Recent Technologies for Ballast Water Treatment

Concern about ballast-mediated bioinvasions into freshwater, estuarine and marine habitats is not limited to biodiversity per se but extends to its broader socio-economic impacts on agriculture, forests, fisheries, aquaculture, and other human activities dependent on the stability of living resources in a particular ecosystem. As a result, invasive species pose almost incalculable economic, socio-cultural and human health security risks. The importance of biological invasions was brought into greater focus as several devastating introductions in many countries occurred and given the limitations of the IMO (International Marine Organization) Guidelines. Consequently the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships' Ballast Water and Sediments was prepared and was adopted in a Diplomatic Conference in 2004. This Convention aimed to prevent, minimize and ultimately eliminate the risks to the environment, human health, property and resources arising from the transfer of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens via ships' ballast waters. This article describes recent ballast water treatment studies from scientific and academic community since the last IMO Convention in 2004, and the treatment that received basic and final approval by IMO. We examined different methods available on scientific media to treat ballast water (lab-scale and field-scale tests) and we concluded that a standardization of ballast water treatment still to be done to ensure the IMO Standard.