E!10294 Trilobite Ballast Water Treatment System

The goal of the Trilo-BWTS project is to provide an energy efficient and reliable technology for the purification of ship ballast water based on Trilobites patented micro-fluidic technology. Our technology will be cheaper and more efficient being capable of removing small particles and micro-organisms in a better way than existing solutions. It will be more reliable and maintenance free by eliminating the clogging of filters and avoiding the need for consumables. The main result of the Trilo-BWTS will be the development of a compact prototype stand-alone unit for purifying ballast water for ships. The unit will be capable of removing micro-organisms and particulate contaminants greater than 10 µm in size (future 1 micrometer). It will consist of a physical separation system with a structure resembling a trilobite fossil, having no moving parts, that ensures pure ballastwater without need for additional treatment like UV or Chemical treatment. Ballast water treatment is a market in which Trilobite AS believes our patented technology can be a game changer. We strongly believe we can provide a new technology that can save the user energy, which does not clog as easily as other systems, and can run for longer periods without any maintenance. The system will in addition be easy to install, easy to use and will give less pressure loss than other systems using membrane filtration, and require no added chemicals as well. The project aims to produce a prototype unit for treating ship ballast water with the following capabilities: - The selective removal of all microorganisms > 10 µm. (future 1 micron) that ensure pure ballastwater without need for additional treatment. - Lower pressure drop through the separation unit than competing filtration systems - Less total energy needed for the treatment system. - Reduction of maintenance costs by eliminating filter clogging. Unfortunately due to unforeseen events at sub-contractors the 10 micrometer chip was not ready in time and hence the project was not completed with total success. The further work will comprice using the 10 micrometer chip when ready and make the system complete so it can be tested.

Prosjektet har fått testet ut og verifisert til en viss grad at systemet fungerer, men fikk ikke testet med 10 micrometer brikke, så prosjektets mål er enda ikke oppnådd og vil bli jobbet videre etter prosjektet.

The goal of our project is to provide an energy efficient technology, compact system for the purification of ship ballast water based on Trilobite Microsystems patented micro-fluidic technology. Our technology will be, cheaper and more efficient being capable of removing small particles and micro-organisms than existing solutions, more reliable and maintenance free by eliminating the clogging of filters and avoids the need for consumables. The main result of the Trilo-BWTS will be the development of a prototype stand-alone unit for purify ship ballast water. The unit will be capable of removing micro-organisms, particulate and chemical contaminants greater than 10 µm in size. It will consist of a physical separation system with a structure resembling a trilobite fossil and having no moving parts and a means of destroying the filtered micro-organism based on centrifugal hydrodynamic pressure shocking. The trilobite separation system consists of an array of individual ?trilobite? structures over which the fluid to be cleaned flows and the finest micro and nanometre size particles are selectively pressed through the apertures by hydrodynamic micro-fluidic forces. The project will produce a prototype unit for treating ship ballast water with the following capabilities: - The selective removal of all microorganisms > 10 µm. - Elimination of the chemicals currently used to kill micro-organisms by using a mechanical method to crush microorganisms. - Lower pressure drop ( 0.1 bar) through the separation unit than competing filtration systems, enabling smaller ballast pumps to be used resulting in reducing energy consumption, or greater flow rates with the same pumps. - Less total energy needed for the treatment system. - Reduction of maintenance costs by eliminating filter clogging. - Elimination of toxic emissions to the environment as the separated microorganisms can be collected and treated as required.