Smoke monitoring can save heavy fines
A Vigilant funnel smoke monitoring system control panel with transmitter and receiver
Marine monitoring specialist Martek Marine says that its smoke monitoring system will help protect shipowners against the rather subjective systems of ‘smoke spotting’ which can result in heavy fines.
Stringent rules against ships exhausting black smoke within sight of shore – notably in regions such as Alaska and Hawaii, where cruise ships and tankers are particularly vulnerable – are backed up by ‘spotters’ employed by authorities to report any infringements. Penalties extend from warnings and fines to future banishment of guilty tonnage from the area.
Martek Marine says that its Vigilant calibrated funnel smoke monitoring system offers a valuable source of scientific evidence against any such erroneous allegations.
The company estimates that less than 1% of new tonnage has funnel smoke monitoring installations covering the main and auxiliary engines, although this percentage is expected to rise steadily. A funnel smoke monitoring system measures the density of smoke using opacity monitoring techniques based on a transmitter and receiver installed on either side of the funnel. The thicker and darker the smoke, the less light received by the transmitter. The readings are graded by the software for density of smoke measured in terms of the Ringelmann Scale.
Readings can be stored by the system for defence in the event of accusations made by authorities that the ship was exhausting black smoke in contravention of local or international regulations. The values are displayed on a liquid crystal display, and historical data can be recalled and viewed via the menu system.
The Vigilant system can also receive signals from oxygen analysers installed in the boiler exhausts to monitor for higher than expected levels of oxygen, which indicate that combustion in the boiler is not as efficient as it should be.
Martek believes that its funnel smoke monitoring may be seen by some shipowners as an interim precautionary step that can be expanded later into the MariNOx full emissions monitoring system.
Images for this article - click to enlarge
Unless otherwise stated, all images copyright © Mercator Media 2012. This does not exclude the owner's assertion of copyright over the material.
