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Ship repairs become eco-friendly

S. Gopikrishna Warrier

Recently in Hamburg

BLOHM & VOSS Repair GmbH, the repair subsidiary of the German Thyssen Krupp Industries AG, has found environmental and economic sense by replacing sand-blasting with high-pressure water jets to strip paint off the hulls of ships.

By adopting this process, the company has obtained a two-fold benefit. Eliminating sand has had its positive fall-out in terms of reducing the potential for workers being affected by silicosis. Since the water used is collected and recycled after removin g the suspended and dissolved material, the company also benefits financially through the better use of its resources.

According to Mr Jurgen Pastuch, Head of the Water Treatment and Painting Division of Blohm & Voss Repair, the company has benefitted financially since it began using water to strip paint. While the number of workers and the storage space has reduced, the company could still demand and get the international market price per square metre from its client.

With a closed loop system to process water, the amount of effluents let out into the River Elbe, from the company's docks in Hamburg Port, has fallen to near zero, he said. The quantity of the sludge, which the company gives another operator to incinerat e, has also come down to 100 tonnes a year from the 8,000 tonnes during the days of sand-blasting.

The paint-stripping system, which the company has named `Dockmaster', was developed by Blohm & Voss and has been used at its Hamburg docks since 1996. The water is pushed to the ship surface at a pressure of 2,500 bars. This removes marine growth, rust a nd paint in one pass.

After stripping the paint, the water is collected and passed through a flocculation bed where the solids are sedimented. The sediment is filter pressed. The water is treated and sent back to the process.

Blohm & Voss Repair has been using the Dockmaster system in the four docks it has for the repair of vessels. While three docks are of the swimming type, one is dry.

The company services, converts and repairs naval, cargo and passenger vessels. On an average it handles 50 ships in a year, Mr Pastuch said.

Thyssen Krupp Industries AG has a turnover of DM 12 billion, and employs 30,000 people.

Picture: The equipment used by Blohm & Voss removes paint from ships using high-pressure water jets. This process eliminates the use of sand-blasting, which is environment-unfriendly.

Picture by S. Gopikrishna Warrier