Deep sea tanker operations

Cleaning Crude Tankers

I am conducting an analysis regarding point to point fuel movement and am looking to develop the widest of range of alternatives to meet various lift requirements. If anyone knows if it is possible to sufficiently clean a crude carrier to transport product fuels, such as Jet A1, I would appreciate a dialogue that would identify the 1) feasibility and 2) the length of time involved. Thanks. W Macht

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Permalink Reply by John Onslow on May 13, 2009 at 9:31pm: If you are thinking of doing it in one go - don't. You will need a thorough COW then cold and hot wash of tanks; de-sludging (time and labour intensive) and then some interim cargoes (3) of, say, diesel, then thorough washing for jet

Remember it's not just the tanks that have to be clean but also the pumps and lines - which are just as problematical with all the dead ends on the pipelines etc.

I carried diesel after crude, and despite a thorough wash and being double hulled when we got to the discharge port we only just passed the colour spec for the diesel.

Another thing that needs to be considered is what the heating coils are made of, if anything other than Stainless then the jet can leach out trace alloys from the coils and the samples will fail on this

How long will it take? - how long is a piece of string? de-sludging alone can take a one or two weeks even throwing a riding gang on to assist. Water washing etc. 6 hours per tank?
hope that helps; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Will Macht on May 29, 2009 at 7:58pm: Thank you very much for the detailed reply, it is most appreciated. It seems that an expectation to clean a crude carrier to a degree that it will be able to carry product in a timely enough manner seems a bridge too far. Do you concur with that assessment? Do you think, given maybe months, a crude carrier could be cleaned to ever carry jet fuel? Thanks again.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by John Onslow on June 8, 2009 at 8:14am: If you throw enough time and money at anything it can probably be done, but is the cost/benefit worth it?

I don't think any experienced tanker guy would think it is doable without interim diesel/gasoil cargoes.

Another point is, even if you get the VLCC to a clean enough standard for jet, where are you going to load it?. Product berths are designed for smaller ships and probably couldn't take a VLCC. That leaves you with a ship to ship lightering scenario for load, and probably discharge.Again, added cost; have you factored this in?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Captain Peter Bonebakker on June 6, 2009 at 10:30pm: Recommend lifting an intermediate product such as a light gas oil that will not be thrown off spec. After crude washing a light gas oil or diesel oil wash will help. Recently a ship discharged crude went to sea cleaned and came back hoping to load diesel. As expected and had been advised, the tanks failed. Caused lots of problems and costs.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by adeosun oluwapelumi muideen on July 10, 2009 at 8:32pm: hello master, how are you doing today? well i just wanna say hi to you and to become your friend if you don't mind my level and my rank as O.S , i really like you picture and wanna be your friend if you don't mind, i am adeosun and was a citizen of nigeria also don't mind if i can get job in your organisation thank you; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by adeosun oluwapelumi muideen on July 10, 2009 at 8:45pm

i don't this cleaning offer as well, i really like to know the location because right now i am in western part of africa, but i wana work on any type of oil tanker if avaliable

Attachments:

RESUME.zip, 942 KB

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Permalink Reply by adeosun oluwapelumi muideen on July 10, 2009 at 8:59pm: don't mind i mean; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Aris Rego on July 14, 2009 at 10:10am: I am presuming you are refering to VLCC of 300K, Do you want to use it as a Storage tanker? cause as some one said previously, where are you going to get the cargo from?. The cleaning is possible but there is a cost, it will cost you a bit to dispose off the sludge. I would not want to do it without a ridding gang as the crew will go crazy with the job scope. Also it depends on which region you are? you can't decant slops in special areas,and shore disposal of large qty of slop water will cost a fortune.

The normal method is to clean the VLCC for 4to 6 hrs per tank then desludge then clean for another 2 hrs (mainly bottom wash)then shift to a cargo of DO then Gas oil on the next voyage and then Kerso or Jet AI on the subsequent voyage. I am presuming the vessel is Double hull and fitted with SUS coils otherwise you will have more problems with cleaning etc.

Since you want to do something radical i.e skip subsequent voyages from dirty to clean, below pls find a suggested cleaning method which can be done after above steps i.e when the tank is ready to load D.O :

Per tank cleaning
2hrs hot water (HW)wash all Machines including 1 portable at tank dome with IG running ( you can do may be 2tanks at a time)
3hrs detergent wash 10% degreaser soln at 60dec cel+ 2 hrs steaming.(Slop to slop re-circulation) one tank at a time. If you have deep well pumps then you can do multiple tanks.
3hrs HW for rinsing the chemcials -transfer to empty tank.
15min Fresh water rinse+30min steaming to dry the tank quickly.
You will need to flush the chemicals through the lines and pumps and then rinse the lines and pumps as well.
50m3 JA1 recirculate through the tanks and piping after each tank is clean this will ensure that the actual cargo is not offspec. You will have to do this for all tanks after each has been cleaned then dispose this JA1 as slops , retain in seperate tank. Do not mix Chemical /degreaser slops with JA1.

The cost of this job are going to be fantastic?

You must try one tank and then refine the method for the next tanks in terms of time and resources.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Noordin Shah on July 22, 2009 at 10:00am: Hello Guys,

Interestingly you guys are a lot of help for one in need.
I read with great interest the complexity of the whole endeavour.
I do agree that the cost would play a significant part with reards to the feasibility of the whole endeavour.
Do keep us abreast if there are further developement.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by John Onslow on July 22, 2009 at 10:33am: Interesting stuff but I cannot condone steaming of tanks - those days have, or should have, long gone. There is a major safety issue and would go against ISGOTT advice and best industry practice.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Klaus Vrey on August 10, 2009 at 6:47am

Good morning Mr. Macht,

regarding your request for a tank cleaning alternative, we would like to inform you about our CYTOCLEAN - Process, which is the only possible way to cleanup tanks during vessels voyage without request of heavy equipment and without
disturbing daily work on board.

After tankcleaning, you will have no residues of hazardous waste. The water needed for tankcleaning does not content any oil and can be returned into its "regular circle". The oil can be re-used as source of what it is intended for.
The cleaned tanks are absolutly clean and gasfree.

The CYTOCLEAN - Process in this case covers all requirements for a successful cleaning:

- You save time, because the CYTOCLEAN - process is more efficient and effective than chemicals
- You save money, because save of time and sailing during cleaning, as well as no disposal costs should
save you time.
- You protect the environment directly, because CYTOCLEAN is a natural product and you do not produce
hazardous wate and limit CO²

The CYTOCLEAN - Process has been official nominated for the Lloyds Green Ship Technology Award 2009 and finalized at 2nd place.
For further informations, please contact our website www.global-concept.org or give me a direct reply under klaus.vrey@global-concept.org or call +49-(0)4401-70 40 90.

Looking forward to your reply

very best regards

Klaus Vrey

Attachments:

shipstank cleaning.pdf, 1.2 MB

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Permalink Reply by K.Pradeep on October 20, 2009 at 12:19am: Dear Sir,

A pleasant morning to you.

We are an established marine repair company in Malaysia and would like to expand
our activities within the marine repairs scope of work.

Your proposal looks interesting.Please advise if feasible to be carried out in South East asia
and cost impact.Most definetely the ship owner's plying the routes here cannot pay for the
cleaning rates as offered in Europe.We need to be comparable with the others.

Pleased to hear your comments/views.
Warm regards
K.Pradeep
Euro-Asia Engineering & Maritime Svcs Sdn.Bhd.; ▶ Reply to This