The present world wide economic situation has meant that almost all ship operators have to employ slow steaming with their ships. Long hours, or days, with engine operation at loads of 30 per cent, or even less, bring problems with those engines and these are not easy to solve, including ensuring that the exhaust gas meets with local requirements, where necessary. At the same time, the increasing number of sea areas (SECA's) which demand the use of low sulphur content fuels or, very low sulphur exhaust gas emissions, from all ships, present more problems for the engine operator - the USER. The paper sets out to show the depth of these problems and in particular the effects on engine operation, and how the USERS are dealing with them. Since the use of low sulphur content fuel oils is now mandatory in different areas, the USER has to invest in extra equipment to deal with such fuel oils at the same time as extra investment in sometimes complex adaptations of the engines, have to be made. In addition, there now seems to be a problem of how much low sulphur content fuel can be supplied in some ports, particularly where large ships are concerned. Furthermore, new regulations have been brought forward rapidly, where exhaust gas emissions are concerned, in waters off the state of California, USA. These go well beyond the present requirements laid down by the IMO to which all USERS have taken considerable steps, in conjunction with the engine designers, to meet the present IMO tier requirements and the next IMO tier. The latest requirements as laid down for Californian waters, mean that each USER has to invest in further equipment on board when it will only be used for a relatively short time in each voyage. The need for unilateral exhaust gas emissions across the world is paramount to the USERS but there are now several authorities who demand their own exhaust gas emission levels. Apart from the larger main engines on board many of the USERS ships, the change over from heavy marine fuel to a much lighter grade of fuel oil can cause problems with auxiliary engines designed to use only one fuel oil type. For those USERS operating machinery in tankers, the problem is further aggravated by having to deal with the exhaust gas emissions from the boilers where much use is made of heavy fuel oil for considerable periods since fresh water generation onboard is essential. Dealing with sulphur in the exhaust gas, on board has yet to be fully exploited.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    The users views of having to use low-sulphur fuels combined with slow-steaming


    Contributors:


    Publication date :

    2010


    Size :

    6 Seiten, 1 Bild


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Storage medium


    Language :

    English