Has there been any news about Canada moving forward with Emissions Control Areas? Lakes? BC area? US is limping towards ratification of MARPOL Annex VI and California has new legislation ready to roll to tighten further their former MGO/MDO requirements. Scrubbers have been deemed to be limited to plants of 20Mw or less due to the inherent back pressure so the really big boys will have to come up with something else for SOx.
Any have any experience with water emulsions or charge air humification? B&W has a large 2 stroke engine that has been running in Puerto Rico for over 20 years on a high water to fuel ratio emulsion.
ECA for Canada
-
Madzng
- Officer of the Watch
- Posts: 130
- Joined: Sat Jun 14, 2008 10:01 pm
- Currently located: London
- Contact:
SOx and NOx's
The simplest way to get reduce the SOx emissions is Low Sulphur fuel, be it residual or distillate. The IMO already has in place sulphur reduction plans for marine fuels over the next few years. Several key players are wanting all engines to be run on low sulphur distillate fuel.
The other big area of concern at the moment is the NOx pollutants and in simple terms the higher the combustion space temperature the greater the volume of NOx's produced.
The RT-Flex engine which is NOx compliant can only adjust the VIT and FQS settings by +/- 1 degree. This can have a big impact on fuel consumption when a poor quality fuel is used or there are parts are starting to wear in the fuel system.
I was briefly involved in one of the High-efficiency Engine R & d on Combustion with Ultra Low Emissions for Ships projects. www.ip-hercules.com
The HERCULES project include ten separate areas looking at new technology and methods of reducing emissions, increasing reliability, and efficiency. The projects were partly funded by the European Union, and most large manufactures and shipping companies were involved in the various projects.
I became involved with the "Direct Water Injection system". This essentially meant injecting high pressure distilled water into the combustion chamber, reducing the high combustion temperatures and subsequent quantity of NOx's produced. The test was carried out on one cylinder of a 8RT-Flex 96C.
A modified cylinder head was fitted with six injector pockets - three fuel and three water. A high pressure water pump and common rail was installed in the engine room, with the water injection control equipment bolted to the exhaust valve. Exhaust gas monitoring equipment and a whole load of other electronics was also installed.
Unfortunately, as always seems to be the case the project fell behind schedule and although installed it had not been commissioned when I had to move on to other things. I did hear from another Super that all of the kinks had been ironed out and that testing was ongoing, but have heard no more.
One issue that the trials was going to measure was the quantity of water required to reduce the NOx emissions to the required level. It was unknown what the ratio of water to fuel would be, but it was expected to be within 50 to 100% of the fuel injected. This would mean for that particular engine the additional water that would need to be generated everyday would be in the region of 80 to 160 tonnes per day, when going at full speed.
I know that this stage of the project was to test the equipment and the theory and if successful was going to tested on a whole engine, but I do not know if that was ever started.
Another big issue at the moment the IMO are discussing is the CO2 emissions from ships, and no doubt some legislation will be brought in to control that as well.
I don't have any information about Canada, but know Hong Kong is planning to follow in Los Angeles wake and introduce emissions controls and speed restrictions. I am sure once Hong Kong has done it Singapore will not be far behind.
The other big area of concern at the moment is the NOx pollutants and in simple terms the higher the combustion space temperature the greater the volume of NOx's produced.
The RT-Flex engine which is NOx compliant can only adjust the VIT and FQS settings by +/- 1 degree. This can have a big impact on fuel consumption when a poor quality fuel is used or there are parts are starting to wear in the fuel system.
I was briefly involved in one of the High-efficiency Engine R & d on Combustion with Ultra Low Emissions for Ships projects. www.ip-hercules.com
The HERCULES project include ten separate areas looking at new technology and methods of reducing emissions, increasing reliability, and efficiency. The projects were partly funded by the European Union, and most large manufactures and shipping companies were involved in the various projects.
I became involved with the "Direct Water Injection system". This essentially meant injecting high pressure distilled water into the combustion chamber, reducing the high combustion temperatures and subsequent quantity of NOx's produced. The test was carried out on one cylinder of a 8RT-Flex 96C.
A modified cylinder head was fitted with six injector pockets - three fuel and three water. A high pressure water pump and common rail was installed in the engine room, with the water injection control equipment bolted to the exhaust valve. Exhaust gas monitoring equipment and a whole load of other electronics was also installed.
Unfortunately, as always seems to be the case the project fell behind schedule and although installed it had not been commissioned when I had to move on to other things. I did hear from another Super that all of the kinks had been ironed out and that testing was ongoing, but have heard no more.
One issue that the trials was going to measure was the quantity of water required to reduce the NOx emissions to the required level. It was unknown what the ratio of water to fuel would be, but it was expected to be within 50 to 100% of the fuel injected. This would mean for that particular engine the additional water that would need to be generated everyday would be in the region of 80 to 160 tonnes per day, when going at full speed.
I know that this stage of the project was to test the equipment and the theory and if successful was going to tested on a whole engine, but I do not know if that was ever started.
Another big issue at the moment the IMO are discussing is the CO2 emissions from ships, and no doubt some legislation will be brought in to control that as well.
I don't have any information about Canada, but know Hong Kong is planning to follow in Los Angeles wake and introduce emissions controls and speed restrictions. I am sure once Hong Kong has done it Singapore will not be far behind.
-
The Dieselduck
- Administrator
- Posts: 4138
- Joined: Sun Jul 22, 2007 1:41 pm
- Currently located: Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada (West Coast of Canada)
- Contact:
Great insight
Thanks madzng for your insight. I enjoy reading your post (s) and happy that you are participating in this community forum.
Martin Leduc
Certified Marine Engineer and Webmaster
Martin's Marine Engineering Page
http://www.dieselduck.net
Certified Marine Engineer and Webmaster
Martin's Marine Engineering Page
http://www.dieselduck.net
-
ArkSeaJumper
- Engineering Mentor
- Posts: 124
- Joined: Fri Sep 07, 2007 8:02 am
- Currently located: Ireland
Over in Europe we have been switching between normal sulpher fuel and low sulpher fuel every time we enter a SECA, ir the north sea or the Baltic.
http://www.intertanko.com/pdf/technical ... I-SECA.pdf
It has caused problems, because of the switching back and forth, it is hard to get the TBN oil to suit the job (or BN as it seems to be called now).
So the oil sample results are all over the place.
Storage of fuel onboard is very difficult, some of the smaller vessels only have two bunker tanks.
They end up sailing around on the low sulpher fuel most of the time, regardless where there are.
The change over must be finished and loged before entering the SECA. If you only have one Settling and one Service tank this takes a bit of forward planning.
The big difficulty, is when you are in port just outside the SECA (with the engine on High Sulpher) and orders come through to nip inside the area to pick up a cargo. This involves dropping your day tanks back to the bunker tanks.
If the Low sulpher fuel was more available, I think more vessels would just be left on it.
http://www.intertanko.com/pdf/technical ... I-SECA.pdf
It has caused problems, because of the switching back and forth, it is hard to get the TBN oil to suit the job (or BN as it seems to be called now).
So the oil sample results are all over the place.
Storage of fuel onboard is very difficult, some of the smaller vessels only have two bunker tanks.
They end up sailing around on the low sulpher fuel most of the time, regardless where there are.
The change over must be finished and loged before entering the SECA. If you only have one Settling and one Service tank this takes a bit of forward planning.
The big difficulty, is when you are in port just outside the SECA (with the engine on High Sulpher) and orders come through to nip inside the area to pick up a cargo. This involves dropping your day tanks back to the bunker tanks.
If the Low sulpher fuel was more available, I think more vessels would just be left on it.
Low all the time
Most bunker available on the Canada's east coast and upwards on the lakes have a low sulphur content. The ships in the company I work for run continuously on IFO 180 with a sulphur content ranging between 0,8% and 1,2% or HFO 380 with a sulphur content around 1,3%. For MDO they are already going towards ULSD (ultra low sulphur diesel), we routinely take on diesel at or near 5ppm sulphur content. The thinking process is this: the extra expense in low suplhur fuel in the short term will lead to more contracts in the long term because you can take shipments away from others by getting friendly with the environmentally conscious crowd.
-
TxMarEng
- Officer of the Watch
- Posts: 122
- Joined: Mon Oct 22, 2007 8:48 am
- Currently located: Albuquerque New Mexico
- Contact:
Cruise Ships
Perhaps Martin can shed some light on this. Does Bermuda have an actual sulfur limit of 2% or is this some voluntary agreement such as the one recently announced by Chevron?
That is very interesting Madzng, and that is a very interesting handle. I would be very interested in the acids produced after combustion with the addition of that much H2O. And how these would affect the quality of sealing. The piston rings and such. I believe they may be on the verge of something very important, but must agree with ArkSeaJumper and Sebastien (sorry Sebastien can't find the accent e-gu or what ever). That the sulphur content might be easilier contolled from the source, and this might be true for other additives for fuel, as IMO becomes stricter, this might be the way to go. But I love reading about these experiments, so much work must go into a simple test, it amazes me that this is even performed. Please keep me informed.
Cheers Wyatt
Cheers Wyatt
-
Madzng
- Officer of the Watch
- Posts: 130
- Joined: Sat Jun 14, 2008 10:01 pm
- Currently located: London
- Contact:
Update on Hercules
Just a quick update on the Direct Water Injection project.
The unit was run successfully for a few months, but has been stopped due to electrical problems.
Once the problems are fixed the unit will be run again to get more data from the trial.
It is important that the liner wall temperatures are kept above the dew point, and this applies to every engine. As the water is injected just after combustion it will turn to steam/vapour. If any moisture were to contact the liner walls it would be neutralised by the alkalinity within the cylinder lub oil. Once in the exhuast trunking the moisture should not condense out before the exhaust gas boiler. It may be necessary to change the materials used in the EGB, reduce the energy taken from the exhaust or move the boiler closer to the Turbochargers.
I have heard that with a 1:1 ratio fuel and water there was a reduction in NOx of approximately 50%.
If I hear anymore I will post again.
The unit was run successfully for a few months, but has been stopped due to electrical problems.
Once the problems are fixed the unit will be run again to get more data from the trial.
It is important that the liner wall temperatures are kept above the dew point, and this applies to every engine. As the water is injected just after combustion it will turn to steam/vapour. If any moisture were to contact the liner walls it would be neutralised by the alkalinity within the cylinder lub oil. Once in the exhuast trunking the moisture should not condense out before the exhaust gas boiler. It may be necessary to change the materials used in the EGB, reduce the energy taken from the exhaust or move the boiler closer to the Turbochargers.
I have heard that with a 1:1 ratio fuel and water there was a reduction in NOx of approximately 50%.
If I hear anymore I will post again.
-
Madzng
- Officer of the Watch
- Posts: 130
- Joined: Sat Jun 14, 2008 10:01 pm
- Currently located: London
- Contact:
Re: ECA for Canada
The HERCULES project lives on.
The HERCULES-Beta research project proposal was recently approved by the European Commission. The project represents a major international cooperative effort to maximise fuel efficiency combined with ultra-low emissions and to develop future generations of optimally efficient and clean marine diesel engines. As such, HERCULES-Beta aims to surpass the current limits set by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to radically improve the environmental performance of waterborne transport.
The project's principal aim is to reduce marine diesel engine fuel consumption by 10% and to improve the efficiency of marine diesel propulsion systems to more than 60%, significantly reducing CO2 emissions as a result. A further aim of the project is to target ultra-low exhaust emissions by eliminating 70% of NOx and 50% of particulates from marine engines by 2020.
In 2007, a group of more than 40 European companies, universities and research institutions, led by MAN Diesel and Wärtsilä Corporation, successfully completed a major, 43-month, cooperative research project under the name HERCULES (High Efficiency R&D on Combustion with Ultra-Low Emissions for Ships) with a budget of EUR 33 million, partly funded by the European Union (EUR 15 million) and the Swiss Federal Government (EUR 2.5 million).
The first phase of the HERCULES project concentrated on the development of tools (e.g., simulation software, measurement techniques, etc.) and the general investigation of potential avenues for reducing emissions and fuel consumption. Initially, the project established and operated prototypes. The results stemming from this indicate a great potential for significantly reducing fuel consumption and emissions and reaching the project's ambitious targets.
HERCULES-Beta will directly build on the findings of the first phase of the HERCULES project. The tools previously established will be employed to more closely investigate, understand and ultimately optimise the engines. Both analytical investigations as well as prototypes will be refined, based on first-phase results, with the intention of achieving the ultra-low emission and fuel consumption targets. Finally, by carrying out field-tests on the prototypes developed in the first phase, information on the important effect of real-life boundary conditions will be gathered and analysed.
The HERCULES-Beta research project proposal was recently approved by the European Commission. The project represents a major international cooperative effort to maximise fuel efficiency combined with ultra-low emissions and to develop future generations of optimally efficient and clean marine diesel engines. As such, HERCULES-Beta aims to surpass the current limits set by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to radically improve the environmental performance of waterborne transport.
The project's principal aim is to reduce marine diesel engine fuel consumption by 10% and to improve the efficiency of marine diesel propulsion systems to more than 60%, significantly reducing CO2 emissions as a result. A further aim of the project is to target ultra-low exhaust emissions by eliminating 70% of NOx and 50% of particulates from marine engines by 2020.
In 2007, a group of more than 40 European companies, universities and research institutions, led by MAN Diesel and Wärtsilä Corporation, successfully completed a major, 43-month, cooperative research project under the name HERCULES (High Efficiency R&D on Combustion with Ultra-Low Emissions for Ships) with a budget of EUR 33 million, partly funded by the European Union (EUR 15 million) and the Swiss Federal Government (EUR 2.5 million).
The first phase of the HERCULES project concentrated on the development of tools (e.g., simulation software, measurement techniques, etc.) and the general investigation of potential avenues for reducing emissions and fuel consumption. Initially, the project established and operated prototypes. The results stemming from this indicate a great potential for significantly reducing fuel consumption and emissions and reaching the project's ambitious targets.
HERCULES-Beta will directly build on the findings of the first phase of the HERCULES project. The tools previously established will be employed to more closely investigate, understand and ultimately optimise the engines. Both analytical investigations as well as prototypes will be refined, based on first-phase results, with the intention of achieving the ultra-low emission and fuel consumption targets. Finally, by carrying out field-tests on the prototypes developed in the first phase, information on the important effect of real-life boundary conditions will be gathered and analysed.