Bauer BF Series Geared Motors Shipboard Water Treatment Systems

Ships used to have a large discharge pipe to dispose of everything that was no longer needed on board. The pipe is still there, but now environmental awareness has been codified in new discharge regulations.

Marine vessels generate four different types of wastewater which include: blackwater (toilets), greywater (bathing, washing machines), kitchen wastewater (oil, grease, and food), and bilge water (condensation water, oil, and fuel). The traditional wastewater treatment process consisted of the biological treatment of the blackwater, followed by its discharge into the sea with the greywater and kitchen water once they had all passed through a disinfection stage. The bilge water then followed after passing through an oil separator.

Shipboard waste treatment can be challenging, especially because space is tight and watercraft and wave motion does not make the task any easier. Today’s state-of-the-art technology enables the combined treatment of blackwater, greywater and kitchen wastewater together with degreased bilge water in a single reactor system.

Huber SE, located in Berching, Germany, builds machinery for water treatment plants and supplies components for shipboard water treatment systems. For each shipboard water treatment plant, HUBER supplies two perforated screen systems fitted with Bauer geared motor drives. Bauer BF Series gear motors feature a hardened wear sleeve and spray ring at the rotor seal which allows for reduced sump capacity, reliable lubrication and many years of leak free performance.

The most recent wastewater system operates onboard an American cruise ship with a length of 315 meters and a width of 36.8 meters, and it accepts everything that 2,850 passengers, crew, ship chefs and the laundry have to dispose of.