Marine Maintenance Technology International - April 2016

(^68) ⠿ MARINE MAINTENANCE TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL | APRIL 2016
⠿ FUEL MANAGEMENT
Martechnic’s response to the current challenging issues of the marine
shipping industry: fuel oil stability, compatibility and cat fines
Frank Herholdt, Olga Ney and Stefan Lagner, Martechnic
R
egular monitoring of marine fuel
oil quality remains a priority issue
for the marine shipping industry.
With regard to the international
requirements to ensure high standards for
environmental protection and the related
prescribed norms of the tightening low-
sulfur legislation, the residual fuel oil
currently used to operate marine vessels is
undergoing noticeable changes. There is a
desire to diversify the use of conventional
bunker fuel, i.e. heavy fuel oil, replacing
it either completely with alternative fuels
(biofuels, liquefied natural gas, etc) or by
combining HFO and marine gas oil, for
example, switching fuels depending on the
operational area of a vessel.
While HFO is still considered shipping’s
main bunker fuel, the required low-sulfur
content is achieved by intense refining and
blending processes. Although this enables
it to meet the technical standards for HFO
established and enforced by international
law, fuel oil quality can be greatly degraded.
Onboard test kits
Managing low-sulfur
fuel on board
ABOVE: The concentration of cat fines in HFO
before and after purification in a separator can
be quickly determined on-site with the MT Cat
Fines Check
A quick estimation on-site of a bunker
fuel’s specifications immediately upon
delivery can be viewed as essential. The
key parameters to check are stability,
compatibility and density of the fuel, as well
as cat fines concentration.
Such an early assessment enables one
to efficiently identify whether the fuel is
acceptable to the fuel system of a vessel
without potentially having an adverse effect
on the engine components. Checks also
allow one to determine the compliance of
the fuel oil supplier with the established
standards of oil quality.
Considering these challenges,
Martechnic’s portable test devices (Compa
Dens Check and MT Cat Fines Check) can be
regarded as an effective technical solution
for conducting the relevant test analyses to
manage on-site marine fuel oil monitoring.
Before separator After separator
LEFT: Trend in HFO share: fuel mix for
containership, bulk carrier/general cargo, tanker
(crude) and tanker (product/chemical) fleet (%).
Source: Lloyd’s Register Group/UCL Energy
Institute