electrochemical disinfection system. The biological efficacy of the Electro-Clean(TM) System was tested using marine organisms which consisted of three groups such as 10-50 mu m, >= 50 mu m and bacteria.