OILY WATER SEPARATOR

• What is an oily water separator on board the ship?

• An oily water separator (OWS) (marine) is a piece of equipment specific to the
shipping or marine industry. ... They are found on board ships where they are
used to separate oil from oily waste water such as bilge water before the
waste water is discharged into the environment.
• Oily water separator working principle:
• Oily water separator Works on the Principle of Separation – Gravity
Differential between the oil and water.
• Why is it required on board?
• The primary purpose of a shipboard oily water separator (OWS) is to
separate oil and other contaminants that could be harmful for the oceans. The
International Maritime Organization (IMO) publishes regulations through the
Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC).
Working of oily water separator
• The complete unit is filled with clean water and after that
the oil / water is pumped to the first stage of the coarse
separating compartment.Here, oil with a lower density than
water will rise to the surface with the aid of heating coils in
this process.It’s known as a collection space.
• A sensor then senses the oil level and the oil is then dumped
(according to ppm ) to the dirty oil tank via an oil valve.
• The remaining oil – water mixture moves down to the fine
separation compartment and moves slowly between the
catch plates.
• On the underside of these plates,more oil will separate
and move outwards until it is free to rise up to the
collection space.
• And then ,Almost oil free water passes on to the second
stage of the unit.
• In the second stage,two coalescer filters are
situated.The first filter removes any physical impurities
present and promotes some filtration, the 2nd filter
uses coalescer filter elements to achieve final filtration.
• Clean water then leaves the 2nd stage on to a clean
water holding tank or via a 15ppm monitor with audible
and visual alarms overboard.
• Coalscerence :- Breakdown if surface tension between
the oil droplets in an oil-water mixture which causes
them to join and increase in size.
• Alarms and shutdown
• If the 15 ppm oil content monitoring device detect
discharge of oil content over 15 ppm,it shuts the unit
down and activates the alarm. But in some cases only
alarm is there.