The International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments  (BWM Convention) was adopted in 2004 to introduce global regulations to control the transfer of potentially invasive species. The BWM Convention will enter into force on September 8, 2017. The United States Coast Guard (USCG) and various states in the United States have proposed even more stringent standards and certification of ballast water treatment systems that can meet or exceed those standards is now a major priority.

Ecochlor’s first two installations were aboard the RORO/container carrier Atlantic Compass and the bulk carrier Moku Pahu. Both ships were accepted into the US Coast Guard’s Shipboard Testing and Evaluation Program (STEP) in 2008.

The Ecochlor^® Ballast Water Treatment System achieved IMO G9 Final Approval in September 2010 at the 61st session of the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC61). Land-based testing was conducted at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) and shipboard testing was completed on the Moku Pahu, in California in 2011.

Ten consecutive test cycles were conducted under IMO G8 guidelines on land and shipboard over two years with no surviving organisms after treatment – all zeros. This data demonstrates that Ecochlor systems can meet or exceed USCG standards.

IMO Type Approval for the Ecochlor^® BWTS was received from BSH in Germany in 2011, confirming that Ecochlor systems comply with the 2004 IMO International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments.

In 2013, Ecochlor received US Coast Guard Alternative Management System (AMS) acceptance for its full line of ballast water treatment systems. This allows ship operators to use an Ecochlor^® BWTS in US waters to effectively manage their ballast discharge.

Ecochlor has received USCG Type Approval extending the range of options for shipowners beyond UV and electrochlorination technologies. Testing was completed in September of 2016. It included a series of land-based test cycles, ship-based test cycles and environmental tests. The California Maritime Academy’s Golden Bear Facility, a USCG-approved sub-laboratory, conducted all land-based and ship-based tests. Additional environmental testing on certain components of the Ecochlor® BWTS was performed by Retlif Testing Laboratories, another USCG-approved sub-laboratory. All testing has been overseen by DNV-GL, one of the Independent Laboratories authorized by the USCG to oversee the Type Approval testing process.