DESMI Ocean Guard’s (DESMI) appeal towards the USCG for rejecting its MPN approved BWTS has been denied. This follows the United States Coast Guard (USCG) confirmation that the Most Probable Number (MPN) method for testing ballast water treatment systems (BWTS) for Type Approval has been officially rejected.
DESMI had previously completed all required testing using the MPN method, before the USCG confirmed its rejection of the method in December 2015, to verify the system performance before successfully submitting their application for the RayClean BWTS to the USCG.
USCG rejected the Type Approval application on the grounds that the MPN method was used to test the system. This type of rejection is not limited to DESMI, other companies including Alfa laval have also received rejections based on their use of the MPN method. In fact, the USCG’s initial rejection of the MPN method was followed by many appeals from manufacturers of UV-based BWTS in February 2016.
DESMI has now confirmed that they will re-do the testing under the FDA accepted method. DESMI’s FDA testing is taking place at the DHI facility in Denmark and is expected to be finalised in 2016.
Rasmus Folsø, CEO at DESMI Ocean Guard commented: “Although we do not agree with the decision of the USCG we of course respect the authority of the USCG. We will continue to work on having the MPN method accepted also in the US as it is everywhere else in the world, but in the meantime we must, for the sake of our customers, ensure USCG type approval of the RayClean system. We will therefore perform the required additional testing with the FDA method to demonstrate compliance with the USCG rules.”
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