Ensuring compliance of oil filtering equipment on ships


The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has outlined detailed guidelines for the installation and testing of oil filtering equipment oily water separators) on ships.


Oil filtering equipment installed on a ship on or after 1 January 2005 must be approved to meet Resolution MEPC.107(49) to comply with MARPOL Annex I Regulation 14.


The requirements include: • A truly representative sample of the effluent with adequate pressure and flow is supplied to the 15ppm bilge alarm. • Provision of fail-safe arrangements to avoid any discharge in case of malfunction of the 15ppm bilge alarm. • 15ppm bilge alarm is fitted with an electronic device that is pre-set to activate when the effluent exceeds 15ppm and operates automatically if at any time the 15ppm bilge alarm should fail to function.


• the response time of the 15ppm bilge alarm. This is the time that elapses between an alteration in the sample being supplied to the 15ppm bilge alarm and the ppm display showing the correct response. Response time should not exceed 5 seconds.


• The setup of the installation must minimise the time it takes for the system to respond when the discharge from the 15ppm bilge separator exceeds 15ppm. This includes the time it takes for the automatic stopping device to activate and prevent discharge into the water. This should take less than 20 seconds. It must not exceed that limit under any circumstances (as per section 6.2.1).


MEPC. 107(49) Installation arrangement


Figure 1 - Example of piping arrangements 112 | ISSUE 109 | SEP 2024 | THE REPORT


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