Chapter A 09

Fuel storage and transfer

For information on fuel, it’s origin, and the grades normally used on a ship, see
chapter A 04 about purifiers.

Marine fuels contain a number of substances. Some of these are impurities, which can
give problems. They also have various properties such as density, flash point pour
point etc. Details of these properties and impurities are contained in a great number of
specifications (one for each grade of fuel) in “International standards Organization –
Standard 8217” (ISO 8217). An example of one of these is shown below. Fuel
supplied to a ship should conform to ISO 8217. Normally if it does not, the ship can
refuse to accept it.

There is a worldwide maximum permitted sulphur (S) content of 4,5%. This is for air
pollution reasons. Some areas have lower permitted values for example 1,5% in the
“Sulphur Controls Areas” of the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the English Channel.
So that this can be controlled and checked, fuel receipts with a fuel specification must
be kept on the ship for 5 years. Fuel samples must be kept on the ship for one year.

Density and measurement of fuel quantities

The weight, at sea level, of a given mass of fuel does not alter significantly. The
volume of a given mass of fuel alters with its temperature. Fuel for ships is therefore
calculated and sold by weight, usually in metric tons. It can be easier to measure the
volume of fuel in a tank that its weight. Different batches of fuel may have different
densities. The density at 15°C is always given. While it is possible to calculate weight
from volume from first principles tables are usually used to get temperature correction
factors.

If a very large quantity of fuel is involved the weight in vacuo may be used.

Example

Minimum flash point

If a small quantity of fuel is put in a closed container so that only part contains fuel
and the rest contains air. If the fuel is slowly heated while measuring its temperature
and there is a source of ignition above the fuel, then at a certain temperature the
vapour generated above the fuel will ignite with a small flash. It will not continue
burning. The temperature at which that happens is called the flash point. (More
accurately the closed flash point.)

In the past there have been problems of oil tanks exploding. For an explosion to
occur there has to be an explosive mixture and a source of ignition. The source of
ignition could be anything at a high temperature. Examples of this could be an
electrostatic spark or non explosion proof electric lights. An explosive mixture could
be air and any combustible gas, liquid or solid. The liquid would have to be in the
form of a mist and the solid in the form of a fine dust. All of these have upper and
lower explosive limits. These are different for each substance.

Attempts to prevent sources of ignition were not totally successful therefore it is now
a requirement that any tank on a ship containing liquid with a flash point below 60°C
must have inert gas, filling the space above the liquid. This requirement is normally
applies to various cargos on tankers. All normal fuels should therefore have flash
points above 60°C.

Pour point
This is the temperature below which the fuel is too viscose to pour when a standard
test method is used. This is related to, but not the same as the temperature at which it
is practical to pump the fuel out of the tank. The pumping temperature is not an exact
figure but generally the fuel viscosity should be below 1000 centistokes. This means
for IFO 380 the pumping temperature would be about 40°C.

Measuring the volume of oil in a tank

As the geometry of each tank is known tables are made, when the ship is first built,
relating depths of oil in the tanks to volumes. These are called sounding tables. All
methods of measuring volumes of oil in tanks are based on the sounding tables and
involve measuring depth of oil.

The simplest way of measuring the depth of oil in a tank is with a sounding tape. This
is a steel graduated tape wound as below with a weight on the end.

This can be lowered down a pipe to the bottom of the tank and simply measure the
depth of fuel. This is called sounding the tank. If the oil is very viscose this can be
problematic. In this case it is possible to locate the surface of the oil with the sounding
tape and measure how far below the top of the tank the surface of the oil is. This is
called taking an ullage.

Corrections to soundings
The ship does not stay continuously in one exactly horizontal plane. It can have a trim
or a list. Trim is normally quoted as the difference between the draught forward and
the draught aft and is said to be by the head or by the stern. The effect on the sounding
measured on a ship trimmed by the head is shown below:
A ship is said to have a list when it is leaning to port or to starboard. This is most
usually measured in degrees.

Corrections for trim and list are normally given in the sounding tables. Typically fuel
tanks have sounding pipes fitted at the aft end at mid width. In this case obviously
only trim corrections are needed.

It is not possible to pump a double bottom tank out completely. This is because the
suction pipe can’t go completely to the bottom of the tank and still suck oil. There are
always a few centimeters left when the pump looses suction.

Trim also changes how much oil you can get out of a tank.

In calculating how much fuel a ship requires for a certain voyage it is important to
allow for fuel you can’t get out (unpumpable).

It can also be a good idea to try to get the last of the fuel out at times when the ship
has a good trim by the stern.

When a ship moves at full speed the trim tends to alter. If and by how much it does
this depends on the speed of the ship and the shape of the ship (mostly the shape of
the bow). A ship with a bulbous bow tends to trim more by the head.
 Example

Typical fuel transfer system

The above is a sketch of a typical, fairly simple, fuel transfer system. Looking at it we
can see that excluding the service tank (SERV):
 a) Every tank can be filled from the deck during bunker operations but the right
valves have to be open.
b) It is possible to transfer oil with the transfer pump to the settling tank (SETT)
from any tank.
c) Excluding the settling tank it is possible to pump oil from any tank to any
other tank.

Note:
a) Every tank above the level of the double bottom tank top and situated in the
engine room must have remote operated quick closing valve(s) on any outlet
connections. This is to enable fuel to be shut off quickly in case of fire. The
controls for these valves will be outside the engine room and often at a fire
control station.
b) Every tank has to have at least one air pipe. If it did not, it would not be
possible to pump oil in or out. These are pipes go to the open air above the
freeboard deck.
c) All IFO tanks have to have a means of heating.
d) Settling and service tanks have to have a means of draining any water from the
bottom of the tank. This should be regularly checked.
e) Every tank must have a means of measuring its contents
f) Usually settling tanks have a high and a low level alarm.
g) Usually service tanks have a low level alarm and are designed with an
overflow back to the settling tank.

In most modern ships the transfer pump stops automatically when the level in the
settling tank reaches a level a bit below the high level alarm level. Often transfer
pumps can be set to start automatically when the settling tank level is a bit above the
low level alarm. There are dangers involved in using such a system so it tends not to
be used much. The dangers are:
1) The transfer pump may loose suction as a storage tank becomes empty.
The pump would tend to run dry. Damage to the pump would probably
result.
2) If there is a leak or a malfunction or wrong set up of the system a lot of
fuel could end up in the wrong place.

One way, to minimize these problems, is to fit an alarm, which detects excessive
pump running time when in automatic mode.

Modern remote tank content readouts mostly work one accurate pressure
measurements at the bottom of tanks. These are generally good but alter with the
density of the liquid in the tanks so do not always give exact volumes. They are
however usually accurate in measuring content in weight.

Usually the settling tank and the service tank each contain enough fuel for the ships
use for a bit more than a day at full power.

Fuel is purified from the settling tank to the service tank.

There is usually a diesel or gas oil system also fitted. This is similar to the system
described, but heating is not required.