September 30th, 2008
Hyde Marine, Inc Receives Order for Hyde Guardian™ Ballast Water Treatment Systems for Royal Navy Future Aircraft Carriers (CVF) Program
Hyde Marine, Inc., a leading marine equipment supplier specializing in shipboard environmental and security systems, won a contract for six (6) Hyde Guardian ballast water treatment systems for the Royal Navy Future Aircraft Carriers (CVF) program on behalf of the Aircraft Carrier Alliance. Delivery will take place in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Three BWT systems will be supplied for each of the two carriers to serve the three segregated ballast systems on each ship. The Hyde Guardian systems were chosen after an exhaustive study of all available technologies for BWT. The Hyde Guardian was chosen because of its compact, single skid mounted design and because of its demonstrated effectiveness and reliability. The system is fully automatic and will be integrated into the ship's ballast control system.
The Hyde Guardian system is the result of experience gained and lessons learned from five full scale systems delivered by Hyde in 2000 and 2001 with capacities ranging from 200 to 350m3/hr. The first of the current Hyde Guardian systems was installed aboard the cruise ship "Coral Princess" in June 2003 and has operated trouble free for more than five years. A second system was installed aboard the RCL Celebrity brand cruise ship "Mercury" in late 2006.
The Hyde Guardian aboard the "Coral Princess" is expected to be the first ship accepted into the US Coast Guard's STEP program later this year. The system is also undergoing IMO type approval through the UK Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) in cooperation with Lloyds Register. Land based testing was completed in June at the NIOZ facility in Holland and shipboard testing in September aboard the "Coral Princess". The recently completed IMO testing and previous testing aboard the "Coral Princess", during a 17 day cruise in the fall of 2004, demonstrated the system's ability to meet the requirements of the IMO Ballast Water Convention D-2 Standards and the requirements of STEP.
About the CVF program
The CVF carriers, HMS "Queen Elizabeth" and HMS "Prince of Wales", will have a displacement of about 65,000 tons and a length of 284 meters. The hulls are planned for a 50-year service life and the ships will be built in modules by selected naval shipbuilding yards in the UK, with final assembly in Rosyth. Each ship will have a complement of typically 1450 including the air crews, and will support about 40 aircraft including the Joint Strike Fighter and Airborne Early Warning aircraft.
About Hyde Marine
Hyde Marine, Inc., a Lamor Group company, is a major supplier of shipboard environmental equipment including both modular and skid mounted ballast water treatment systems and UV disinfection, waste water treatment, oil water separation, and ballast tank sediment control systems, as well as other types of shipboard machinery and equipment. Hyde has also developed technologies for shipboard security solutions including non-lethal, forceful deterrent systems using remotely controlled water cannons.