In present times Marine Pollution is a very costly affair. There are several instances in the recent past where in Marine Pollution has resulted in extensive irreversible damage to the environment, exorbitant fines, closures of company/organizations, loss of years of reputation, loss of lives, imprisonments and end of fruitful careers.

In view of the above Marine Pollution Prevention in itself is a Low Cost Affair! We cannot afford another Marine Pollution Incident! All efforts must be taken by ship and shore staff alike to device effective means to manage the waste products generated by vessels operations both in an environment friendly and economical manner.

A major area of concern is the disposal of sludge generated onboard.

In light of the tight schedule of vessels, short port stays, lack of shore reception facilities it becomes imperative for ship’s engineers to device ways and means to reduce sludge generation and thereafter proper disposal of the same. We take this opportunity to share with ESM managed vessels a very effective method for treatment of generated sludge which we are following on your good vessel LPG/C Warwick.

Sludge is generated from various sources in engine room gets collected in Bilge Separated Oil tank (BSOT). This accumulated sludge contains substantial quantity of water mixed with it.  This water content of waste oil has to be removed completely to ensure efficient operation of the incinerator or else it can give repeated flame failure alarms. This water content of waste oil is removed by steam heating of the Waste Oil Tank. 

Fig 1 illustrated below was the original arrangement fitted on our vessel. The evaporated steam had to travel up to the funnel mist box. During the course of long length of travel through the pipeline a lot of steam used to condense and return back to the W.O tank. This often resulted in substantial remnant water content in waste oil and thereby inefficient operation of the incinerator.

Fig 2 illustrated below shows the modified arrangement. The pipeline was modified and a ‘Condensation Chamber’ was fitted as shown. The drain for the condensation chamber is lead to the bilge tank. With this arrangement, the evaporated steam gets condensed in the condensation chamber and the condensed steam (water) gets immediately drained to the bilge tank.

It is note worthy that the separation of water from sludge achieved in 24 hours with the arrangement as shown in fig 1 was 0.1 m3  for the same rate of evaporation, while with arrangement as shown in fig 2 was 0.45 m3 .

"This is 4.5 times increase in the effectiveness of separation of water"

The many fold increase in the separation of water content of waste oil, has resulted in efficient operation of the incinerator. The sludge generated onboard can now be easily managed and incinerated without problems.