As I have written every word and drawn every image; I claim all and any rights that might be

associated with this book.

B. Sanchez 2017

This book is no excuse not to read the manufactures manual or seek assistance.

For any contact please email:

intromarineeng@gmail.com
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Prologue
Primer: because you’ve got to start somewhere
The Main Engine - It’s the main sail in modern shipping

Auxiliary systems - for those not at the main party

Electrics – enabling remote kinetics
Crew services - because people need to live on ships
Miscellaneous
Table of Figures
Index
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Prologue
This project is aimed at those with no prior knowledge:
None at all.

Fig 1: Why to read this book

Aiming for ‘simple is best’ and the KISS principle (‘keep it simple stupid’) means that
everything in this book is ‘simplified for clarity’. The diagrams will not be over dense blueprints
and, wherever I make a grand sweeping statement, I will completely omit to mention any
exceptions to the rule. I’ll do my best not to use big words, abbreviations, or use any numbers.
To keep us on track, I’ve put ‘look up watchwords’ at the end of each part. These are intended to
be entered into your favourite internet search engine. By providing these sign posts, those who
want more information can go off and get it, whilst the rest of us carry on regardless.
With my excuses made, I hope you get as much out this informal introduction to marine
engineering as I got from writing it. My only real promise is any revenue made from this tome
shall be used exclusively for foolish, unwise and meaningless adventures.

Fig 2: I like beer and will toast the queen

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Primer: because you’ve got to start somewhere
One of the first things I realised when settling down to write this book was: most things in a
traditional ship’s engine room involve, or provide services to, the ship’s main engine. The bulk
of what is left over provide services for the ship’s cargo (oil, containers or even passengers). Of
what is left, in a few dusky corners, lurk a few specialist devices that are needed to keep the
human custodians fed and watered. Obviously in specialist ships, like cruise ships or ferry’s,
things can be very different, but most of the world’s ships are cargo and tanker so they’re what
I’m going to focus on.
Which is all a long-drawn-out way of saying “It’s All About The Main Engine”.
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The Main Engine - It’s the main sail in modern shipping
What is an engine anyway?
In the real world, an engine is a machine that converts a fuel into something useful, normally
some type of movement. That movement can make other things move directly, indirectly, or
even make electricity.
So, a Main Engine is?
The ship’s Main Engine is used to move the ship. It can be one single engine or a system of
multiple engines that together make up the Main Engine. The Main Engine moves the ship by
burning fuel with air to drive the propeller or propellers. The propeller(s) push on the water
surrounding the vessel creating a thrust. The vessel then slides forward in the water.
Fuel + air -> The main engine → Kinetic Energy-> Rotating propeller -> Movement
Look-up: “combustion”, “Marine traffic” “Newtons laws of motion”
Why is it a diesel engine?
The ages of sail and steam are over. Commercial vessels the world over now use diesel engines.
Why? Because, currently, a diesel engine is the most efficient way of moving a large, heavy ship
from A to B.
The more efficient the Main Engine, the more miles are covered for each ton of fuel burnt. This
underlying efficacy is central to the diesel engine’s dominance in the marine sector, as the fuel
used to move a ship is the most expensive day to day overhead cost. Tens, to even hundreds, of
thousands of dollars per day, every day. I’m sure when someone invents a more efficient engine
than the diesel engine, then the age of the diesel engine will also promptly come to an end.

Fig 3: A large modern ship with engineers powering the engines

Look up: “marine bunkers”, “cost of bunkers”, “specific fuel consumption” “what
is a hydrocarbon”, “biggest engine ever”
Why not sail?
While the wind that fills the sails and pushes boats is free, that’s the only thing going for sail,
other than a quiet, rumble free ride. Good usable wind is unreliable, seasonal and sadly you
can’t sail directly into the wind. Hence with the modern demands of massive ships, short
deadlines and daily quotas, today’s globalised commercial companies simply can’t rely on a
vessel that might, possibly, maybe, could do if you’re lucky, arrive at its destination any time
next year.

Fig 4: An old small wooden sailing ship, with no engineer required

Look-up: “Clipper sail ships”, “trade winds”, “sail boat tacking” “biggest wooden
ship”
Why not a steam engine?
It was the steam engine that replaced sail a long time ago in the industrial revolution. They were
a big step up in a ships reliability. However, the bottom line is a steam engine will always be
less efficient than a diesel engine.
The main reason for the lower efficiency is the physical possess of evaporation that is
fundamental to a steam engine. When water in the boiler turns into steam, an extra energy other
than the increase in temperature is needed. This is called latent heat and cannot sensibly be
recovered.
There is one last small hold out for steam ships in natural gas tankers; although even here diesels
are slowly taking over.

Fig 5: A steam ship now with an engineer on-board

Look-up: “what is latent heat”, “LGN or LPG steam ship” “steam turbine”,
“60bar boiler”

Why not a petrol engine?

While it is true petrol engines are more efficient than steam engines, they are less efficient than
their diesel counterparts. The reason this time is a bit more complicated and requires maths and
graphs. However, simply put, diesels have a higher compression ratio and so they extract more
energy per cycle.
Moreover, petrol as a fuel is a more expensive and has major storage problems, as it is
considerably more flammable than diesel. In short, petrol engines and ships don’t mix too well.

Look-up: “diesel and petrol flash points”, “diesel and petrol Otto diagram”,
“diesel and petrol pressure diagrams”
So how does a diesel engine work?
Imagine a hand catching a ball. The hand absorbs the ball’s momentum and moves backwards;
the attached arm and shoulder move and rotate around the elbow, all while the main body of the
person stays still. A diesel engine captures its energy in a similar way.

Fig 6: A catching a ball is the same idea

However, we just need to rename the ball as explosion, the hand as piston and the
elbow/shoulder as the crank. Word swapping completed and we have a good model of how the
diesel engine absorbs its energy.
An explosion at the top of the cylinder pushes down on the piston. The piston drives a rod down
and finally rotates the crank, creating the desired rotating motion. By the time the piston has
reached the bottom, the once hot explosion has cooled and has become exhaust gas.
 Fig 7: The explosion drives the crank

Unfortunately, the idea of catching a ball only gets us so far. This is because not only does a
diesel engine catch a ball (capture the explosion) but also throws the next ball to itself. The key
to understanding how a diesel engine creates its energy is knowing that as you compress air it
becomes hot.

Fig 8: The crank drives the piston up

Compress air enough and it will because so hot it can auto-ignite fuel oil. (This is the key
difference opposed to a petrol engine where a spark plug ignites the fuel).
Fig 9: Fuel injection creates the explosion
Engine theory summary – because repetition is important
The cylinder expels any exhausted air and takes in (Suck) in clean fresh air. This
stroke is called the scavenging stroke.
Air is rapidly compressed (Squeeze) by a piston is the first stage in a diesel engine.
This is called the compression stroke
The now compressed and very hot air automatically ignites fine droplets of injected
fuel (Bang). This is the point of ignition.
This ignition creates a controlled explosion of hot gas that pushes downwards
driving a piston (Blow). This is called the power stoke.
The cylinder expels any exhausted air and takes in (sucks) in clean fresh air.
Suck -> Squeeze -> Bang -> Blow-> Suck -> Squeeze -> Bang -> Blow -> etc. etc.
All of this up and down by the piston turns the crank; resulting in the desired useful rotational
motion.

Look-up: why is repetition so important for learning!! “ideal gas laws”, “diesel
compression ratios”, “auto ignition temperature of diesel”.
There are two different types of diesel engine
You might have noticed that I omitted to give any details on how the old used exhaust gas is
changed for clean new air. This exchange of air is often called scavenging or charging, for our
purposes they are the same thing. Clearly scavenging is a key part of the cycle as without it the
engine will quickly run out of oxygen to react with the hydrocarbon fuel.
Good scavenging can be engineered in one of two ways: by letting the exchange happen when
the piston is at the bottom of the cylinder; or by using extra strokes between power cycles to
exhaust and clean the cylinder. These two approaches to scavenging mean that all diesels fall
into one of two types: two-stroke and four-stroke.
A two-stroke engine fires every second stroke (once a revolution), while a four-stroke fires every
fourth stroke (once every two revolutions). A stroke being one movement from top to bottom or
from bottom to top and revolution being one complete cycle.

Look-up: two-stoke timing diagram, four-stroke timing diagram

Two-stroke (‘s per power stroke)
In large two-stroke marine engines scavenging takes pace by scavenge ports (holes) at the
bottom of the cylinder and an exhaust valve at the top. As the piston descends it uncovers the
scavenge ports and the exhaust valve at the top of the cylinder opens. Cool fresh air is pushed
though the cylinder refreshing the atmosphere and completing the scavenging process in one go.
As the compression stroke starts the exhaust valve closes and the scavenge ports are concealed.
In order for this to work, the engine must to rotate sufficiently slowly or there would not be
enough time for this process to complete.

Fig 10: Fresh air driving out the scavenge air

The advantage of firing once every two-strokes gives two-strokes a small edge with regards
baseline efficiency over its four-stroke sibling (again remember baseline efficiency is all
important when it comes to what engine gets selected to power/drive a ship); so, its unsurprising
that large slow two-strokes power a majority of world shipping.
Nonetheless don’t underestimate just how large and slow they are. A modern marine two-stroke
engine is as big as a six-story house and it only rotates once or twice a second. So, even though
a two-stroke is highly efficient, they often are impractical, unless you have a large and tall engine
room available.
Look-up: MAN B&W two-stoke engine videos, uni-flow scavenging
Four-stroke (‘s per power stroke)
Four-strokes have an extra cycle, two additional strokes per power stroke. That extra revolution
of the engine allows the pistons to stroke again on a dedicated to scavenging cycle.
So, let’s start with the piston at the top of the cylinder and the injection of fuel into the super-
heated atmosphere…
The injected fuel automatically ignites, thus creating a lot of extra pressure inside the combustion
space. This pressure drives the piston downwards creating the useful movement in the crank.
However, unlike the big two-stroke there is no scavenge space at bottom and there definitely
isn’t enough time to allow good scavenging! With the piston now at the bottom of the cylinder
and the cylinder full of used exhaust gas the exhaust valve at the top of the cylinder opens. The
piston starts to rise driving the used gas out of the cylinder. When the piston gets to the top the
air inlet valve opens just before the exhaust valve closes and the piston starts to lower.
There is a time of small overlap when both inlet and exhaust valves are open, this helps rid the
system of the last of the old used gas. The lowering piston sucks in fresh air into the expanding
space and as the piston reaches the bottom the inlet valve closes. With all the valves closed the
piston is driven upwards, powered by the rest of the engine, rapidly heating the contracting gas.
Finally, as the piston reaches the top, fuel is injected into the high temperature air, creating a new
explosion and powering the engine for another cycle.

Fig 11: The opening and closing of valves

While this added rotation allows for excellent exchange of the used exhaust gas with fresh air,
the extra cycle consumes some stored momentum, hence lowing the engine’s efficacy slightly.
The advantage is that the engine can run much faster, delivering more power strokes per minute.
The final result on the engine is far more compact and lighter compared to the two-stroke.
 Fig 12: Size comparison of a two stroke on the left and four stroke on the right

Look-up: loop flow scavenging, “biggest two-stroke engine, “biggest four-stroke

engine”
There are different ways an engine can drive the propeller
Two-stroke direct drive
The simplest way to move a propeller is where the engine is bolted onto a short stubby shaft,
normally used with a large two-stroke engine. The shaft pokes out of the aft (rear/stern) of the
ship and onto the propeller. Each revolution of the engine is one revolution of the propeller.

Fig 13: Propeller being turned by the engine via the shaft

Look-up: “MAN B&W marine engines”, “cargo / tanker engine room”, “MAN
B&W vessel tonnage percentage”
Four-strokes and a gearbox drive
While attaching a slow two-stroke directly to the propeller is all well and good, it’s not so simple
if you’re using a high speed four-stroke. The problem with attaching a four-stroke directly to a
propeller is the speed. If a propeller was to rotate at the same speed as the engine, it could never
effectively push through the water.
The solution is to use a gear box to reduce the rotational speed down to a manageable and
effective level. This arrangement also allows increased flexibility and redundancy by allowing
more than one engines to drive a common gearbox via clutches. The increase in engines means
ship’s engineers can fix and maintain one engine whilst the other is still driving the ship. Not
possible on a simple two-stroke arrangement.
 Fig 14: Multiple engine gearbox drive

Look-up: “Wartsilla marine engines”, “Caterpillar marine engines”, “RoRo ferry

engine room”, “cruise ship engine rooms”
Diesel electric
Maybe the most elegant four-stroke solution is diesel electric. Here there are no shafts or
gearboxes, instead they are alternators, wires and motors. Now, multiple 4 stroke-engines make
lots of high voltage electricity. The electrically powers large specialist motors that drive the
ship’s propeller(s). The faster you need to move the ship and the more power is needed, the
more engines are run.

Fig 15: Multiple engine high voltage drive

Look-up: high voltage 1000V+, azipods, asynchronous motors, cruise ship engine
room
An Engine has lots of parts
Surprised? I hope not. However, if you can get your head around what each major part does,
what role it plays in the overall engine, then you start to get an idea of how the mechanism works
as a whole.
Note: the next diagram has a lot of parts for one diagram. If you’re a complete novice don’t try
to take it all in at once. However, remember that there is a full diagram here for future reference.
Note 2: The next diagram shows a four-stroke engine. To convert into a two-stroke engine add a
connecting rod, stuffing box and cross head bearing. Remove the air inlet valve and add air inlet
ports to the bottom of the cylinder. Finally move the exhaust valve to the centre and move the
fuel injector to the side of the cylinder head. I’ll cover these parts in the following pages.

Look-up: Interactive engine diagram, transparent engine

Fig 16: A four-stroke engine's parts

Piston and crown
The piston is a lump of hollow metal with a downwards curved surface at the top; the curved
surface is called the crown. Its job is to absorb the exploding fireball of gasses. The crown’s
curved surface helps spread the pressure. The piston is hollow to allow lube oil to enter inside
and cool the crown preventing the crown overheating. The sides of the piston are called the
piston shirt.

Fig 17: Cross-section of the piston

Look-up: Pressure vessel shape, high temperature steel, pressure receiver shape,
how hot is an engine combustion space
Cylinder Liner
The cylinder liner’s job is to support the piston as it goes up and down. This support is to both
physically stop it falling over and to transmit heat though itself and into the cooling water.

Fig 18: Cylinder liner and jacket space

Look-up: cast iron vs steel, cast iron surface stickiness, cylinder liner cross section,
cylinder liner refurbishment
Piston rings
The piston rings sit on the side of the piston and seal the high-pressure combustion space above
and the low-pressure crank/scavenge space below. Effectively the piston rings make a moving
wall between the cylinder liner on one side and the piston on the other. The moving wall means
the only way for the hot gas to expand is to push on the piston! Over time piston rings are wear
and are used up and have to be replaced when overhauling the engine.

Fig 19: Cylinder liner and piston rings

Look-up: different types of piston rings, piston ring blow past, crankcase explosion,
scavenge space fire
Piston rod
In a four-stroke, the piston rod connects the piston and the crank; in a two-stroke it connects the
piston to the crosshead bearing. In doing so it allows the lowering piston to drive the crank.

Fig 20: Piston rod connecting the piston and crank

Look-up: Piston rod bore, bottom end bearing, top end bearing
Stuffing box, crosshead bearing and connecting rod
In a two-stroke engine the clean crankcase is separated from the messy combustion space with a
stuffing box. The stuffing box surrounds the piston rod and is attached to the entablature. The
stuffing box contains many seals that stops the gasses and lube oil from crossing over and
contaminating the other space. However, because the stuffing box is fixed the piston rod can
only go directly up and down even though crank still needs to rotate. To allow get around this
dilemma an extra connecting rod and bearing are used to allow effective movement.
The crosshead is supported each side by a flat bearing surface called shoes. The shoes ensure
that the cross head, and therefore the piston rod, can only go straight up and down. The
connecting rod, aka con rod, attaches to the crank pin as would the piston rod in a two-stroke
engine.

Fig 21: Two-stroke stuffing box and crosshead

Look-up: telescopic arm, crosshead video, stuffing box seals, studding box scraper
seal
Crank - pin, journal and web
The crank’s job is to turn the up and down movements into a circular motion that can then be
used to turn an alternator, propeller or pump. It’s made up from a few parts: crank pin, crank
web and crank journal.

Fig 22: The crank's parts

Look-up: crank lube oil bores, white metal, forged crank vs cast crank
Main and bottom bearings
As with all bearings the main and bottom bearings allow two separate things to move over each
other. In this case the crank rotating over the bedplate for the main bearings and the piston rod
over the journal bottom bearing.

Fig 23: The crank's bottom and main bearings

Look-up: Main bearing grooves, white metal, main bearing inspection and
clearances
Thrust bearing
Someone clever once figured out that if you push on something it must push back; i.e. Every
action has an equal and opposite reaction. For a ship, the rotating propeller creates the push
against the water, however, that drive (push) needs to enter the ship’s hull for the ship to move.
Enter the thrust bearing! So now the propeller pushes on the shaft that in turn pushes on the
engine via the thrust bearing. All while, the shaft and propeller rotate and the engine, with its
thrust bearing, stays still.

Fig 24: the thrust bearing and shaft

Look-up: Newton’s three laws of motion, titling pad bearing, thickness of forward
thrust bearing and aft thrust bearing
Bedplate and chocks
The engine has to be attached/fixed to the ship somehow, that somehow is called the bedplate.
The bedplate forms the bottom of the engine and is shaped to cope with the stresses of the
engine, to contain the sump lube oil and finally to attach to the hull. The attachments are often
called chocks. The same word used for the blocks of wood used to stop an aeroplane rolling
away when it’s parked. Like with an aeroplane, the chocks stop an engine from moving side to
side or forward and backwards.

Fig 25: The bedplate sitting on the chock sitting on the ship's hull

Look-up: aeroplane chocks, resin cocks

A Frame and ties
The frame is the external sides of an engine. It’s called an A frame because it’s shaped like an
A. The A form helps with the stresses and strains. To help keep the A frame together and not
fragment with all the exploding that’s going on inside of it, long steel pipes are stretched though
the A frame. These pipes are called ties and by compressing the A frame it can absorb power
created by the pistons.

Fig 26: Tie bolts holding together the engine

Look-up: hydraulic jack for tightening

Main engine summary - because repetition is important
Due to their high efficiency, diesel engines move and power almost all modern vessels. The size
of engine room and the ship’s flexibly requirements will determine if a vessel has a massive two-
stroke or multiple smaller, more accommodating, four-stroke engines.

Look-up: why is repetition so important for learning!!

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Auxiliary systems - for those not at the main party
You can think of the auxiliary systems as things that feed the engine or as an extension of the
engine beyond its bedplate. Either way, without auxiliary systems the main engine won’t work
and the ship will go nowhere, fast.
Lube oil is your super number one BFF (best friend, forever)
Lube oil is your friend and no lube oil is bad, very bad; why? Lube oil stops substances rubbing
directly against each other by getting in the middle. The result is less friction and therefore less
heat. So, in our example of an engine, it stops everything from friction welding itself into a big
steaming and very expensive scrap heap.

Fig 27: Lube oil separates the two surfaces

Look-up: ‘lube oil sliding surfaces video’, main engine shutdowns, different types of
lube oil
The Main lube oil system - the queen bee of hive
Very similar to what you might put into a car. Lube is pumped out from the bottom of the
engine. It is then filtered and cooled before being delivered to the different key areas of the
engine. These include the bearings, the camshaft, valves, and turbocharger; i.e. anything that
moves!
The filtering removes any large solids that would erode the fine clearances of the engine.
Cooling the oil increases the viscosity maintaining the oil’s lubricating properties.
The exact composition of the lube oil depends on the type of engine however a basic (alkaline)
additive is always added to absorb the acidic products of combustions. This additive gives the
oil a Total Base Number (TBN) that is an indication of the reserve of base that can resist the
acids.

Fig 28: The main lube oil system

Look-up: “Total base number (TBN)”, “Four-stroke oil TBN”, “Two-stroke oil
TBN”, “Heavy fuel Oil products of combustions”
Piston cooling - keeps the crown from a meltdown
The piston crown gets hot. After all, it is in direct contact with the combustion space that drives
the engine. Now, imagine cooling the piston crown with the same jacket water that the rest of
the engine uses. Firstly, it is awkward because the piston is moving. Secondly, any water leak in
the crankcase is bad, very bad. Watery oil is a poor lubricant compared to the carefully chosen
and engineered lube oil.
The solution is simple, use what is already there; i.e. lube oil. Hence while most of the lube oil
lubricates the various moving surfaces of the engine, a small amount is cleverly diverted to
cooling the piston crown.
In a four-stroke engine, oil in the bottom end bearing is directed up a bored hole inside the piston
rod to the crown.

Fig 29: Lube oil piston crown cooling in a four-stroke

In a two-stroke engine, oil is delivered to the crosshead bearing by an arm, before being directed
up the piston rod to the crown. The arm is telescopic so it can move up and down with the
crosshead.
 Fig 30: Crosshead lubrication and piston cooling in a two stroke

Look-up: heat capacity of oil vs water, two stroke lube oil bores, four stroke lube oil
bores
Cylinder lubrication - keeps the liner a slippery customer
One of the main constructional differences between a two-stroke and a four-stroke engine is the
addition of a stuffing box in the two-stroke. This creates a boundary between the main lube oil
sump and the combustion space. This separation protects the main lube oil from acidic attack,
however, its stops the piston liner interface from being lubricated. To provide this much-needed
lubrication, specialised lube oil is injected on to the piston as it speeds past. This service is done
by a separate system with its own pumps and timing system.
With all the above said, in a normal four-stroke engine none of this specialisation is needed as oil
is splashed from the sump onto the liner surface. The downside being the lube oil needs a higher
TBN (total base number) and needs to be refreshed and changed more often.

Fig 31: Cylinder lubrication for the liner and piston rings

Look-up: “MAN Alpha lubrication system”, “CLO TNB”, “two-stroke lube oil
TBN”
The fuel oil system - getting the fuel into the engine
The ship’s fuel will be some long-dead organic matter that has fermented under the sea. A
million or so years later it was pumped up and processed in the most cost-effective manner.
Odds are that on your ship it will not be the nice clean dead organic matter that you could use to
run your car, but the cheapest most cost-effective option to be had; Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO).
Remember the never-ending story about efficiency and ships being expensive to move; it’s never
ending.

Look-up: where does crude oil come from, what is crude oil made of, what products
are made from crude oil
What is Heavy Fuel Oil?
Crude oil started off as living organisms that got trapped underground. Over millions of years it
slowly decomposes into a big jumble of different oils and chemicals. To separate out this mix up
the oil is processed at a refinery to un-jumble it. The main method for un-jumbling crude is to
heat the oil up. By heating up the oil the density differentials between the component parts
increases; therefore, making separation easier. When the hot crude enters the refinery’s
separation tower the lighter (cleaner) products go to the tower’s top and the heavier (dirtier) falls
to the bottom.
Collected from the very top is the gas used for your barbecue. The next layer collected will be
the jet fuel for the aeroplanes that is only just liquid at room temperature. As you descend down
the tower the liquids collected become heavier and less volatile. By the time you get to the very
bottom of the refinery’s stack the collected products are so heavy that they are now solid at room
temperature. These solid products are mostly tar, whose main use is in making roads.

Fig 32: A simplified oil refinery stack

Half a step above the solid tar is residual heavy fuel oil. It’s not quite so heavy to be fully solid,
but it’s heavy dirty and slow to go anywhere when at room temperature. Put some in a glass and
tip it upside down and it’s going to be a long wait before you need to clean your shoes.
 Fig 33: Cold HFO is hard to move

Look-up: refinery stack, HFO density, crude oil cranking, cost of HFO vs MDO
Fuel heating- so you can move it and use it
Remember our glass full of HFO? Heat it up to 50°C and tip it upside down and you should have
just enough time to pull your feet out the way. But if you heat it up to 100°C your friends are
going to have to take you to the doctor because you’re an idiot with burnt toes.
The point? The more you heat the oil the easier it flows; or in engineering terms the higher the
temperature the lower the viscosity. Lower viscosity is more liquid.
Critically the viscosity plays a very, very, very, very important role in how well a fuel burns
when it is inside the engine. The actual amount of heating varies to get the correct viscosity; so
always read the specification for each new load of fuel.

Fig 34: However hot HFO moves easily

Look-up: Centistoke, pour point, flash point, HFO density, HFO pour point
Fuel cleaning - to get rid of the unwanted extras
Most of the bad stuff in HFO is there because it has been carried over from the refinery and is
heavier than the fuel itself. The two main villains that need to be removed are water and fine
solids. Water is an issue because it doesn’t burn, not so helpful in a combustion engine. The
solids often come as general dirt and left-over catalyst from the refining process. In an engine,
the solids erode the fine clearances of the engine’s moving parts.
There are three main places where cleaning of the oil happens:
Settling tank(s)
Settling tanks are a low-tech solution where the water and solids naturally fall slowly to the
bottom before someone manually drains off the dirty water. Although settling tanks are an old
world simple tool they can remove large quantities of water cheaply.

Fig 35: Settling tank allows water to be drained off

Look-up: setting tank video, density of water vs oil

Filters
Filters are another old world low-tech solution. The method is no more complicated than oil
passing through fine mesh. The fine mesh catches the solids allowing the cleaned oil to pass.
Filters are traditionally positioned before every pump. These filters protect the pump from hard
solids that would erode the pumps fine surfaces and clearances. The exact size of the filter will
vary on the pump’s individual clearances.
Where filters are routinely dirtied and/or the system being cleaned is important; auto backflush
filters can be installed. These are a little more expensive however require less down time as they
automatically clean themselves.

Fig 36: Mesh filters remove suspended solids

Look-up: various sizes of filter mesh, duplex filters, auto-backflush filters, screw
and gear pump clearances

Purifiers
Purifiers are a more high-tech solution where the oil is spun at thousands of revolutions per
minute to spin out the last of the water and solids. Purifiers are super-important and get their
own sub heading later.
Supply and circulation pumps - to move fuel around and around
Remember that HFO needs to stay hot; let it cool too much and the HFO will solidify in the
pipes. Putting it politely, it is going to be a right job getting the pipes clear again!
To help minimise the risk of pipe ‘Armageddon’ the fuel is constantly recirculated around the
system. This divides the system neatly into two halves. The circulation half that feeds the main
engine’s fuel pumps and the supply half that top-ups up the circulation half.

Fig 37: The two halves of the fuel oil system

Look-up: mixing tank relief valve, fuel oil counters, hot and cold filters
Booster pumps and injector valves - to atomise fuel into the engine
Just like humans, an engine likes its fuel easy to burn. How do we make it easy to burn? The
same way as we do with our food; i.e. by chopping it up into little pieces. The big thing to do is
maximising the surface area between the fuel and the air; this is called atomisation. Think again
of a plate of food. If you try to eat large chunks of food you’ll get a bad belly.

Fig 38: My typical breakfast of bacon, egg, beans and toast

The two parts of an engine responsible for good atomisation is combination of the booster pumps
and injector valves. The booster pumps increase the pressure up to hundreds of bar. While the
injector valves ensure a fine spray together with a sharp start and finish of injection. Sharp
starting and stopping of injection is important because fuel dribbling into the cylinder is bad.
Maybe you are asking how the pumps and valves know when to operate? In a traditional engine,
the fuel pump sits directly on top of the engine’s cam shaft. The camshaft’s lobes push up onto
the pump, pressuring the fuel. When the fuel is above the set pressure, the injector valve snaps
open and the high-pressure fuel is passed though the nozzle to spray a fine oil mist into the
engine. Shortly the cam’s lob will move passed relaxing the pump, dropping the pressure and
the valve will snap shut.

Fig 39: A jerk fuel oil pump on the engine

Look-up: Jerk pump, fuel injector valve, fuel injection pressures, electronic cam,
FIVA valve, why you should chew your food
Air delivery and exhaust - as engines blow both hot and cold
I hope it isn’t a big surprise that having plenty of air to burn the fuel is useful. After all, if we
humans like our food chopped up in to small pieces, we also like a big lung full of air to help
savour the flavours. It’s the same with diesel engines. Not only is some air required but it
follows, that in many ways, having more air is better. When I say more air I really mean denser
air! The denser the air, the more oxygen is trapped in the cylinder and is then available to burn
more fuel per cycle. The more fuel burnt per cycle results in a more efficient engine. An
increase in air flow also helps scavenging the cylinder.

Fig 40: fresh air is good for people

Look-up: minimum combustion oxygen content, oxygen content of exhaust gas

What is scavenging or charging anyways

Firstly, let me point out that both scavenging and charging air are the same thing, and the terms
are interchanged at lot. The purpose of scavenging, or charging, is to refresh the atmosphere
inside a cylinder after the power stroke. After all its not so useful to inject more fuel when there
is no more available oxygen, ready to party, inside the cylinder. Hence charging, or scavenging,
swaps out the exhausted hot gas for fresh cool air that’s ready for burning.
The method for scavenging is simple, push more fresh air in and though the cylinder. By
implication an engine needs a dedicated air delivery system to do the pushing. This air delivery
system compresses fresh air and gets it ready for use.

Fig 41: Fresh air is good for engines

 Look-up: how wind works, naturally aspirated engines

Turbochargers - are a super tasty free lunch

A turbocharger is as close as one can get to a free lunch. No wonder why ship builders and
owners, driven by efficacy, love them. A turbocharger uses the waste heat left over from the
combustion exhaust gasses to drive a turbine. The turbine, in turn, drives an air compressor. It is
the compressor that increases the pressure of the scavenge air; it does this because it is a
compressor and compressors compress things.
So now even more air delivered to the engine so more fuel to be burnt, per cycle. In short
turbochargers dramatically increase the power of an engine compared to a naturally aspirated
engine of the same size. The turbocharger is surely one of the biggest advancements in diesel
engine design ever.
 Fig 42: The two halves of a turbocharger

Look-up: turbochargers different types, super charger vs turbocharger,

turbocharger vs naturally aspirated engines, turbocharger RPM,
Air coolers - are the forgotten backup singers
The problem with turbochargers is that they compress gas. I know that I’ve just said that’s a
good thing, however remember that compressing air also heats the air. This hot air creates a
problem because you are delivering 150-200’C air to an engine creates a few unwelcome issues.
The solution is to cool the air, in an air cooler. Please don’t let the naming confuse you, it really
is that simple. The hot compressed air created by the turbocharger is push over some water
tubes. The heat in the compressed air goes into the tubes and two thumbs up you have cool
compressed air ready to dance with the fuel oil. As a bonus cooling the air also increases the
scavenge airs density even more, therefore allowing even more fuel to be burnt!

Fig 43: The water tubes of an air cooler

Look-up: air temperature vs density, dense air for combustion, dew point of water
Valves - open and close in time with the beat
To control the flow of any liquid in a pipe engineers use valves. Valves that are opened and
closed to start and stop relative flows of liquids. The air and exhaust systems of an engine are no
different. Consequently, each cylinder has scavenging air valves and exhaust valves located on
each cylinder.
However, imagine if there was a big hole at the top of a cylinder as the piston moved upwards.
Not a lot of air is going to be compressed leading to the disappointing result of no superheated
atmosphere to ignite the fuel oil. This upsetting imagining is the result of air valves being open
at the incorrect time. In short, the air system timing needs to be controlled so it’s in time with
the piston for each cylinder. However, there are a few differences between a large two-stroke
and traditional four-stroke engine.
Four-stroke valves
Four-strokes have four traditional open/closed valves located at the top of the cylinder head.
Two for the charge air and two for the exhaust air. This cosy arrangement allows the fuel valve
(singular) to sit in the prime position at the centre of the head. Just like their friends the fuel
injector valves, the charging air and exhaust valves are driven and timed by the camshaft’s
lobes. The small difference this time, a push rod is used for transmission purposes because the
valves being controlled are further away at the top of the cylinder.

Fig 44: The timing system including the push rod and tappet system
Two-stroke valves
Because of their super-sized size two-stroke engines don’t have normal valves for scavenging.
Rather they have permanently open holes, called scavenge ports. These ports lie at the bottom of
the cylinder and are exposed at the bottom of the cycle. I.E. when the piston is below the
scavenging air ports air can flow into the cylinder stopping when the piston is next above the
ports. The exhaust valve is found at the top, opens and closes like any normal valve. So, tying it
together; when the piston is at the bottom of the cylinder fresh scavenge air is pushed into the
cylinder pushing the use exhaust gasses out of the cylinder passed the now open exhaust valve.
Mainly because of the increase in size of a two-stroke engine the push rod is replaced with a high
pressure hydraulic line and a singular scavenge valve is located in the centre of the head.
Finally, there are multiple fuel valves that lie to side of the exhaust valve.

Fig 45: the valve locations in a four stroke engine

Look-up: exhaust valve rotocaps, exhaust valve blow passed, exhaust valve
reconditioning, uniflow vs cross vs loop scavenging
Air systems summary - because repetition is important
In conclusion: compressed air scavenging is important so turbochargers compress fresh air
before its use. While turbochargers are super they also make air hot and because cool air is even
better than hot air, an air cooler is used. Finally, it’s important that air inlet valves and exhaust
valves open at the correct time.

Look-up: why is repetition so important for learning!!

Cooling water - to keep the party going and going
Now that we have built up our engine piece by piece; delivered it hot fuel and cool air, without
forgetting the lube oil; it is important to recognise that combustion is rather hot. This creates
some big issues because engines are made from metal and as a metal gets hotter it expands and
eventually losses it structural strength. You might imagine that if an engine received no cooling
forever it could glow red hot and melt. Without ever seeing this live, I’m confident that major
failures would have forced the engine to stop way before this cartoon style ending.

Fig 46: A bad day

In the short term if an engine got way, way, too hot the structural strength of the steel might fail.
Imagine a blacksmith hammering metal. The blacksmith heats the metal red hot to soften the
metal so they might shape it easier. However, in an engine soft steel is bad. The piston cylinder
liner, the cylinder head, piston crown and the tie bolts are all in close proximity to the high
temperature explosions. All these components take the stress and strains of absorbing the
explosions pressure impacts. If one of these was to become soft, it is, as they say, “Game Over”.
In the long term, if an engine gets even a little too hot the fine clearances of the many moving
parts are going to get smaller and eventually moving parts are going to start to touch. An
example is the piston moving up and down in the piston liner. Normally a tight fit is needed, as
you don’t want hot gas blowing past the piston. However, imagine the soft piston liner is now a
bit bigger, so that it’s now pushing against the hard but fragile piston rings. Bad things are going
to happen! In prime place is contact erosion of the parts. The erosion will not only change
carefully engineered metal components shapes but erosion creates loads small partials that will
spread and create a vicious cycle of more erosion.
 Fig 47: Metal expands as the temperature increases; thus making the clearances smaller

Look-up: thermal expansion of metal, metal strength vs temperature, erosion wear

partials
Sea water cooling system - it is the daddy system
Eventually most things in the engine room, or even throughout the ship, are cooled by the sea
water that surrounds the vessel. Unfortunately, sea water is not your super number one best
friend. In short sea water is a pain. The problem with sea water is its corrosive to iron and steel
that makes up the ship and its engine room.
However not only is cold sea water is corrosive, as sea water gets hotter it not only gets more
corrosive but it creates scale on the side of the pipes and heat exchangers. Scale is bad because it
lowers the efficiency of the heat exchangers. The result is that engine room machinery is
isolated as much as possible from the sea water. This is achieved by using fresh water-cooling
systems and heat exchangers.
 Fig 48: The sea water cooling system

Look-up: sea water anodes, marine growth protection system, sea pipe oxide layer /
passivation
Central low temperature cooling water system - to chill out everything
A lot of things in the engine room need cooling. Air compressors, air conditioning plants, engine
air coolers, engine lube oil coolers… these are all cooled by the same low temperature cooling
system.
The low temperature fresh water cooling system is nothing more complicated than some fresh
water moving around in pipes and a couple of pumps to make the water flow. This fresh water
moves around the engine room collecting heat from various heat exchangers. When the now
warmed water completes is tour of the engine room it is cooled by the sea water in a central
LT/SW heat exchangers, before returning to the start.
The only item in the system that needs any real explanation is an expansion tank, also called a
header tank. This small is tank is normally open topped and is located high up in the engine
room. The expansion tank provides room for temperature changes (water gets bigger as it gets
hotter), volume changes (e.g. leaks) and because the tank is positioned high up it gives a positive
head of pressure to the pumps suction.

Fig 49: The low temperate cooling water system

Look-up: fresh water system chemical treatment, acidic corrosion, neutral water
still corrosion, header pressure, static pressure, thermal expansion of water
Jacket high temperature cooling water - to keep the VIPs chill
Like a big party in the club, an engine is really sensitive to temperature. Too hot or too cold and
the party atmosphere is going to struggle regardless of the music or drinks on offer. As such it is
best to keep an engine neither too hot nor too cold. The exact desirable temperature might
change with the engine manufacture and model number, but every engine will have a design
limit. For clarity an engines jacket is a space surrounding the cylinder‘s liner, like a jacket sour
sounds the top half of a person, so does the water jacket of an engine. Only an engine’s jacket
keeps an engine cool, when running, and warm, when stopped.

Fig 50: The dance party that needs to run 24/7

You might be asking if you can design an engines temperature then why not design it to run cool
or even cold? Put simply warm engines have less thermal stress against the high temperatures
created by the combustion cycle and carried in the exhaust gas system. Other factors such as
maintaining effective lubrication of the lube oil and preventing corrosion are important in
deciding the normal engine temperature.
Consequently, many diesel engines will have a separate cooling system that runs much higher
than the low temperature water system. This high temperature cooling water system can be
cooled by the low temperature system or more importantly it can be used to drive a fresh water
generator; therefore, saving the expense of having to heat water from scratch to boil of sea water
to make fresh water.

Fig 51: The waste heat of the eninge ends up in the surounding sea

Again, similar to the low temperature water system a flow of water, moves around the system.
Again pumps, not pixies, moves the water. The water enters the engine’s jackets where the hot
metal surfaces are cooled. The now hot water leaves the engine before it is cooled by either the
low temperature system or by a fresh water generator. Once more there is an expansion tank for
the same reasons.
One final addition is a heater, for keeping the engine water, and therefore the engine, warm when
the engine is not running. For clarity, when the engine is not running it does not make heat. If
you can manage to make an engine make heat when it’s not running, do let me know, because
we’ll be rich!

Fig 52: The high temperature cooling water system

Look-up: fresh water system chemical treatment, acidic corrosion, neutral water
still corrosion, header pressure, static pressure, thermal expansion of water
Starting Systems - to get all that steel moving
The problem with starting a diesel engine is you have to power the compression stroke.
Normally the power is taken from the engines existing momentum when it’s running, particularly
from the flywheel. However, with the engine stopped you need to provide enough power to get
the engine up to speed so it can generate enough of its own power to power the next compression
strokes. Eventually when the engine’s rotation is high enough there is enough momentum to
achieve just this and the engine will come up to a design speed.

Look-up: compression ratio vs engine power, how a flywheel works, two-stroke vs

four-stroke flywheels
Electric motor starting
An electric motor, via a clutch, is attached to the flywheel. When the motor is started the clutch
will automatic engage onto the flywheel. The motor when powers the flywheel and all the
pistons of the engine around and around, faster and faster.
Eventually when the engine’s RPM reaches a good level the clutch will automatically disengage
the motor, I say hopefully because if the clutch stays engaged, the motor might be ripped off it
position creating a rather dangerous and expensive game of engine room ping pong motor.
The main limitation for electric starting is that for an engine of any real size, and therefore
commonly found in a marine industrial environment, the electric motor would have to be
massive. This massive electric motor would be hilariously difficulty power.

Fig 53: The motor drives the engine around via the flywheel

Look-up: how a centrifugal clutch works, flywheel momentum jump starting

Air motor starting
Similar to the electric motor but now the motor that drives the fly wheel is powered by
compressed air. Useful because you avoid the complicated powering requirements of a large
electric motor and because it’s simple to have a high-pressure air bottle ready topped up and
ready in waiting for when you need to start an engine. Note that an air bottle will keep its stored
energy ready for use even if the ship has no electric power!

Look-up: air starting system for four large four stoke engines

Air direct starting

For the large two-strokes and the biggest of four-stroke engines there is simply too much mass to
use a motor. In this scenario very high compressed air is introduced into the cylinder directly
pushing the pistons down moving the engine. Obviously, a timing system is needed so that air
goes into the correct cylinder at the correct time.
Look-up: air starting system for four large two stoke engines, starting air
distributor, air start valve, pilot air
The stern tube system - keeps the sea in the sea and not in the engine room
Why do you need a stern tube lube oil system?
The ship has a propeller. That the propeller moves is important. It doesn’t matter if a two-stroke
direct drive or four-stroke engines with high voltage electric motors; at some point there will be a
rotating shaft popping outside of the hull. The shaft will be rotating to move the propeller. The
problem is how to let the shaft rotate freely rotate and keep the sea water outside?
It’s important to note a few things…
That there will be a little, to a lot, of header pressure at the propulsion shaft’s exit from
the engine room. Header pressure, aka static pressure, is the weight of the water, above
the shaft’s exit, pushing down.
Because the shaft often leaves the engine room at the bottom of the ship, to allow the
maximum underwater clearance for the propeller, the header pressure is significant on
larger vessels.
Cargo and tanker vessels will have large changes in draft when loading and unloading
their cargos. Changes in draft mean that the header pressure will also change
drastically. Draft is how much of the vessel is underwater.
Any vessel moving from fresh water to sea water, or even changing between hot and
cold water will again change its daft!

Fig 54: Header pressure and the ships draft

There is a forward seal and aft seal
What all that means is the system that keeps the sea water out needs to adjust to changing
conditions. To this point the method used on most commercial vessels is a simple but dynamic
one. The proposition shaft supported in place by two large bearings and is surrounded by seals.
The two large bearings job is to take the weight of the shaft and therefore keep the shaft straight.
Both the bearings and the seals are lubricated by a dedicated lube oil system. This arrangement
divides the stern tube system into two halves; one for the forward bearing and one for the aft
bearing.

Forward seal - to keep the lube oil out of the engine room
The forward side of the stern tube should only ever have the normal engine room pressure (the
engine room pressure is small and unchanging). The result is the forward seal has a small header
tank of oil suspended above the stern tube. The small head of pressure allows oil to enter
underneath the bearing and provide lubrication. The ‘used’ oil is taken from on top of the
bearing and returned to the header tank. In this simple system, no pump is needed as the turning
shaft acts as a pump and circulates the oil.
Aft seal - to keep the sea water out of the lube oil
However, the aft seal isn’t so simple! Critically the lube oil system pressure needs to be
controlled to match the sea water’s head of pressure outside. For all the above listed problems
by matching the two pressures the sea water stays outside. The seals keep both the sea water
outside and the lube oil in the stern tube.
But how do we control and adjust the pressure of the aft stern tube lube oil? A controller operates
one of two solenoid valves. One solenoid valve adds the correct amount of pressured air to a
sealed tank. The other solenoid by venting the correct amount of air. By measuring the pressure
outside, via a pressure sensor, the controller can react to any changes in sea water temperature
and/or draft changes due to loading/unloading by automatically adjusting the air pressure in the
aft seal tank accordingly.

Fig 55: Pressure inside the stern tube must match the outside sea water pressure

To ensure there is always sealing oil, at the correct pressure, in the aft seal the return line has its
own little pump. The pumps job is to force the oil back into the seal tank and ensure continued
circulation even when the shaft is stopped. The seal tank has its pressure controlled by adding,
and venting, pressured air. The air pushes oil from the seal tank to underneath the aft bearing,
keeping the bearing moving freely and the pressures in equilibrium. The lube oil then is taken
off from the top of the bearing and returned to the aft seal tank by a pump and cooler.

Fig 56: The stern tube system

Don’t forget the stern tube system
A final note on the stern tube system. On most ships, it does its super critical job, day in day out,
with minimum of supervision. However, like all systems it will wear with use. Unfortunately,
should the bearings fail then not only is the vessel’s manoeuvrability heavy reduced, bad, but the
ship must be taken out of the water in a dry dock for repairs. Dry docks are super-duper
expensive and hard questions will be asked when a vessel needs to make an emergency dry
dock. All of that is a long-winded way of saying it’s important to check the stern tube system
regularly. I hope it will always be the same as yesterday for you; but maybe one day it won’t.
Look-up: marine evidently friendly stern tube oil, header pressure, draft, draft
change for a cargo/tanker ship, density of fresh water vs sea water, sea water vs
fresh water draft, temperature effect on water density
The rudder and steering gear - keeping the ship going somewhere, not anywhere
Rudders to turn the ship
Rudders are as old as ships; after all rudders are rather useful to avoid rocks. Simply put rudders
are flattish squares hug over the stern of the vessel. The rudder has an axis of rotation by which
most, or all, of the rudder turns. It is by turning on this axis that the rudder diverts some of the
flow of water that is passing over the ship. This diversion of water creates a sideways thrust that
pushes the aft of the vessel in the opposite direction.

Fig 57: The water flow pushing on the rudder

Importantly the rudder requires a flow of water moving passed itself to create the sideways
thrust; hence rudders only work when the ship is moving.

Fig 58: The rudder’s thrust pushing and turning the ship

Most modern ships use similar methods for mounting the rudder on to the ship:
Tiller arms; that transfer the steering gear’s movement onto the rudder stock.
Rudder stock; the metal shaft that penetrates the ship’s hull to transfer the steering
gear’s movement to the rudder blade.
Rudder carrier bearing; that takes the weight of the rudder and, because of its shape, re-
centres the position of the rudder in heavy seas.
Pintle & gudgeon; that provides a pivot inside the rudder blade on which to turn.
 Fig 59: A cross section of the rudder's mounting

Look-up: rudder drain plug, gudgeon and pintle, balanced / spade type rudders,
unbalanced rudder, rudder buoyancy, rudder thrust, why is a rudder on the aft of a
ship
Steering Gear - to turn the rudder
Rudders used to be turned by hand. Then as ships got bigger hand wheels turned the rudders.
These hand wheels are what we see when Pirate McPirate is sailing the seven seas on TV.

Fig 60: An old-fashioned steering gear to turn a small ships rudder

However, no wooden wheel is going to cope with turning a modern heavy and fast moving ship.
To move such large and heavy object we now use hydraulics. There are two main methods for
how to apply the hydraulics: ram and rotary vane.
Look-up: old tall ship steering gear
Ram steering gear
A ram steering gear is the more traditional way to move the rudder in a large heavy vessel.
Normally a ram steering gear has four rams in two pairs. Each pair of rams is attached at
opposite sides to the the tiller. The tiller arms act as levers by increase the distance from the
pivot, from where the force is applied. The result is more the turning movement for the same
amount of force used. The crossheads act as an intermediary between the rams and the tiller
arms by translating the lateral movement of the rams to be converted to the rotational movement
required by the rudder stock.
Please note that here more than anywhere else I’ve super simplified the diagram. In the real
world there are isolation valves, relief valves, a second pump, a storage tank and an automatic
change over system. Plus there is a lot of extra details, like emergency power supply and access
roots. I’ve avoided all of these details to try and keep it simple! However please keep a mental
note that these details exist.

Fig 61: A ram steering gear system

Rotary vane steering gear

A rotary vain steering gear is more compact vs the more traditional ram type. In rotary vane
system the rudder stock is surrounded by three sets of vanes. Each set has one fixed and one
moveable vane. The fixed vanes are attached to the ship, and the moving vanes to the stock. By
pumping hydronic oil from one side of the moving vanes to the other side, the rudder stock is
rotated. Each vane has a seal close out each compartment and therefore to contain the oil
pressure.
 Fig 62: A rotary vain steering gear

Look-up: evolution of marine steering gear, old tall ship steering gear, marine
steering gear legislation, emergency power to the steering gear, emergency control
of the steering gear
Steam - to heat not drive
The main engines systems need heating. Fuel oil needs to be kept warm and ready for use. An
engine’s jackets need to be kept warm so the engine is ready to start. Purifiers in general like
their oil warmed, more on that later.

But why steam at all?

As mentioned at the start, big steam boilers that powered the ship aren’t as cost effective as
diesels, and thus, are no longer as popular. However, legacy steam as a heating medium, is
really handy and extremely popular. There is a theoretical problem, steam heating is not as
efficient as direct electric heating, so why, when I am ‘rabbiting on’ about efficiencies, do many
ships still have small boilers for making steam?
Exhaust Gas Economiser
There is a fundamental efficacy override which we can summarise as ‘free’ stuff wins. Free
steam, how can it be true?!? The ship’s diesel engines, that are already installed and running,
make very hot exhaust gas. Even after the turbocharger has had its turn at making free stuff win
there is loads of unused heat available.
In practice, all that is needs to be done, is to run some water tubes though the exhaust gas
trunking that carries the exhaust gasses outside the engine room and wham you have ‘free’
steam. This type of steam generator is called an Exhaust Gas Economiser. Think of it as
maximising total ship’s efficacy over an individual piece of equipment.
 Fig 63: An exhaust gas economiser

Look-up: economiser soot blowers, exhaust gas economiser fire, metal fire,
hydrogen fire, EGE safety valve
Oil boilers - to make the steam when the ship is stopped
There are a few types of boilers. However, when compared to engines, their basics are easy.
Pump water through some tubes, expose to heat from some hot gas on the other side of the tube
wall… and, ‘voilà!!’, you have steam. The heat can come from a flame or exhaust gas the
thermodynamics isn’t fussy.
If you want to make things a bit more complicated, most industrial boilers will have:
a ‘hot’ steam drum at the top, where water evaporates and the generated steam is
taken from
a ‘cool’ water drum at the bottom, where the cooler water collects
Lots of small steam generating tubes where the water is heated and connect the
water and steam drums
A few big ‘downcomers’ (tubes that travel outside of the hot flame zone, AKA the
furnace). Like the steam generation tubes, the down-comers connect the steam and
water drums but by avoiding the hot furnace they allow for circulation of cooling
water in the steam drum to fall down to the water drum,
A big forced draft fan to move the air though the boiler’s flame/air side (exhaust
gas boilers don’t need this),
and finally, a feed water system to replace and top up the water in the boiler.
There is a load of small details that add functionality or efficiency however I’m going to move
on as that’s above and beyond for now.

Fig 64: A classic oil-fired boiler

 Look-up: boiler safety valve, boiler water chemical treatment, boiler survey, flame
eye sensor, magnetic boiler water level sensor, boiler water level gauge glass,
gauge glass blow down

Steam heaters - to heat stuff up

As mentioned ship’s fuel oil needs to be heated up before use and engines need hot water to stay
warm when in standby. To achieve both these tasks steam is made in boilers and delivered in
insulated pipe work to steam heaters.
First thing to know is the trick to using steam to heat something else is to avoid mixing the two
things. To achieve this the steam and oil or water are completely segregated. The method for
this critical step is very simple: tubes! The oil or water that you want heating on one side of the
tube, and the heating steam on the other side of our metal divide. Magic! Some clever people
work out the correct piping diameters and lengths when making the vessel, hopefully they get it
right. If you need more heat in the oil/water because the oil/water is too cold you increase the
amount of steam being delivered to the heater. In today’s automated world, normally a control
device will be installed. The control device will automatically detect the temperature of the oil
or water.

Fig 65: A tube and shell steam heater

From a practical side, it is important to note that as the heater functions it will get dirty.
Suspended solids have a habit of either falling out of suspension when heated or chemically
reacting to make coatings on the tubes. All this means it’s harder for the heat to transfer across
the tube. This is because not only is the tube thickness is greater but because the new dirty
material has a lower “heat transfer coefficient”. The practical result of this lowering of the “heat
transfer coefficient” is that it is a good idea to clean a steam heater regularly.
Look-up: how to clean a shell and tube heater, PID controller

Steam trap - to use all of the steam

There is a small issue with steam heaters and that’s the large pressure differential from the steam
side. What I mean when I say large pressure differential is there is a high input pressure of hot
fresh steam with a low-pressure condensate outlet. If allowed to go unchecked the result would
be the high-pressure steam forcing its way uncontrollably though the heater and out into the
condensate system. This is bad because we are wasting heat that we paid good money for!
The solution to this problem is called a steam trap. The steam trap is a tool that stops steam
pushing though a steam heater and instead only allows water to pass. This stops a heater from
wasting steam as when the steam has cooled sufficiently to create water all its useable heat has
been captured. The left of condensate water is now destined to be returned to the boiler ready for
reheating and reuse.

Look-up: how do steam trap work, steam trap video

The condensate system - to close the loop
Now that our steam has expended all its heat and turned itself back into liquid water, it is time to
return the water back to the boiler so it can be reheated and reused. Like with all systems if you
want to move something from A to B we use a pump. In this case we are fortunate little
engineers because it is a lot easier to pump liquid water than the steam gas. To this effect and to
ensure that all the used steam is turned into water we use a condenser.
Condensers are where the liquid condensate water and any excess steam gas is collected and
maybe turned back into water. Now that we know all of used steam it safely turned back to
water it is safe collect in a tank. Transferring the water in the condenser to the collecting tank
can be via a condensate pump or via gravity. The collecting tank can have many names,
including “atmospheric drain tank” and “cascade tank”. Common to all these collecting tanks is
they are physically located above the feed pumps. The feed pumps are the pumps responsible for
pumping the water up to the high pressures needed to force the water back into the pressurised
boilers. The rate that the water enters a running boiler will be controlled by an automatic control
system.

Fig 66: The condensate system collects the wasted steam

Look-up: condensate salinity meter, vacuum condenser, atmospheric condenser,

observation tank, why vent feed pumps
Dumping - to control too much steam
Dumping is when you use a condenser to rid your steam system of a lot of excess pressure. For
example; the economiser is making too much steam for the small steam pipes to cope. So, an
automatically controlled valve opens in relation to the system pressure and dumps any excess
pressure directly into a condenser. Although this dumping of steam directly into the condenser
waste heat, and therefore money, it is often better than over pressuring the system and trusting
safety delivers to work. The more steam you might need to dump the bigger the condenser.
Very large condensers are run under a vacuum to help lower the condensation temperature.
 Fig 67: A steam dump

Look-up: big steam dump, small steam dump, condensate, how to clean a shell and
tube heat exchanger
Water treatment - to stop holes from messing up your day
Without going into too much detail; it is important to keep the water chemically treated to avoid
corrosion or scale build up. Both of which are very bad. Corrosion because holes in the boiler
tubes are bad and scale build up because it lowers the heat transfer coefficient, that in turn leaks
to holes in the boiler tubes. Depending on the system pressures, and many other factors a ship’s
boiler water treatment plan will change.

Look-up: boiler water chemical treatments, P-alkalinity, total dissolved solids,

oxygen scavenger, oxygen content vs water temperature, scale formation on boiler
tubes, tannin vs hydrazine, ideal pH for anti-corrosion
Alternatives - there’s always another way
Some ships don’t have boilers!! It’s true. So, if you find yourself on one of these ships all of the
above isn’t so helpful. Other systems include hot oil and water brine circulation systems. There
are pros and cons. If I found myself on one of these vessels I would RTFM (Read the @$%&
manual).

Look-up: hot oil circulation systems, hot bride circulation systems

Page intentionally left blank
Electrics – enabling remote kinetics
What is electricity? - the short‘ish story
Imagine a water pipeline that goes in a circle and somewhere in this pipeline is a pump. The
pump creates a flow of water so that the water goes around and around the pipeline. This water
flow has power that could be extracted with a water motor. Effectively the water pump on one
side of your pipeline system is now powering a water motor on the other side.

Fig 68: A water circuit turning a water motor

Electricity isn’t so different! Just swap some names around.

The water becomes electrons (a sub atomic partial),
water flow is now called current,
the pressure differential is now called voltage,
the pump becomes an alternator (or battery)
and the motor, well that’s still called a motor.
It is just that simple; a battery or alternator creates a differential voltage (think high and low
pressure either sides of a water pump) of electrons, and the metal wire (think pipework) allows
the electrons to flow from the positive voltage (high pressure) side to the negative (low pressure)
side. As the electrons flow around the system the energy can be tapped off by motors. The
motors in turn can drive the mechanics for useful things such as lamps, pumps and maybe even a
propeller.
In summary voltage is a measure of the potential for electrons to flow. The higher the voltage
the more enthusiasm and energy the electrons have to move. The more energy you need to
power your mechanism the higher the voltage and/or current required.
 Fig 69: A simple DC circuit

Look-up: what is electricity / voltage / electric current / resistance / impedance,

Ohm's Law, Voltage divider rule
AC vs DC - rock vs roll
There are two ways the electrons can flow around the metal pipeline. The simple flow of
electrons as described with the water pipeline analogy is called direct current, AKA DC.

Fig 70: The static voltage of DC

The other way is called alternating current, AKA AC. In AC the flow rapidly changes direction
at many times per second. The measurement of the number of direction changes per second is
called the frequency. This might seem counter intuitive, however AC has major advantages over
DC. These advantages are so profound that almost anything over 24 volts uses an alternating
current (AC) over direct current (DC). Why? AC is more efficient at transmitting its power over
distance, while AC generators, motors, and switches all smaller and simpler than their DC
counterparts.

Fig 71: The changing voltage of AC

Look-up: Tesla vs Edison, AC frequency, AC vs DC switch gear, AC vs DC power

generation
High and low voltage - High might be big but low still isn’t that small
High voltage refers to power systems with voltages in excess of one thousand voltages.
Typically, high voltages are used to power the most power hungry of motors that drive cargo and
propulsion motors. The higher voltage makes it more efficient at transferring the power over
distance from the alternator to the motor. However, the increase in voltage creates extra risks
and hazards; meaning the electrical equipment used needs to be more complicated and thus
expensive. High voltage equipment is labelled very obviously as high voltage.
Low voltage on the other hand is any power system lower than one thousand volts. Please note
that a 440V wire isn’t safe to touch or play jump rope with. Low voltage can and will kill. Low
voltage systems are what’s found in the vast majorly of ships, industry and domestic scenarios.
Typically ships use two or three power systems at low voltage, anything under 1000v. They will
be:
440V “three phase” AC for normal engine room motors
220V or 110V “single phase” AC for domestic and lighting use
24V DC to power the emergency control systems
Even though there are three systems at three different voltages. Only one type of alternator is
needed. An alternator will create the highest voltage needed. In this example the highest voltage
is 440V. Transformers will then lower the higher voltage down to each new lower voltage
required.
Look-up: how does an electrical transformer work, why is high voltage dangerous,
high voltage CoC

Wait, wait, wait, what are phases?

Three phase relates to the number of phases an AC power system has. A DC system doesn’t
have any phases so isn’t applicable. At home your domestic power systems only needs and only
has one phase. This means very momentary your fridge freezer gets no energy delivered from its
power cable as the frequency (the alternations in the differential voltage) passes zero voltage.
However, to improve the efficiency in the more power hungry industrial systems, three phase AC
is used. Here each phase is its own mini AC system with its own segregated power line. Each
power line has it own phase, where importantly each phase has its frequency staggered from its
other sister phases. All the three sister phases have the same original alternator and the three
sister power cables will follow each other around the engine room to the same motors. The
advantage is now your industrial motor and pump always has power being delivered; even when
one of its phases is momentarily at zero differential voltage.
 Fig 72: Three phases staggered by 120'deg

Look-up: why does industry use three phases, three phase vs one phase, Kirchhoff's
circuit laws
AC Generators / Alternators
AC current is created by spinning a magnet inside a metal cage made of coiled wires. By
pushing the magnet’s magnetic field though the metal wires AC current is formed. How fast you
spin the magnet determines the frequency and/or the number of poles your magnet needs.
Typically, the magnetic is spun by a diesel engine. The method for creating a magnet and how to
control the strength of the magnet is way beyond the remit of this book!
The fixed cage of coiled wires is called a stator and the rotating magnet is called a rotor.

Fig 73: The magnetic flux rotating inside three coils, creating AC current

A ship typically has three or more traditional generators and one emergency generator. The
traditional generators power the ship for its day to day needs. While the emergency generator is
a backup in case all the normal generators fail. The emergency generator is often considerably
smaller than the normal generators as its job is to keep the lights on and provide just enough
resources to restart the normal generators.
Look-up: alternator number of poles vs RPM, 50Hz vs 60Hz, alternator cooling fan,
alternator brushless excitation, alternator AVR, alternator synchroscope, Fleming's
right -hand rule for motors
AC induction motor
Similar layout to the alternator but with the opposite effect. An AC current passes through a
stator and around a rotor magnet. The AC current naturally has its own magnetic field and the
magnet on the rotor tries to keep up with the moving rotating current. The effect is the rotor
rotates around and around. A connected shaft delivers the power to a pump.

Fig 74: The rotors magnetic always chasing the alternating phases

Look-up: Fleming's left-hand rule for motors, alternator number of poles vs RPM,
50Hz vs 60Hz, alternator cooling fan, alternator brushless excitation, alternator
AVR, alternator synchroscope
Batteries and Uninterruptable Power Supplies
Should the unthinkable happen and the ship lose all power the last line of defence is the
Uninterruptable Power Supply; AKA UPS. The UPS’s job is to power the control systems used
to monitor and control the engine room and bridge. Thankfully these systems don’t need much
power. The result is a ship will have a battery bank hidden away in a safe place.
A battery is a chemical reaction that powers electrons around the power cables. As a result once
the chemical reaction has run its course, there is no more power available. IE a UPS only can
power the lower power emergency equipment for a limited time.
 Fig 75: The UPS powers a low ultra-critical emergency devices

Look-up: lead acid battery, nickel cadmium battery, lithium battery, battery
overcharging hydrogen gas, trickle charge, rapid charging
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Crew services - because people need to live on ships
Fresh and waste waters
Fresh Water Generator - it makes sea water fresh
As discussed in previous chapters, a ships engine rooms use a lot of fresh water for everyday
engineering. Fresh water is used in cooling and in making steam.
The ship’s crew also require water to drink, cook with and to wash with. This constant demand
for water means a ship has to make its own high quality fresh water on board. The piece of
machinery that makes the fresh water is often called the Fresh Water Generator.

Fig 76: Fresh water is made from sea water

Although ships are surrounded by sea water, sea water is bad for drinking (people can go crazy
drinking too much sea water) and it’s highly corrosive to steel that makes the engine room
pipework and engines (so it’s not good for engineering daily tasks). All this means is we need to
remove the salt.
To processes to remove the sea water can happen in a number of ways; however, the simplest
and most common in my experience is by boiling the sea water and collecting the clean
evaporated steam. In this method, the sea water is heated to its boiling point in a vacuum. The
vacuum is useful as it lowers the boiling point meaning less heat is needed. The evaporated
steam is cooled, condensed and collected. The condensate, aka distillate, can now be pumped
away to a storage tank with its own small dedicated pump. The now extra salty waste sea water
(aka brine) is pumped overboard back into the sea.
 Fig 77: A fresh water generator

Look-up: flash fresh water generator, evaporator fresh water generator, fresh water
generator vacuum, fresh water generator scale build up
Fresh Drinking Water - Hardening and Sterilisation
The water created by the fresh water generator is almost pure water, and is often called distilled
water. Distilled water, after chemical treatment, is great for making steam in the boilers and well
as cooling/heating the various engine room systems. However distilled water is not good to
drink as it has no minerals at all in it.

Fig 78: No joke!! Do not drink sea or distilled water

To make distilled water safe for drinking (useful if you want the crew to survive a voyage) the
normal day to day minerals found in normal land based fresh water need to be added. This
process is called hardening or re-hardening, they are the same thing, and it is achieved by
pushing the distilled water though Dolomite rocks. Dolomite rock is named after an area of
Italian mountains and is very mineral rich.

Fig 79: A stone rehardener is full of stones

Even though the distilled water generated by the fresh water generator starts off as sterile and
bacteria free in its production, infection can occur. Possible sources include that sometimes
ships take water from shore-side or the distilled water might get something from waiting in a
tank. Regardless to make sure drinking water is ready for human consumption, the water must
be sterilised before human consummation. A few different types of sterilisation exist,
chlorination, silver ion, and UV light.
 Look-up: hard vs soft water, distilled vs drinking water, why not to drink sea water

Black Water and Sewage Treatment Plant - handle with care

People on a ship eat and drink like anyone else. However, people that eat and drink also make
their own waste products that need to be dealt with. This unavoidable fact of life is often called
black water. Black water includes all high risk contaminated water that has been used in sewage
and hospitals. Black water needs to be dealt with special care as it potentially carries the risk of
infecting people and/or the environment. To help mitigate the risk of contamination, black water
must be treated in a sewage treatment plant and/or pumped overboard a set minimum distance
from the nearest land. Obviously, any backwater disposed of overboard must be aft of any fresh
water generator intake!

Fig 80: How black water is made

Typically, the special system designed to take care of the black water is called sewage treatment
plant. A sewage treatment plant uses the bacteria already present in the human waste to break
down the sewage. All the sewage treatment plant needs to do is provide enough time and air to
allow the natural process to happen. Eventually the decomposed waste is sterilised before being
pumped overboard.

Fig 81: A typical sewage treatment plant

Look-up: natural decay of sewage, sewage infectious diseases, sodium hypochlorite,
marine vacuum toilet systems
Grey Water – it’s not as bad a black water
Showers, galley waste and other low risk waters are often labelled as grey water. Grey water
often passes straight overboard by gravity. However, some countries are now limiting grey
water discharge when inside a port limits.

Fig 82: The grey water system

Look-up: marine grease trap, how does a U-bend work

Refrigeration and Air Conditioning - to chill stuff out
If you want to keep food safe it helps to keep it cool, the same is also true for people! Regardless
of if you want to cool a box to keep food in or the air in an accommodation block the cooling
process is the same. Remembering from the multiple previous chapters that gases heat up when
compressed, the opposite is also true! i.e. when a gas expands it cools. Refrigeration systems
use this cool logic to move heat from the area that needs to be cooled to somewhere else.

Fig 83: A few reasons why refrigeration is useful

The process works by pumping a specially chosen refrigeration liquid. The liquid is very close
to its boiling point bit is under pressure to keep it liquid. Just before entering the space that
needs cooling it passes through an expansion valve that dramatically lowers the liquids pressure.
The refrigeration liquid now really, really, wants to become a gas and will start to pull in heat
from its surroundings. On entering the evaporator, the liquid finds the heat it needs to turn into a
gas as the warmer air passes across the evaporator with the aid of a fan. The now cooled air
from the evaporator moves on into the space to be cooled making it that little bit colder.
The system closes the cycle by recompressing the now warmed gas in a compressor, normally a
piston positive displacement pump. The compressor not only compresses the gas but also heats
it up. To remove this heat the now hot high-pressure gas passes into a condenser, cooling it until
it liquefies. The positive head of pressure on the liquid trapped in the condenser pushes the
refrigeration liquid back towards the expansion valve; restarting the cycle. The water that passed
though the condenser then carries the excess heat away and eventually overboard.
 Fig 84: A refrigeration system

Look-up: air conditioning compressor sealing, expansion valve freezing up,

refrigeration gas ozone layer damage, ideal temperature for fruit and vegetable
refrigeration
Page intentionally left blank
Miscellaneous
Pneumatics to power hand tools and control systems
Pneumatics is a fancy word for air powered. Maybe it’s Greek or maybe it’s Latin; regardless of
which, the p is silent. Air powered pneumatic things are rather useful. A pneumatics powered
hand tool will not only never run out of battery but is often more powerful than a similarly sized
electric equivalent. Importantly a pneumatic powered fan will not be a spark hazard in a fuel
tank and therefore plays a critical role in tanker safety.

Fig 85: Air pressure driving hand tools and air fans

Pneumatics often also find themselves found in control systems. The readily available high-
pressure air is used to drive automatic control valves open and closed, as well as supply control
devices. All super important jobs in a modern engine room plant.
Pneumatic control air systems and power tools don’t like water. The water reacts with any dirt
or oil in the system resulting in sludge. This sludge jams up pneumatic motors and the fine
clearances used in control systems.

Look-up: air powered motor advantages, air motor lubrication, repetitive strain
hand injury
Pumps to move the engine room from A to B
I hope it’s been clear though out this book that moving liquids around the engine room plant is
important. On reflection, so much of an engine room is taken up with pumps. Pumps to move
the hot oil, the hot water, the cold water, the hot oil, the air, the exhaust, the refrigeration gas and
the waste water. Pumps are so useful that off the top of my head I cannot think of any system
than doesn’t reply on moving some liquid or gas from somewhere to somewhere else. For easy
of clarity I’m going to say that if the liquid is a gas then often we call that pump a fan.
Pumps fall into two big sub types with a third type I’ll mention at the end. The two big most
common types are:
Positive displacement
Centrifugal
Positive displacement pumps
Positive displacement forces a liquid to go somewhere. Examples are screw, piston and pigtail
pumps. Supposing the outlet line is closed or blocked the nature of the pump means the pressure
will continue to rise until something breaks. Therefore, all positive displacement pumps have
relief valves that open on a high pressure. On the positive side, they don’t need some liquid in
them to start. Because of their nature they can pump the air out of there suction line and then
pump the liquid.

Fig 86: A cross-section of a gear pump

Look-up: different types of positive displacement pumps, maximum suction pump

height

Centrifugal pumps
Centrifugal pumps strongly encourage a liquid to go somewhere. This encouragement comes by
spinning the liquid in an impeller. Unlike a positive displacement pump, they won’t cause the
apocalypse should the discharge valve be closed, at least not until some time has passed.
However, they can’t clear their suction line of air so need to be primed before they can
effectively pump any liquid.
 Fig 87: A cross-section of a centrifugal pump

Look-up: impellor cavitation damage, centrifugal pump primer

Eductors and ejectors

A third type also exists often called an ejector or eductor pump. Eductors and ejectors are the
same thing and use the Ventrie effect. Here one liquid is pumped at speed passed a constraint, or
orifice, in the pipe. The constraint creates a high pressure before itself and a low pressure
immediately after itself. By attaching a suction to another liquid at the low pressure point you
can suck in the other liquid creating a flow. Often ejectors and eductors are used to pump air
away from a space and create a vacuum.

Fig 88: A cross-section of an eductor

Look-up: Ventrie effect video

Air Compressors - to pump up air ready for use
Air compressors are just positive displacement pumps that are designed to pump air continually.
There are designs that are screw type and designs that are piston type.
It’s useful to remember that the air gets hot, for the same reasons fundamental physical laws
mentioned throughout this book. Hence air compressors are often found with a cooler
incorporated. **Also, it’s useful to remember that the water that was held in the air as humidity
falls out when the now hot compressed air is cooled. So, always check your automatic and
manual drains.

Fig 89: The stages of a two-stage air compressor

Once the air has been compressed it delivered to an air bottle for storage. The air bottle is round
in all directs to avoid pressure stresses. At the bottom of the air bottle will be a drain to remove
any more water. At the top of the air bottle will be a relief valve to prevent over pressurisation.

Look-up: air compressor cooler bursting disk, air compressor lubrication, air
compressor motoring
Bearings - to keep things moving with minimum friction
Bearings are used to allow two objects to move past each other. These two things found be parts
of an engine or the rotor and stator of a motor. Regardless of their use, a bearing should be
designed and installed properly allowing it to last for many years.
There are loads of design types. However, the most standard type has a set of steal balls (aka
ball bearings) trapped between to steel circles. These circles are called the inner and outer racer.
As with anything that moves, bearings require lubrication, often supplied as grease or oil.

Fig 90: A simple roller bearing

Look-up: different type of bearings, bearing codes, bearing lubrication, bearing

vibration analysis
Heat Exchangers - to heat or cool stuff with other stuff
Plate and tube and shell - cheap and big vs expensive and small
Heat exchangers are great ways of transferring heat from one liquid to another without them
mixing. As mentioned before, having water in your engine lube oil or sea water in the boiler are
both bad things to happen. There are two main types of heat exchanger: “shell and tube” and
“plate”.
Shell and tube heat exchangers
Shell and tube is where some tubes pass through a shell. One liquid is in the tubes and the other
one in the shell. Sometimes the tubes turn around in the shell so the tube liquid can enter and
exit on the same side. Advantage is shell and tube is simple to manufacture (cheep) but a little
bulky.

Fig 91: A shell and tube heat exchanger

Look-up: shell and tube construction, shell and tube sea water cooler anodes
Plate heat exchangers
Plate type is where many thin plates of metal, normally stainless steel or titanium, are stacked
next to each other. By careful placement of entry and exit holes, and gasket seals, the liquids
move past each other on alternative plates without mixing. Plate heat exchangers are a lot more
compact however they are also more expensive to manufacture.

Fig 92: A plate heat exchanger

Look-up: plate heat exchanger chevrons, plate heat exchanger rubber gaskets

Parallel-flow and contra-flow - with or against the flow

It makes a different in how the pipework is lined up thus giving two methods for cooling in a
heat exchanger; contra-flow and parallel flow. Both methods can be found in shell and tube or
plate type heat exchangers.
Parallel flow is where two liquids, say A and B, enter the same side of the heat exchanger. This
means at the start of the heat exchanger’s process the hottest liquid A is being cooled by the
coldest liquid B. While at the end of the process both liquids’ temperature is somewhere near the
mean average.
 Fig 93: Parallel flow in a plate heat exchanger

Contra-flow is the opposite of parallel-flow. In Contra-flow where liquid A enters from one side
and liquid B enters from the other. In a cooler this means the warmest of the coolant starts
cooling the hottest liquid. However, importantly, the coldest coolant finishes the process by
cooling the coldest of the other liquid. (If it was a heater then swap over hot and cold, but really,
it’s the same thing).
This distinction means contra-flow is more efferent than parallel flow and so is way more
common.

Fig 94: Contra flow in a plate heat exchanger

Look-up: heat exchanger flow video

Purifiers to clean up oil ready for use
Purifiers to purify – to stop bad things happing
A ship’s various oils need cleaning. The heavy fuel oil used to power the ships engines needs to
have its impurities removed. This is to avoid causing any damage to the engines. Additionally,
the lube oil used in the same engines needs cleaning to remove the impurity that build up in use.
Failure to remove these impurities will affect the lube oils ability to effectively lubricate and
protect the engines moving parts.
For both these jobs a purifier is used. The impurities that can be removed are normally
suspended solids and water. What a purifier can’t remove things that are chemically dissolved in
the oil e.g. acids or other oils.
Why remove suspended solids? Suspended solids cause wear on moving parts, like bearings and
pumps found in both fuel oil and lube oil systems.
Why remove water? Water breaks down the lube oil metal interface and therefore dramatically
lowers the efficacy of lube oil. Plus, water doesn’t burn. So regardless of if you’re burning oil
or using it as lube oil, water is bad.

Fig 95: A HFO pipe full of HFO, water and suspended solids

Purifiers purify by fast spinning

Purifiers work by spinning up the oil super-fast. Imagine your washing machine at home. At the
end of the wet washing cycle the wet clothes are spun up. The result of all this spinning is your
clothes are left only slightly damp. Why? Because water is denser than the cotton or polyester
that makes up your favourite jumper. The same basic principles force any water or solids
outwards because both are denser than oil. This leaves nice clean oil in the centre which is
allowed to flow out of the purifier bowl ready to be used.
What makes purifiers particularly clever is they can automatically discharge the water and solids
they collect. By using a water controlled piston inside the purifier, the purifier momentarily
splits open in it’s middle. This momentary open gap in the side of the purifier’s bowl allow the
heavy water and solids, which are already on the purifiers outside, to escape the confines of the
bowl. This discharge can be timer controlled or use water monitoring sensors on the clean oil
outlet.
To control the removal of excessive water in the oil a gravity disk is used. The gravity disk acts
a bit like a U bend under a sink. Excess water is allowed to overflow while some water level is
maintained. The size of gravity disk is chosen in relation to the density of the oil being cleaned.
 Fig 96: A cross-section of a purifier

Look-up: purifier clarifier differences, Purifier videos, Alfa-Laval vs Westfalia, how

purifiers work video
Oily Water Separator - to clean up the bilge
In modern times, the importance of protecting the environment has become super important in
both legislation and how companies want to be regarded. To help minimise a ship’s
environmental impact any waste water (aka bilge water) leaving the engine room must pass
tough an oily water separator to remove any oil. Different systems use various methods
examples include traditional filters, coalescing filters, heaters, and purifier-like designs. All have
the same goal to reliably and effetely separate any oil out of the water.
To ensure a record of a ships compliance all bilge operations are logged in the engine room oil
record book. This is a super critical, VIP, mega important document. All I’ll say is read the
instructions and treat it with upmost respect.
Look-up: SOLAS oily water separator requirements, EPA VGP oily water separator
requirements, oily water separator types: coalescing filters, centrifugal, mesh filter
types, 15ppm monitor
Page intentionally left blank
Table of Figures
Fig 1: Why to read this book
Fig 2: I like beer and will toast the queen
Fig 3: A large modern ship with engineers powering the engines
Fig 4: An old small wooden sailing ship, with no engineer required
Fig 5: A steam ship now with an engineer on-board
Fig 6: A catching a ball is the same idea
Fig 7: The explosion drives the crank
Fig 8: The crank drives the piston up
Fig 9: Fuel injection creates the explosion
Fig 10: Fresh air driving out the scavenge air
Fig 11: The opening and closing of valves
Fig 12: Size comparison of a two stroke on the left and four stroke on the right
Fig 13: Propeller being turned by the engine via the shaft
Fig 14: Multiple engine gearbox drive
Fig 15: Multiple engine high voltage drive
Fig 16: A four-stroke engine's parts
Fig 17: Cross-section of the piston
Fig 18: Cylinder liner and jacket space
Fig 19: Cylinder liner and piston rings
Fig 20: Piston rod connecting the piston and crank
Fig 21: Two-stroke stuffing box and crosshead
Fig 22: The crank's parts
Fig 23: The crank's bottom and main bearings
Fig 24: the thrust bearing and shaft
Fig 25: The bedplate sitting on the chock sitting on the ship's hull
Fig 26: Tie bolts holding together the engine
Fig 27: Lube oil separates the two surfaces
Fig 28: The main lube oil system
Fig 29: Lube oil piston crown cooling in a four-stroke
Fig 30: Crosshead lubrication and piston cooling in a two stroke
Fig 31: Cylinder lubrication for the liner and piston rings
Fig 32: A simplified oil refinery stack
Fig 33: Cold HFO is hard to move
Fig 34: However hot HFO moves easily
Fig 35: Settling tank allows water to be drained off
Fig 36: Mesh filters remove suspended solids
Fig 37: The two halves of the fuel oil system
Fig 38: My typical breakfast of bacon, egg, beans and toast
Fig 39: A jerk fuel oil pump on the engine
Fig 40: fresh air is good for people
Fig 41: Fresh air is good for engines
Fig 42: The two halves of a turbocharger
Fig 43: The water tubes of an air cooler
Fig 44: The timing system including the push rod and tappet system
Fig 45: the valve locations in a four stroke engine
Fig 46: A bad day
Fig 47: Metal expands as the temperature increases; thus making the clearances smaller
Fig 48: The sea water cooling system
Fig 49: The low temperate cooling water system
Fig 50: The dance party that needs to run 24/7
Fig 51: The waste heat of the eninge ends up in the surounding sea
Fig 52: The high temperature cooling water system
Fig 53: The motor drives the engine around via the flywheel
Fig 54: Header pressure and the ships draft
Fig 55: Pressure inside the stern tube must match the outside sea water pressure
Fig 56: The stern tube system
Fig 57: The water flow pushing on the rudder
Fig 58: The rudder’s thrust pushing and turning the ship
Fig 59: A cross section of the rudder's mounting
Fig 60: An old-fashioned steering gear to turn a small ships rudder
Fig 61: A ram steering gear system
Fig 62: A rotary vain steering gear
Fig 63: An exhaust gas economiser
Fig 64: A classic oil-fired boiler
Fig 65: A tube and shell steam heater
Fig 66: The condensate system collects the wasted steam
Fig 67: A steam dump
Fig 68: A water circuit turning a water motor
Fig 69: A simple DC circuit
Fig 70: The static voltage of DC
Fig 71: The changing voltage of AC
Fig 72: Three phases staggered by 120'deg
Fig 73: The magnetic flux rotating inside three coils, creating AC current
Fig 74: The rotors magnetic always chasing the alternating phases
Fig 75: The UPS powers a low ultra-critical emergency devices
Fig 76: Fresh water is made from sea water
Fig 77: A fresh water generator
Fig 78: No joke!! Do not drink sea or distilled water
Fig 79: A stone rehardener is full of stones
Fig 80: How black water is made
Fig 81: A typical sewage treatment plant
Fig 82: The grey water system
Fig 83: A few reasons why refrigeration is useful
Fig 84: A refrigeration system
Fig 85: Air pressure driving hand tools and air fans
Fig 86: A cross-section of a gear pump
Fig 87: A cross-section of a centrifugal pump
Fig 88: A cross-section of an eductor
Fig 89: The stages of a two-stage air compressor
Fig 90: A simple roller bearing
Fig 91: A shell and tube heat exchanger
Fig 92: A plate heat exchanger
Fig 93: Parallel flow in a plate heat exchanger
Fig 94: Contra flow in a plate heat exchanger
Fig 95: A HFO pipe full of HFO, water and suspended solids
Fig 96: A cross-section of a purifier
Page intentionally left blank
Index

A frame, 41
AC, 120, 121, 122, 123, 125, 127
AC generators, 120
Air compressor, 67, 149
Air compressors, 81, 149
Air conditioning, 81
Air cooler, 69, 70, 75
Alternator, 37, 118, 119, 122, 123, 127
And Air Conditioning, 139
Atomisation, 63
Bad, 45, 48, 58, 63, 76, 77, 79, 95, 110, 115, 138, 152, 157
Bad, 77
Battery, 118, 119, 128, 143
Bearing, 29, 34, 35, 38, 39, 48, 49, 92, 94, 97, 151
Bearings, 38, 46, 92, 95, 151, 157
Bedplate, 38, 40, 44
Black water, 136, 138
Boilers, 103, 106, 108, 111, 116, 134
Camshaft, 46, 64, 72
Centrifugal pumps, 147
Charge air, 72
Charging, 19, 66, 72
Chocks, 40
Clearances, 46, 58, 77, 78, 144
Clutch, 87
Combustion space, 22, 33, 35, 48, 51
Condensate, 110, 111, 112
Condenser, 111, 113, 140
Connecting rod, 29, 35
Contra-flow, 155, 156
Cooling system, 81, 84
Cooling water, 32, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85
Corrosion, 84, 115
Corrosion, 115
Crank, 15, 16, 17, 18, 22, 33, 34, 35, 37, 38
Crankcase, 35, 48
Crosshead, 34, 35, 36, 49, 50
Crown, 31, 48, 49, 77
Current, 118, 119, 120, 125, 127
Cylinder, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22, 29, 32, 33, 63, 65, 66, 71, 72, 73, 77, 83, 89
Cylinder Liner, 32
Cylinder lubrication, 51, 52
DC, 119, 120, 122, 123
Diesel engine, 11, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 67, 86, 125
Distilled water, 134
Dolomite rock, 134
Draft, 90
Drinking Water, 134
Dumping, 113
Eductors, 148
Efficacy, 11, 23, 67, 104, 157
Efficiency, 13, 21, 42, 53, 79, 107, 123
Efficient, 11, 13, 14, 21, 65, 103, 120, 122
Ejectors, 148
Electricity, 10, 28, 118
Electricity, 118
Emergency generator, 125
Entablature, 35
Exhaust, 16, 19, 20, 22, 23, 29, 65, 67, 71, 72, 73, 75, 84, 104, 105, 106, 145
Exhaust gas, 16, 19, 22, 23, 84, 104, 105, 106
Exhaust Gas Economiser, 104
Exhaust valves, 71, 72, 75
Expansion tank, 81, 85
Filters, 60
Flywheel, 86, 87
Four-stroke, 19, 21, 24, 26, 28, 29, 30, 34, 42, 48, 49, 51, 71, 87, 89, 90
Fresh air, 18, 20, 22, 23, 65, 66, 75
Fresh water, 79, 81, 84, 85, 91, 131, 133, 134, 135, 136
Fresh water generator, 84, 85, 131, 133, 134, 135, 136
Fresh Water Generator, 131
Fuel, 10, 11, 14, 17, 18, 19, 22, 29, 47, 53, 54, 55, 57, 58, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 69, 71, 72, 73, 76, 108, 143, 157
Generators, 125
Gravity disk, 159
Grey Water, 138
Gudgeon, 97
Heat Exchangers, 152
HFO, 53, 56, 57, 58, 62, 158
High voltage, 28, 90, 122
Hydraulics, 99
Induction motor, 127
Injector, 29, 63, 64, 72
Jacket, 32, 48, 83
Journal, 37, 38
Liner, 32, 33, 51, 52, 77, 83
Look up, 11
Low voltage, 122
Lube oil, 31, 35, 37, 40, 45, 46, 47, 48, 51, 52, 76, 81, 84, 92, 93, 94, 152, 157
Magnetic field, 125, 127
Motors, 28, 90, 119, 120, 122, 123, 144
Nozzle, 64
Oily Water Separator, 161
Parallel-flow, 155
Pintle, 97
Piston, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 38, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 71, 73, 77, 140, 146, 149, 158
Piston liner, 77
Piston rings, 33
Piston rod, 34
Piston shirt, 31
Plate heat exchangers, 154
Pneumatics, 143
Positive displacement pump, 140, 147
Positive displacement pumps, 146
Primed, 147
Propeller, 10, 25, 26, 28, 37, 39, 90, 119
Purifiers, 61, 103, 157, 158
Push rod, 72, 73
Refinery, 54, 55, 56, 58
Refrigeration, 139
Rotor, 125, 127, 151
Rudder, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101
Rudder stock, 97
Sail, 10, 11, 12, 13
Scavenge ports, 20, 73
Scavenging, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 65, 66, 71, 73, 75
Sea water, 79, 80, 81, 84, 90, 91, 92, 93, 131, 152
Sea water cooling system, 79
Settling tank, 59
Sewage, 136, 137
Sewage Treatment Plant, 136
Shaft, 25, 39, 64, 90, 92, 94, 97, 127
Shell and tube heat exchangers, 153
Single phase, 122
Starting, 63, 86, 87, 89
Stator, 125, 127, 151
Steam, 11, 13, 14, 103, 104, 106, 108, 109, 110, 111, 113, 114, 131, 132, 134
Steam heaters, 108, 109
Steam heaters, 108
Steam trap, 109
Steering gear, 96, 97, 99, 100, 101, 102
Sterilisation, 135
Stern tube, 90, 92, 93, 94, 95
Stern tube system, 90, 92, 94, 95
Stuffing box, 35
Sump, 40, 51
Suspended solids, 157, 158
TBN, 46, 47, 51, 52
The Main Engine, 8, 10
Three phase, 122, 123
Thrust, 10, 39, 96
Thrust bearing, 39
Ties, 41
Tiller arms, 100
Timing, 19, 51, 71, 72, 89
Turbocharger, 46, 67, 68, 69, 104
Two-stroke, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 34, 35, 36, 42, 49, 51, 52, 71, 73, 90
Uninterruptable Power Supplies, 128
UPS, 128, 129
Valve, 20, 22, 29, 64, 72, 73, 74, 93, 113, 139, 140, 147, 150
Valves, 22, 23, 46, 63, 71, 72, 73, 75, 93, 100, 143, 146
Viscosity, 46, 57
Voltage, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123
Water tubes, 69, 70, 104
Web, 37