A METHOD FOR DETERMINATION OF FILTER BLOCKING TENDENCY OF RESIDUAL BUNKER FUELS
Marine Engines are fitted with several filters in the fuel line to keep out substances that may enter the engine and cause damages. In the last few years, partial to complete blockages of filters have been experienced in several marine engines. The consequence has been unscheduled stoppages of engines, blackout due to complete power loss in some cases and drifting in high seas risking the safety and security of the ship. There are no standards and procedures to assess the filterability of bunker fuels as they pass through the fuel systems of the engines. Some work was carried out by Shell in this area. However this did not gain industry acceptance since it called for a very large quantity of bunker fuel sample (3 liters). There is an existing ASTM method for determining Filter Blocking Tendency. However this covers only distillate fuels, biodiesel fuel and blends of these fuels and not bunker residual heavy fuels. The current method adopted to identify potential filter blocking in fuels is to carry out a GCMS/FT-IR analysis and identify and quantify substances/contaminants that cause this problem. This method takes much longer time and is much more expensive. This paper describes a Filter Blocking Tendency test which will need only 300 mL of the fuel sample (which is available in the current bunker fuel sampling procedures). In this setup, 300 mL of fuel is pumped at a constant rate and pressure and temperature developed are recorded simultaneously. Using proprietary software, the changes in pressure and temperature of the fuel oil are recorded at set intervals as they pass through the filter medium. A pressure v/s volume curve is plotted and the Filter Blocking Tendency Number (FBTN) is generated after each test. By correlating the lab test result with the actual filter blocking problems experienced by ships, FBTN number has been fine-tuned to provide a clear indication if the fuel is likely to block the filters on the ships main and auxiliary engines. Various parameters have been adjusted to reflect the conditions on the ship so that a realistic FBTN can be generated. Key Words: Filterability; Heavy fuel oil; Filter blocking tendency number, Pressure; Volume.
Sudipa Ghosh Amitava Talukder Ramaratnam Visweswaran
Viswa Lab,United States of America
国际会议
上海
英文
1-8
2013-05-13（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）