Marine watermakers provide reliable fresh water and, in some circumstances, potable water for your operation. Since they support your operations with such crucial functionality, marine watermakers are an important investment. If you select the right one, you can enjoy its benefits for decades.

Selecting the wrong one can lead to confusion, demanding maintenance procedures, and the eventual need to purchase another watermaker sooner than you would like.

When people cut corners to save on costs, such as the focusing only on initial cost of acquiring a marine watermaker, for example, they can see increased operational expenses instead of extended savings. 

Fortunately, if you select the right watermaker system, you can expect long-term function.

Wondering what an oily water separator is and how it benefits your vessel?

This type of water treatment system is responsible for removing oil particles from bilge water. Oily water separators that adhere to the IMO MEPC standards are specifically designed to be used in machinery space bilges of ships, making a system of this caliber an essential component of your vessel—especially if you enjoy avoiding fines. 

In order to discharge water safely from your ship, you’ll need to comply with all maritime regulations for doing so. This is where an oily water separator comes in. Current maritime regulations state that the oil content in discharged water must be less than 15 ppm. In order to stay in compliance and avoid fines, you need a system to treat your oily bilge water to get to that standard before discharging.

Your electrochlorination system is a big investment – one where the project specifications play a huge role in the system cost.

A high-quality electrochlorination system passes an electric current through salty water. By doing so, an electrochlorination system produces hypochlorite that is used to prevent biofouling. 

Many owners do not understand how much of an impact that required project specifications have on the purchase price for these systems. Sometimes customer specifications and standards can double or even triple standard system costs! Let’s talk about the system components that drive these costs so you can understand your investment or take steps to make yours as economical as possible - while still meeting all necessary standards.

H2O LLC — an innovative provider of top-tier potable water, electrochlorination, and sewage treatment systems for marine vessels and offshore oil and gas platforms — today announced that it has acquired the assets of BOSS Separators, oily water separators designed for the marine industry, from Recovered Energy, Inc. The BOSS Separators brand will remain intact and become a product of H2O LLC.

When it comes to effective biofouling control, there are few components more essential to your system’s processes than electrochlorination cells. These cells generate chlorine that can help prevent inefficient, expensive system downtime by controlling biofouling organisms such as barnacles, mussels, and film-forming microbes. 

As electrochlorination cells do their work, they will produce byproducts called hydroxides. These can clog the cells , resulting in inefficiency and even failure. 

To make sure that your electrochlorination cells can do their jobs correctly, you need to perform consistent maintenance. The most important part of that maintenance involves removing hydroxide deposits through effective cleaning practices. If you do, your electrochlorination cells and hypochlorite generator will be able to operate continuously for years. 

The alternative? A very costly—and premature—replacement. Let’s discuss the best way to avoid that outcome through regular acid cleaning practices.

Water, water, everywhere: When you’re at sea, one of the most precious commodities you need to produce and protect is, somewhat ironically, clean water. Your offshore rig or vessel depends upon disinfected, pure seawater to keep all of your seawater utility systems running safely and efficiently. One way to ensure effectiveness and efficiency is to reduce or prevent any instances of biofouling in your rig’s seawater utility systems.

Your vessel’s electrochlorination units work to reduce biofouling in your system’s pipes, heat exchangers, and firewater systems. These treatment systems also prevent biofouling in your system’s pipes, pumps, and heat exchangers. It even reduces corrosion from microbes present in seawater, leading to system durability and longevity. 

In short, investing in a good electrochlorination system is a good way to ensure that your rig’s seawater utility systems run smoothly. 

Interested in what’s going on behind the scenes? Here’s what you need to know about how electrochlorination systems work:

Your sodium hypochlorite generator keeps your rig or vessel’s cooling water systems free of biofouling. This system is essential—and expensive. Fortunately, routine maintenance and consistent check-ins on its performance will go a long way towards protecting your hypochlorite generator and its parts as well as your investment.  

However, it’s equally crucial to have an expert inspect your hypochlorite generator from time to time. Your annual inspection will serve as a baseline to help you keep tabs on your generator throughout the year, and also help your team flag issues for immediate maintenance to avoid unpleasant surprises with higher-cost repairs later on. 

Interested in what your inspector will be assessing during your hypochlorite generator’s annual checkup? This checklist will give you an idea of what they will be looking out for.

Offshore platforms and drilling rigs are in essence a small community of people living and working at sea. Just like with community water systems reliability and safety are of vital importance. Your watermaker helps meet the need of your floating community, which is often located hundreds of miles from an alternative source of fresh, safe water. As this is the case, your watermaker is as important to you as any piece of production equipment.  Watermaker manufacturers realize this and build water treatment systems that are built to last.

Watermakers produce potable water that is safe for both human contact and consumption. As they meet such a critical need, offshore watermakers tend to have extensive safety features, durable components that can last a long time, and easy use and maintenance practices. 

However, it’s also important to realize that you need to be prepared for what could happen if your watermaker ceases working at an inopportune moment. Without a properly working watermaker, you would either need to rely on emergency water deliveries or delay the use of your boat or offshore rig. 

Watermakers are expensive; a brand-new unit can cost up to $150K. What’s more, improper maintenance can accelerate their replacement time line. However, the alternative does suggest good news. Keeping an eye on the health of individual parts of your watermaker, knowing when it’s best to replace each component, and practicing routine maintenance can extend the life of your offshore watermaker.

Your desalination unit is one of the water treatment systems on your offshore rig that helps ensure that you have the water you need for daily functions at sea. As such, it’s critically important to the safety of your crew. Offshore platforms are often located in the most remote, inhospitable places on the planet. Entire crews—often, hundreds of people—work on and call these platforms home.

In order for your crew to be safe and healthy, it’s crucial that fresh water is available at all times. On-site water desalination units provide a reliable source of water purification.

These types of seawater desalination systems use reverse osmosis (RO) technology, which uses a pressure-based filtration process to separate pure water from seawater.

If you don’t have a properly working desalination unit, you could be liable for danger to your crew and guests.