Dr Ng: CV snapshot
the engine, the water droplets explode and break fuel particles into a finer spray. “By adding water, a fine fuel mist is created so combustion efficiency is improved. This achieves better specific fuel consumption of marine diesel engines and leads to fuel savings,” Dr Ng explained.
He explained why such a system should catch the attention of passenger ship operators, pointing out the current cost of fuel is around US$635 per tonne, which makes up 50-70 per cent of the total operating costs of the ship. “Taking this large figure into consideration, the fuel saving figure of 2-5 per cent is substantial,” he said. Its cost depends on the size of the engine, but varies between US$100,000 and US$500,000. He said the key to the whole system
is BOS’ emulsifier. Its Dynamic Mixing Emulsifier was developed especially for producing optimal water-in-fuel emulsions for achieving best fuel savings. It is based on BOS’ extensive research, which concluded that the best conditions were water-in-fuel particle sizes of 2-6 microns and water content of 10 per cent.
The challenge is to produce the
correct emulsion conditions consistently – something that Dr Ng said had been achieved. A critical factor is that the emulsifier has no moving mechanical part. “Our emulsifier is unique – you don’t see it anywhere else,” Dr Ng emphasised. “This is a huge advantage compared to conventional devices, as with moving parts a vast amount of wear and tear happens. The process of emulsifying is very delicate and wear and tear can affect this procedure.” In addition, he pointed out, the model can be customised to meet the fuel consumption of any ship and produces emulsified fuel on demand, meaning that no emulsified fuel needs to be stored.
Having only recently been launched, the emulsifying system has been undergoing trials. Its first foray into the cruise shipping market happened in late 2011 when BOS fitted its system to one engine on a cruise ship; the company is not yet able to name the shipowner. Having been installed on the cruise ship, which is powered by a medium speed engine using heavy fuel oil (HFO) and marine diesel oil, final reports are being created following review by a class society. The signs are positive, Dr Ng said: The condition of the engine was surveyed by Wärtsilä, which found no adverse effects,
www.passengership.info
The founder and CEO of Blue Ocean Solutions, Dr Jerry Ng, is one of the industry’s leading experts on emulsified fuel technology. He graduated with a marine engineering degree from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and then worked on the applications of emulsified fuel to marine diesel engines as a research assistant in the 1980s while working on his doctorate degree. He continued his research work in emulsified fuel system at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore with the support of the National Science Council and Neptune Orient Lines. Currently, Dr Ng has two patents, with several pending, on emulsified fuel technology.
and BOS guaranteed the company a 3 per cent fuel saving on average, which he said had been exceeded. BOS is hopeful that the cruise line will want the system fitted to the remaining two engines within the ship with the option of a roll-out across the fleet. A secondary benefit claimed for emulsified fuel technology is that it allows fuel to become more environmentally friendly. The cooling effects of the water reduce NOx pollutants, Dr Ng reported, citing 10 per cent reduction of NOx for 10 per cent of water. More water can be added to reduce this pollutant, he said, but this came at the cost of fuel savings: “If you add more water, fuel savings will not be as great as the optimum condition is 10 per cent addition of water to the fuel.” A great draw to cruise operators
interested in applying the emulsifier is that it can be fitted to both newbuild and retrofitted to vessels quickly and simply and the ship does not need to be drydocked. Dr Ng explained that while the ship is at port BOS can install three change-over valves and a prefabricated modular system, finishing off the fitting while the ship is at sea. Installation would take three-four weeks if the ship was sailing, or less than a week in drydock. He added that maintenance of the system was easy, since the lack of moving parts drastically cuts wear and tear. The only moving part of the system was the HP pump, which does need routine maintenance around twice a year, he said. BOS is also keeping up to speed
with the growing demand for low sulphur oils by the shipping industry due to increased regulation. The use of its system with marine gas oil (MGO) was tested by Wärtsilä and BOS said good results were gained. It is suitable for a range of fuel oils: heavy fuel oil, intermediate fuel oil, marine diesel oil and MGO.
The outlook is good for such technology but there is one obstacle for both BOS and the passenger shipping industry when it comes to deploying EFT – there are claims from a wide variety of manufacturers that their particular systems save fuel, but no overall standard to test this, Dr Ng said. “Everyone is claiming that their devices can claim up to five per cent in fuel savings, but the question is how do you prove it? Shipowners are not sure and they want to clearly see how savings are verified.” Nonetheless, he said that BOS could guarantee its savings as it has its own methodology to prove it. But Dr Ng said the company was hampered as there was no overall industry fuel saving standard and he said he would lobby IMO for a standard performance guarantee. “It’s a step-by-step process; we need to be very patient,” he said. No doubt other cruise ship operators will be interested to hear the results of the cruise EFT trial when they are made public and many may consider adopting the technology themselves. And if a standard fuel saving methodology was adopted by the industry, no doubt their interest in emulsified fuel systems would be even stronger. PST
“By adding water, a fine fuel mist is created so combustion efficiency is improved. This achieves better specific fuel consumption of marine diesel engines and leads to fuel savings” Dr Ng, Blue Ocean Solutions CEO
Passenger Ship Technology I 2nd Quarter 2013 I 41
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