Alfa Laval has extended its PureThinking range of separation products for the offshore shipping and marine sectors with a new system for treating bilge water.
PureBilge is a high-speed, disc-type centrifugal separator capable of reducing the oil content of bilge water to 5 ppm or less, in line with the highest prevailing standards, according to Pauli Kujala, business manager for bilge, marine, and diesel equipment.
The system incorporates Alfa Laval’s patented XLrator laminar flow inlet device, which gently accelerates the bilge water into the separator bowl with a minimum of shearing and foaming. This greatly improves separation efficiency by preventing the splitting of oil drops and the further formation of emulsions.
Products using centrifugal separation perform as well in a moving sea environment as in a static land setting, says Kujala. In contrast, systems based on settling out solids in a decanter are, by their nature, unsuited to operation in a ship subject to sea motions. This is not a barrier to such systems achieving IMO-type approval because testing takes place on land.
There are other drawbacks to static systems, he adds. Filters become saturated and have to be changed out and disposed of onshore, while chemicals create a waste that also needs to be sent to shore. In addition, these systems must stop at regular intervals to back-flush the equipment.
PureBilge, on the other hand, can be operated continuously. It is designed for only three maintenance stops a year – two intermediate services and one major service, none lasting for more than a few hours.
Other products in the PureThinking range include PureBallast, the only IMO-certified ballast water treatment system which does not use chemicals. Since it was launched in late 2006, more than 60 systems have been sold. PureBallast combines ultraviolet light treatment with a catalyst. This advanced oxidation technology, as Alfa Laval calls it, produces hydroxyl radicals which kill living organisms in the water.
Four PureBallast units were sold recently to German yard Volkswerft Stralsund for installation on anchor-handling tug supply vessels under construction for Maersk Supply Service. Alfa Laval also sold an ATEX-rated version of the product to a bitumen tanker owner in Sweden, and is developing a higher rated ATEX version which meets the requirements for product and crude tankers.
For more information, contact Pauli Kujala, Alfa Laval Tumba. Tel +46 530 657 96, fax: +46 8 530 345 55,[email protected], www.alfalaval.com
