Comparison of seawater and freshwater ultrafiltration on semi-industrial scale: ballast water treatment application

International audienceNon-native aquatic species can be introduced in new areas through emptying of the ballast tanks, with a high impact on health, economy and environment. This is considered by the International Maritime Organization (IMO): (i) in 2004, the IMO adopted the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships' Ballast Water and Sediments (BMW Convention) in order to diminish the risk of introducing harmful and/or potentially invasive species through ballast water. (ii) the BWM Convention entered into force on 8 September 2017 and could opens a new market for ballast water treatment. The aim for industry is to operate with an acceptable fouling rate between cleaning steps. Indeed, if fouling rates are low, clean in place will be infrequent. The aim of this work is to develop a sustainable ultrafiltration system designed for ballast water treatment and the first step is to have a better understanding of membrane fouling in relation to intake water variations. The major contribution and novelty of this study is successful ballast water treatment using an ultrafiltration process at industrial scale a high technological readiness level in order to show the applicability of the ultrafiltration processes for the ballast water treatment. In this study operating conditions were determined for seawater and freshwater conditions