Advanced studies of ballast water treatment with UV radiation

船舶压载水的处理以防止物种引入是由国际海事组织（IMO）和美国海岸警卫队（默认情况下）的法规管理的。紫外线辐射（UV）处理是一种经过验证的废水灭菌技术，由Trojan Technologies（伦敦，安大略）领导。紫外线对杀灭压载水生物是有效的。然而，目前验证处理技术的标准是基于活体染色-一种对生存能力的间接评估-只有在证明有效的情况下才能使用替代测试。这对紫外线的应用至关重要，因为当用目前监管机构用于验证处理技术的活体染色试验进行测试时，大量被紫外线灭活的细胞似乎是活的。在没有更准确的替代测试的情况下，这些误导性的结果将需要昂贵的和不必要的过度治疗时，紫外线用于治疗。这反过来又会阻止特洛伊有效地竞争一个潜在的年度市场份额估计为c。未来6年每年10亿美元。 我们将确定杀死各种浮游植物的适当紫外线剂量，重点是如果引入可能形成生态破坏或有毒水华的物种。这将确定所需的最低暴露量，以确保将活细胞数量减少到IMO规定的水平，从而避免昂贵的过度处理。生存力将直接决定与时间和精力密集的成长过程。我们还将测试光学技术，以评估治疗的有效性，在近实时作为一个潜在的替代重要的污渍，这将在平行测试。这些结果将使Trojan能够优化治疗方案，并开发出独立于使用活体染色剂的快速活力测定法。两者都是在巨大的潜在市场中有效竞争的关键。

Treatment of ships' ballast water to prevent species introductions is governed by regulations from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and, by default, the US Coast Guard. Treatment with ultraviolet radiation (UV) is a proven technology for wastewater sterilization, an application led by Trojan Technologies (London, Ontario). UV is demonstrably effective for killing ballast water organisms. However, the current standard for validating treatment technologies is based on vital stains - an indirect assessment of viability - and alternative tests can be used only if they can be proved to work. This is critical to application of UV, because significant numbers of cells that are inactivated by UV appear to be alive when tested with vital stain assays that are currently being used by regulators to validate treatment technologies. In the absence of more accurate alternative tests, these misleading results would necessitate expensive and unnecessary over-treatment when UV is used for treatment. That in turn would prevent Trojan from competing effectively for a potential annual market share estimated at c. $1 billion annually for the next 6 years. We will determine the appropriate UV dose for killing a variety of phytoplankton, with an emphasis on species that can form ecologically-damaging or toxic blooms if introduced. This will define the minimum exposures required to confidently reduce the number of viable cells to the levels mandated by the IMO, thereby avoiding costly over-treatment. Viability will be determined directly with time- and effort-intensive grow-out procedures. We will also test optical techniques to assess the effectiveness of treatment in near-real time as a potential alternative to vital stains, which will tested in parallel. The results would allow Trojan to optimize treatment protocols and to develop rapid viability assays independent of the use of vital stains. Both are critical to compete effectively in a vast potential market.