YUP, he kept a clean ship, not sure why it ran till they recently auctioned it off…(Kaimimoana)… I remember how underway he would match the generator output/hz gauges and etc. so they all would match. I think he figured he would impress the capt. on his rare trips thru the eng. rm. How the hell he ever got a license is way beyond me.
Updated - - -
He’d also pop all the valve labels off. (and other things) they were brass tags safety wired to the wheel on valves, he’d throw them overboard. I believe this was so no one could figure out how to run the ship and they would not fire him.
[QUOTE=Saltine;148365]I recently had a Port Engineer installing an OWS and he caught me off guard with a statement he made. The crew was complaining about the suction pickup not being low enough in the bilge to be able to use the OWS regularly. The Port Engineer said an OWS is not designed to handle water coming thru it on a regular basis. So the crew is having to use a diaphragm pump to suck the oily water from the bilge, transfer it to dirty oil tank and then he wants them to circulate the dirty oil so the water can be discharged. I don’t recall ever seeing an OWS that wasn’t setup or designed to mainly process bilge water and dispose accordingly.
Has anyone heard of anything remotely close to this?[/QUOTE]
There must be a misunderstanding.
Yes - it is okay to process bilge water in an OWS — and the more often you do it the better it will work.
Or in order to collect oils for an incinerator or shore discharge, strip the bilges to a slop tank, decant out the water and then process that water.
But an OWS is not designed to process the contents of a dirty oil tank (engine oil changes)
If you process oil through an oily WATER separator, well, I imagine it will cause some long nights cleaning it out, or result in the fitting of a magic pipe because the OWS is trashed.
[QUOTE=Saltine;148365]I recently had a Port Engineer installing an OWS and he caught me off guard with a statement he made. The crew was complaining about the suction pickup not being low enough in the bilge to be able to use the OWS regularly. The Port Engineer said an OWS is not designed to handle water coming thru it on a regular basis. So the crew is having to use a diaphragm pump to suck the oily water from the bilge, transfer it to dirty oil tank and then he wants them to circulate the dirty oil so the water can be discharged. I don’t recall ever seeing an OWS that wasn’t setup or designed to mainly process bilge water and dispose accordingly.
Has anyone heard of anything remotely close to this?[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=jimrr;148426]YUP, he kept a clean ship, not sure why it ran till they recently auctioned it off…(Kaimimoana)… I remember how underway he would match the generator output/hz gauges and etc. so they all would match. I think he figured he would impress the capt. on his rare trips thru the eng. rm. How the hell he ever got a license is way beyond me.
Updated - - -
He’d also pop all the valve labels off. (and other things) they were brass tags safety wired to the wheel on valves, he’d throw them overboard. I believe this was so no one could figure out how to run the ship and they would not fire him.[/QUOTE]
I know that guy…he told me he was retiring. but I thought you were talking about someone else.
I was thinking about the GU…he washes down bilges daily too Washes down the motor room w/pressure washer. Ever work on that one?
[QUOTE=+A465B;148428]There must be a misunderstanding.
Yes - it is okay to process bilge water in an OWS — and the more often you do it the better it will work.
Or in order to collect oils for an incinerator or shore discharge, strip the bilges to a slop tank, decant out the water and then process that water.
But an OWS is not designed to process the contents of a dirty oil tank (engine oil changes)
If you process oil through an oily WATER separator, well, I imagine it will cause some long nights cleaning it out, or result in the fitting of a magic pipe because the OWS is trashed.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for the response. The Port Engineer and I had a discussion again about this same topic. I keep telling him that what’s the point of having an OWS onboard if it is never allowed to
suck bilge water and process. He keeps insisting that it’s not designed for that. One of these days I will convince him to change his mind.
[QUOTE=Saltine;148481]Thanks for the response. The Port Engineer and I had a discussion again about this same topic. I keep telling him that what’s the point of having an OWS onboard if it is never allowed to
suck bilge water and process. He keeps insisting that it’s not designed for that. One of these days I will convince him to change his mind.[/QUOTE]
Okay.
Then I will say what I thought at first, but tried to be diplomatic about it.
The Port Engineer is a moron. I hope he is not occupying a position that could be filled by a qualified person.
[QUOTE=Saltine;148481]Thanks for the response. The Port Engineer and I had a discussion again about this same topic. I keep telling him that what’s the point of having an OWS onboard if it is never allowed to
suck bilge water and process. He keeps insisting that it’s not designed for that. One of these days I will convince him to change his mind.[/QUOTE]
Some models require all air purged from the canisters in the system. Stripping with the OWS can vapor lock the system. It’s more efficient to
pump the bilge to the oily bilge tank, NOT the dirty oil tank. After the bilge water decants in the OBT, it’s pumped off through the OWS. Water less than 15ppm over the side and the oil to the DO tank.
I think processing oil from a tall narrow tank ( eliminates mixing of oil and water by sloshing effect) is a good idea. A suction a foot off the bilge is stupid. All oil detection probes work by a simple process that oil doesn’t conduct electricity and salt water does. If you fill the separation chamber with air the stupid machine thinks it is oil and backflushes the air to the oil holding tank.
I once installed a Bunn-o-matic coffee maker on a ship which made very pure distilled water. After a brew cycle it would refill the hot water tank until a 24 volt probe shorted out (water conducted the electricity between 24v DC probe). The water conducted the electricity fine until we used up the shore filled water (from Oregon) and replaced it with pure distilled water. It filled up and kept filling because the water did not conduct electricity. We added a small amount of table salt to the tank every few days so the coffee maker worked ok. Had a dishwasher on another ship which had the same exact problem on the fill cycle. a pinch of salt in every wash cycle.
no, never worked aboard. I did walk aboard to scare the daylights out of him but it was siesta time so I missed him. I’d not seen him for 5? yrs. at this time and now prob never will. I guess he was at heart basically ok but just not good as a super.
I tend to think the quality of the OCM is generally one of the biggest obstacles to processing bilge water. We recently got a brand new OCM when our old one failed, and have had zero issues with the OWS since, even on a unit that is probably older than I am. There are usually ratings for the amount of solids that the OCM can handle without a false reading.
Maybe a Glacier Filter like those that are often found on the MEs could possibly help you remove some of the solids before it ever got to the OWS if you recirced it on the bilge holding tank with a little centrifugal pump, though you’d probably need to be careful of how fast you got it spinning with mostly water going through it, and would probably need a mesh strainer to stop from clogging the jets with big particles… hmm…