Chantier Davie shipyard and the Aecon fabrication yard will be adding two ACO Marine wastewater treatment plants in a conversion job on the 23,800dwt containership Asterix. The project is part of the Royal Canadian Navy’s (RCN) Project Resolve, supporting humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) activities.
ACO Marine Managing Director Mark Beavis said: “We were selected for this high-profile project based on a combination of being able to supply a complete equipment package for the wastewater system coupled, more importantly, with design flexibility. With stringent project completion dates to work towards, it was vital that we were able to demonstrate not only system reliability but supply reliability.
The project includes the supply, installation and commissioning of two MEPC 227(64)-compliant Maripur NF-150 advanced membrane bioreactor wastewater treatment plants with integrated black water vacuum collection systems. Lipator NS7 advanced grease separators for the pre-treatment of galley water and grey water transfer and aeration systems for the AOR’s collecting tanks also form part of the package. Operation and maintenance training will also be provided.
With a crew of up to 150 and an additional emergency accommodation capacity for 350, the requirement was to fit the wastewater management system into the existing space available. “Quite a challenge,” said Beavis. “To fit an advanced black and grey water treatment system capable of meeting an increased loading requirements for a total crew and hospital staff of up to 450 persons on what was once a containership made for a challenging retrofit solution.
Post-conversion, the Resolve-class AOR will be equipped to perform replenishment-at-sea duties for the Canadian Task Group and play a key role in the RCN’s humanitarian assistance and disaster relive (HADR) operations.
The converted vessel will operate under charter to RCN with a civilian crew.