FORMER CEO and co-founder of ballast water treatment (BWT) business OceanSaver Stein Foss has set up the independent company with three partners and engineering, marketing and manufacturing experts to address a ballast water challenge that is threatening the entire shipping industry, namely, "reliable filtration".

The result is newly formed company, Moss Hydro, in Drammen, Norway with a branch office in Gdansk, that produces "revolutionary" filters designed for ballast water treatment (BWT).

Moss Hydro is expected to be taking orders for its single and multi-screen filters (prototypes have been tested up to a capacity of 3,200 m3/hr) in September, with production commencing in the fourth quarter of 2012.

The establishment of this new supplier of filters for the BWT industry comes ahead of an International Maritime Organisation (IMO) mandate that requires all vessels to have BWT systems installed by 2016.

Said the company; "The emerging BWT system market faces challenges of supply - there are very few filter manufacturers - and technology, with some existing filters prone to blockages from ocean sediment and other organics. And if the filter blocks, the BWT system stops ... and so does the ship," it said.

Mr Foss and his colleagues, including former OceanSaver senior vice president Aage Bjorn Andersen, have engineered their own solution, in a bid to meet the IMO deadline.