ACO Marine bags Canadian AOR wastewater management contract

German-based ACO Marine has landed a contract to equip the Canadian interim Auxiliary Oiler Replenishment (AOR) vessel with two Maripur wastewater treatment plants.

Following the inking of an agreement with UK-based system integrator Basetek, ACO Marine will supply a complete wastewater management package for retrofit to the converted 2010-built, 23,800dwt containership Asterix.

The full scope 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.

Chantier Davie shipyard and the Aecon fabrication yard are converting the former containership for the Royal Canadian Navy’s (RCN) Project Resolve. The LR-classed vessel will provide the RCN with a five-year stop-gap until two newbuild Queenstown-class auxiliary ships, HMCS Queenstown and HMCS Châteauguay, enter service in 2021.

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

ACO Marine Managing Director Mark Beavis said: “Having installed similar systems on the Dutch Navy Joint Support Ship Karel Doorman and the French/Russian navy Landing Platform Helicopter (LPH) vessels, ACO Marine was ideally positioned to offer the retrofit upgrade to bring Resolve’s current sewage treatment facilities up-to-date and to comply with the latest IMO regulation, MEPC 227(64).”

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.”

ACO Marine’s scope of supply will be delivered to the Chantier Davie Canada shipyard in Lévis, Quebec, this October, with the converted vessel due for operational service the following summer.