Oily water separator

•1. Subject to provisions of regulation 4 of this annex and

paragraphs 2, 3, and 6 of this regulation, any discharge into the sea
of oil or oily mixtures from ships shall be prohibited.
•A Discharges outside special areas
•2 Any discharge into the sea of oil or oily mixtures from ships of 400
gross tonnage and above shall be prohibited except when all the
following conditions are satisfied:
•.1the ship is proceeding en route;
•.2the oily mixture is processed through an oil filtering
equipment meeting the requirements of regulation 14 of this
Annex;.
•3the oil content of the effluent without dilution does not
exceed 15 parts per million;.
•4the oily mixture does not originate from cargo pump-room
bilges on oil tankers; and.
•5the oily mixture, in case of oil tankers, is not mixed with oil
cargo residues.
•B Discharges in special areas
•3 Any discharge into the sea of oil or oily mixtures from ships of 400
gross tonnage and above shall be prohibited except when all of the
following conditions are satisfied:
•.1the ship is proceeding en route;
•.2the oily mixture is processed through an oil filtering equipment
meeting the requirements of regulation 14.7 of this Annex;.
•3the oil content of the effluent without dilution does not exceed
15 parts per million;.
•4the oily mixture does not originate from cargo pump-room
bilges on oil tankers; and.
•5the oily mixture, in case of oil tankers, is not mixed with oil
cargo residues.
•4 In respect of the Antarctic area, any discharge into the sea of oil or
oily mixtures from any ship shall be prohibited.
•5 Nothing in this regulation shall prohibit a ship on a voyage only
part of which is in a special area from discharging outside a special
area in accordance with paragraph 2 of this regulation.
The purpose

The purpose of a shipboard oily water separator (OWS) is to

separate oil and other contaminants that could be harmful for
the oceans.

The International Maritime Organization(IMO) publishes

regulations through the Marine Environment Protection
Committee (MEPC).On July 18, 2003, the MEPC issued new
regulations that each vessel built after this date had to follow.
This document is known as MEPC 107(49) and it details
revised guidelines and specifications for pollution prevention
equipment for machinery space bilges of ships. Each OWS
must be able to achieve clean bilge water under 15 ppm of
type C oil or heavily emulsified oil, and any other
contaminates that may be found.
 Steps involved in oil separation

OIL SEPARATION IS ON THE BASIS OF THESE STEPS

a)The suspended droplets must collide with each other
b)Upon colliding, the droplets must merge to form
larger drops
c)The larger drops must float upward, by their buoyancy.

THE COLLISION AND MERGING OF OIL DROPLETS IS CALLED

COALESCENCE
 Efficiency of Separation

EFFICIENCY OF OIL SEPARATION DEPENDS ON:

1)Oil density
2)The residence time
3)The degree of agitation
4)The presence of surface tension controlling
detergents
5)Viscosity of oil
6)Quantity of oil in the mixture
7)Pumping rate.
 Selection of PUMP
SELECTION OF PUMP FOR OILY WATER SEPARATOR
1)Separation depends on oil droplet size.
Any disintegration of oil droplets should be
avoided. This can be affected by the type of pump.

a)Centrifugal pump -- Not satisfactory

b)Eccentric Helical Rotor Pump - Satisfactory
2)It should be self priming
3)It should resist high concentration of sand,
carbon, rust etc.
4)Pump capacity should not be affected badly
by changes in the draught of the ship, as it
must supply constant volume at all times.
How Bilges are created???

The bilge area is the lowest area on a ship. The bilge water
that collects here include drain water or leftover water from
the boilers, water collecting tanks, drinking water and other
places where water can not overflow. However, bilge water
doesn’t just include water drains. Another system that drains
into the Bilge system comes from the propulsion area of the
ship. Here fuels, lubricants, hydraulic
fluid, antifreeze, solvents, and cleaning chemicals drain into
the engine room bilges in small quantities. The OWS is
intended to remove a large proportion of these contaminants
before discharge to the environment (overboard to the sea).
 OWS – Working principle

OILY WATER SEPARATORS

The Principle of Separation is the difference in density

between oil & water. The Separation is influenced by:
i)The surface tension of oil, which is dependent on the type of
oil and the temp. of oil.
ii)Agitation of oil / water mixture, which causes the drops
of oil to be divided into smaller drops
and an emulsion is formed.
 Simplex Turbulo Separators
Probably the most practical separator for
shipboard use in handling the large volumes
involved in tanker cargo slops when an effluent
quality of 100 ppm is required is the gravity
type.
The design of this depends solely on the
differences in specific gravity between oil and
water. Separation takes place passively i.e. no
moving parts are needed. So it is completely
un-powered except for external input and
output pumps.
A gravity-type separator is normally incapable
of achieving 15ppm effluent quality

The Simplex-Turbulo oil/water separator as shown

in the figure below consists of a vertical cylindrical
pressure vessel containing a number of inverted
Key: 1: Clean water run-off. 2: Outlet. 3.Oil conical plates. The oily water enters the separator
accumulation space connection. 4.Riser in the upper half of the unit and is directed
pipes. downwards to the conical plates
5: Inlet connection
 Simplex Turbulo separator (Description)
Large globules of oil separate out in the upper part of the separator.
The smaller globules are carried by the water into the spaces between
the plates. The rising velocity of the globules carries them upwards
where they become trapped by the under-surfaces of the plates and
coalesce until the enlarged globules have sufficient rising velocity to
travel along the plate surface and break away at the periphery. The oil
rises, is caught underneath an annular baffle and is then led up through
the turbulent inlet area by risers to collect in the dome of the
separator. The water leaves the conical plate pack via a central pipe,
which is connected to a flange at the base of the separator.
Two test cocks are provided to observe the depth of oil collected in the
separator dome. When oil is seen at the lower test cock, the oil drain
valve must be opened. An automatic air release valve is located in the
separator dome. An electronically operated oil drainage valve is also
frequently fitted. This works on an electric signal given by liquid level
probes in the separator. Visual and audible oil overload indicators may
also be fitted.
To assist separation steam coils or electric heaters are
fitted in the upper part pf the separator. Where high
viscosity oils are to be separated additional heating
coils are installed in the lower part. Before initial
operation, the separator must be filled with clean
water. To a large extent the conical plates are self-
cleaning but periodically the top of the vessel should
be removed and the plates examined for sludge build-
up and corrosion
Simplex turbulo oilywater separator, 15 ppm
 Two Stage Separation – 15 ppm
OILY WATER SEPARATOR
First Stage : Gravimetric separation
Oil content in the effluent should be less
than 100 ppm
Second Stage : i)Coalescence type
Oil content in the effluent should be less
than 15 ppm
Filter material – Hydrophylic, ie.
Glass wool in cartidge form
ii)Absorption type
Oil content in the effluent should be less
than 15 ppm
Filter material – Oleophylic
Once saturated with oil, backflushing
with high pressure water
Oil Content Monitor and Control Unit

This unit functions together in two parts – monitoring and

controlling.

The ppm of oil is continuously monitored by Oil Content Monitor

(OCM); if the ppm is high it will give alarm and feed data to the
control unit.

The control unit continuously monitors the output signal of OCM

and if alarm arises, it will not allow the oily water to go
overboard by means of operating 3 way solenoid valve.
There are normally 3 solenoid valves commanded by control
unit. These are located in the first unit oil collecting chamber,
second unit oil collecting chamber and one in discharge side
of the oily water separator which is a 3 way valve.

The 3 way valve inlet is from the OWS discharge, where one
outlet is to overboard and second outlet is to OWS sludge
tank.

When OCM gives alarm, 3 way valve discharges oily mixture

in the sludge tank.
 Monitor for oilywater, using direct light
Oil content monitoring:
In the past, an
inspection glass, fitted
in the overboard
discharge pipe of the
oil/water separator
permitted sighting of
the flow. The discharge
was illuminated by a
light bulb fitted on the
Bilge or ballast water passing through a sample chamber
outside of the glass
can be monitored by a strong light shining directly through
port opposite the
it and on to a photo-cell as shown in the figure below.
viewer.
Light reaching the cell decreases with increasing oil
content of the water.
The effect of this light on the photo-cell compared with
that of direct light on the reference cell to the left of the
bulb, can be registered on a meter calibrated to show oil
content.
 Monitor based on scattered light principle

Another approach is to register light scattered by oil particles dispersed in the water
by the sampling pumps.

Light reflected or scattered by any oil particles in the flow, illuminates the
scattered light window. This light when compared with the source light
increases to a maximum and then decreases with increasing oil content of
the flow. Fibre-optic tubes are used in the device shown to convey light
from the source and from the scattered light window to the photo-cell. The
motor-driven rotating disc with its slot, lets each light shine alternately on
the photo-cell and also, by means of switches at the periphery, causes the
signals to be passed independently to a comparator device .
 What is ODMCS and why
is it required?
Oil tankers carry different types of oil cargo in their cargo tanks
and it often happens that after discharging the oil cargo in
some port, the ship sails without any cargo to some other
destination. In order to do so, it has to take ballast from the sea
to get better draught and stability.

For this reason, ballast water is taken into cargo tanks wherein
generally oil cargo would have been carried.
Main Parts of ODMCS
An ODMCS consists essentially of four systems:
1. An Oil content meter: The oil content meter is used to
analyze the content of oil in the water that is to be
discharged overboard. This oil is expressed in parts per
million (PPM).
2. A flow meter: The flow rate of the oily water to be
discharged is measured at the discharge pipe.
3. A computing unit: A computing unit calculates the oil
discharge in litres/nautical miles and the total quantity,
along with date and time identification.
4. An overboard valve control system: The auto control
valve is installed at the overboard so that it must close and
stop the discharge when permissible limit has been
reached
It is to note that the ballast water carried in
cargo tanks has to be discharged out at sea before the next
cargo loading.

Therefore, Oil Discharge monitoring and control system

(ODMCS) is used to prevent the pollution of ocean by oil
due to the discharge from ballast and bilge spaces.

As per MARPOL 73/78 Annex I, all the oil tankers of 150 GT

and above must have an approved Oil Discharge
Monitoring System. The system must have provision to
work in manual operating mode if the auto system is not
working.
The regulations have been developed and implemented as a
result of some of the worst shipping wrecks during the 70s
causing heavy oil spills and contamination of the maritime
environment.

The ODME regulations have evolved as the technology did

the same. Starting with a purely mechanical requirement and
manual logging, it now stipulates automated monitoring of oil
content, control and logging of speed and data.
For instance, all Oil Discharge Monitoring Equipment installed
after January 1st 2005 must utilize a ship speed and position in
the logging and all ware parts and spares that are
recommended by the manufacturer, should be carried on board.

The latest amendment to the regulations concerns bio fuel. By

January 1st 2016, ships carrying bio fuel must have Oil Discharge
Monitoring Equipment certified to handle just this, as the oil
content meter must be able to handle these substances.