Technology used to fight UAE's red tide

A technology used to clean up ballast water in ships will be tested off the shores of Abu Dhabi as a contingency tool to limit the damage of harmful algae blooms. The experiment, due to start this summer, was conceived last year as the UAE's east coast was recovering from possibly the worst attack of the red algae, or red tide, in its recorded history.
Developed in Japan, the method was showcased to officials from the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi (EAD) during an official visit to the country last year.
EAD is spending Dh8 million to adapt the purification system used on board ships to a land-based device.
"It could be an answer," said Dr Thabit Zahran al Abdessalaam, EAD's director of biodiversity sector. "The technology has been used in ships for a few years but this application has never been tried anywhere."
He said that in the event of another algal bloom of the same magnitude, the UAE needs to protect its desalination plants. The UAE depends on desalination plants for more than 90 per cent of its domestic water supply.
Last year's red tide, so-called because it coloured the waters off Fujairah and Khor Fakkan in the hue of dark blood, caused disruptions in desalination plants on the East Coast with production in some plants decreasing by up to 40 per cent. It is estimated to have caused losses of US$100,000 a day for the industry, according to the Abu Dhabi Water Resources Master Plan.
In order to keep balanced, ships take up a certain amount of ballast water at the start of a voyage. International regulations require vessels to treat that water before discharging it back at sea at the end of a journey. This is done so that bacteria, algae and other marine creatures inhabiting a certain area are not spread to other parts of the ocean. The land machine, developed by Hitachi Plant Technologies and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, is capable to treating 400 metric tonnes of water per hour and will be tested in Abu Dhabi in the summer.
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