Overview
EN ISO 15749-1:2004 - Ships and marine technology: Drainage systems on ships and marine structures - Part 1: Sanitary drainage-system design (ISO 15749-1:2004) - provides planning and design principles for sanitary drainage on ships and marine structures. Used together with Parts 2–4, it covers gravity and vacuum drain piping, sewage disposal pipes and interfaces to treatment systems. The series supports compliance with hygienic requirements and marine-environment protection and explicitly excludes piping that carries oily or chemically contaminated wastewater capable of forming flammable gas/oxygen mixtures.
Key topics and technical requirements
- Scope and classification of wastewater: Defines wastewater, grey water and sewage and classifies drain sources (see the standard’s Table 1 for origin-based classifications).
- Design planning: Guidance on system planning to achieve high availability, limiting the number of sanitary units per line and following maximum branch rules (refer to ISO 15749-3 for vacuum-system limits).
- Minimum design flows: Recommended minimum wastewater per person/day (examples from the standard):
- Passenger ships - without vacuum: sewage 70 L, black+grey 230 L; with vacuum: sewage 25 L, black+grey 185 L.
- Other sea-going ships - without vacuum: sewage 70 L, black+grey 180 L; with vacuum: sewage 25 L, black+grey 135 L.
- System structure and components: Layout and definitions for drain lines, connecting/branch lines, manifolds, gravity delivery lines, riser branches, collector tanks, intermediate and holding tanks, sludge storage and sewage treatment plants.
- Hygienic & environmental controls: Noise and odour reduction, ventilation, and prevention of environmental contamination consistent with MARPOL/IMO guidance.
- Operational aspects: Testing, commissioning, maintenance, availability targets, and graphical symbols/simplified representations for drawings.
Practical applications
EN ISO 15749-1:2004 is applied when designing and specifying sanitary drainage for:
- Accommodation and commissary areas on passenger and merchant ships
- Marine platforms and other fixed marine structures
- Interface design for onboard sewage treatment plants, collector tanks and sewage disposal pipes
The standard informs pipe sizing, system layout (gravity vs vacuum), ventilation design, testing protocols and documentation for approval and classification.
Who uses this standard
- Naval architects and marine engineers
- Shipbuilders and shipyards (plumbing and piping teams)
- Marine HVAC / sanitary system designers and contractors
- Classification societies, flag-state surveyors and regulatory authorities
- Manufacturers of onboard sewage treatment plants and plumbing components
- Ship operators and technical managers ensuring compliance with hygiene and environmental rules
Related standards and references
- ISO 15749 series: Parts 2–5 (drain piping for gravity/vacuum systems, sewage disposal pipes, deck/cargo/pool drainage)
- IMO MARPOL Annex IV and related MEPC/MSC guidance (sewage discharge and treatment requirements)
- ISO 4067 (graphical symbols), ISO 10628 (flow diagrams) and other referenced ISO/IMO documents
Keywords: EN ISO 15749-1:2004, sanitary drainage-system design, ships and marine technology, drainage systems, sewage treatment, collector tank, gravity systems, vacuum systems, MARPOL.