International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships Ballast Water and Sediments has entered into force in China,and it is very important to control the discharge of ballast water.However,the discharge of ballast water is difficult to meet the Convention's standards.In order to ensure the effectiveness of the treatment results of Ballast Water Management System (BWMS), IMO has revised the standards for water quality characteristics of Guidelines for Type Approval (G8).Due to the differences of water quality characteristics in various natural water areas, additives are often used in water synthesis for BWMS type approval inland-based test to meet the water quality characteristics standards. The effect of additives on the water quality characteristics of fresh water, brackish water and sea water in the type approval test of BWMS is focused on, and stable and effective additives for the synthesis methods of the type approval test water for BWMS.The results showed that the synthesis method of source nature water with calcium lignosulphonate, glucose,corn starch,chitosan and kaolin was possible to improve the water to satisfy the requirement of IMO.