APRIL 16, 2013 — Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL) has completed the retrofit installation of a ballast water treatment system (BWTS) on the 300,000 dwt VLCC Libra Trader at Keppel Shipyard in Singapore.

The company announced its plans to install the system on a VLCC ahead of the IMO installation deadline back in January.

MOL is the first Japanese shipping company to install such a system in an existing VLCC. The Libra Trader BWTS retrofit is also the first such to be completed in Singapore, the center of the international VLCC repair and conversion industry.

Keppel Shipyard has redelivered the vessel within schedule and Libra Trader is already back in service. The BWTS will now be tested and adjusted during operation.

In oil tanker BWTS retrofits, most of the system has to be installed in the pump room, which is very narrow and small, and the work thus requires very high levels of safety and process management.

The BWTS installed in the Libra Trader is a JFE Engineering System that treats ballast water using filters and chemical injection and that consists of two 3,500 cu.m/hr explosion-proof units and one 350 cu.m non-explosion-proof unit.