The Most Comprehensive Yet Simple

Guide of Static Electricity

Written by Capt Rajeev Jassal on September 16, 2016

Static electricity is kind of big deal on tankers. If you think it is just a

hypothetical term, you would be wrong.

Shipping history has witnessed many incidents related to static

electricity.
For example, a cargo tank of the vessel Fiona exploded when surveyor
was manually measuring the temperature of the cargo. In the NTSB
investigation, the reason for the explosion was found to be static
electricity.
There are many other such incidents.

So what exactly is static electricity and why this is so big deal ?

Let us discuss. But before we do that we need to refresh some basic

science.
Some basic science

To understand static electricity, we need to refresh some basic science.

Knowledge of the basic science would help when we talk about
relatively bigger terms.

But don’t worry, this will be just basic science and I won’t bore you
with high dose of science.

What are atoms ?

All the matters in this world are made of atoms. Atoms consists of
three things. Negatively charged electron, positively charged protons
and neutral neutrons.

An atom has equal number of protons and electrons and thus is

electrically neutral in nature. Neutrons and protons together makes the
nucleus of an atom and electrons are present in the outer shells of an
atom. Electrons are very very light (1:1800) as compared to the
proton and neutron.
An atom never looses its protons and neutron and so the composition
of its nucleus never changes.

But an atom may loose or gain electrons to or from other materials.

Since electrons are so light, these are easily released with small

amount of energy. Friction is the most common way in which electrons
are released from an atom.

What makes an object a conductor or insulator

I just said that electrons can be easily released from an atom. But this
isn’t the case with atoms of all the elements.

Some atoms have the tendency to release electrons easily while others
have tendency to accept electrons easily.

A conductor of electricity has loosely bound electrons in the outer

shell of its atom. These electrons are looking to escape from the atom.
So conductors have the affinity to release the electrons easily.
Non-conductors (Insulators) like plastic have tightly bound electron
which do not release easily. Insulators can however accept the
electrons.

Do you want to know why some materials have tendency to give up

their electrons and other to receive the electrons ? Then you should
know terms like electronic configuration of an atom and valency.
If you are interested in these terms you can read about that
in detail but for the time being let us stick to our topic.

So if we rub a conductor and inductor together, some of the electrons

would move from conductor to the inductor.

So let us summarise what I have said so far in these three points.

What is electricity
 Electricity is flow of charge. Electron is the carrier of the charge
because it carries a negative charge. If we can free an electron from
an atom and force it to move, we have created the electricity.

What is static electricity

When two dissimilar materials are rubbed together, one may give up
its electrons and other may receive these electrons.

The material that gives up electrons becomes positively charged. And

the one that receives electrons becomes negatively charged.

So what would happen when two objects, one positively and other
negatively charged come together ? The extra electrons from
negatively charged particle would move to the positively charged
material. This is because of nature of equilibrium. This flow of electrons
(charge) is called static electricity.
This is a form of electricity because as I said the electricity is flow of
charge.

Still not clear what static electricity is, watch this wonderful video.

Three stages of static electricity

Let us now simplify the process of generation of static electricity

 Charge separation

 Charge accumulation

 Electrostatic discharge
Charge separation
When two different materials come in contact, electron  may move
from one material to another.

This process is called charge separation and is the first step for static
electricity generation.

But for one material to give its electron and other to be able to receive
electron, one material need to be conductor while other need to be
insulator.
 On board tankers charge separation can happen because of

 Friction between the cargo and the pipeline during flow of cargo. In
this case the pipeline loose the electron and cargo gains the electron
and becomes negatively charged.

 Friction between the cargo and tank top because of splashing during
initial stage of loading. Again during splashing, the tank top gives
electrons and cargo gains the electrons.

 Steaming:  Steam is an insulator. When steam flows through the

steam pipe, it attains a negative charge (I hope by this time you would
know why ?)
 mixing of two immiscible liquids: When two immiscible liquids are
mixed together, charge separation can take place.
You will note that in all these situations of charge separation, one
material is a conductor and other is insulator.

Charge accumulation 
I said that charge separation requires one insulator and one conductor.
It isn’t that charge separation cannot take place in two conductors.

But in two conductors the separated charges recombine and neutralize

almost immediately.

When an insulator has attained a negative charge, it takes time for it

to release it because of the properties of the insulator. This time is
called the relaxation time.

If a material (or cargo) cannot retain a charge for longer period, it will
be of no concern to us. This is because, for spark generation there
need to be sufficient charge accumulated.
So Charge can only be accumulated on inductors. Any charge
accumulated on conductors is released at the first opportunity.

Electrostatic discharge
When two material with opposite charge come in contact, electrons
shift from one material to another.  This process is called electrostatic
discharge.

For this electrostatic discharge to take place, the two charges need to
have a minimum distance between them. If two charges are separated
by a large distance, these will not meet.
This distance depends upon how strongly the materials are charged. Or
in more technical words, how much the voltage difference between two
objects is. More the voltage difference, lesser distance is required for
electrostatic discharge.

Electrostatic discharge is one thing. Electrostatic discharge to produce

a spark is another thing.

For electrostatic discharge to produce a spark, there need to be certain

amount of voltage difference between two charges.
This again highlights the importance of presence of an inductor in this
process. Inductors are able to retain a charge and thus will be able to
create that voltage difference.

Sources of static electricity on board

While static electricity is present everywhere, it is of concern where

flammable vapours may be present. Tankers will have the flammable
vapours in the cargo tanks and so static electricity present a major
hazard on tankers.
Let us discuss what are the sources of static electricity on tankers.

i) Static accumulator cargoes

Now if I was clear on what I said so far, you would know two things.

First, that only insulators can accumulate the electric charge.

Second, there has to be charge build up for the spark to take place
during electrostatic discharge. Conductors cannot retain the charge
and hence will not be the main reason to produce spark.

Insulator has the tendency to hold the charge and are the reason for
the spark during electrostatic discharge.
Now the cargoes that are not good conductor of electricity would be
able to hold the charge for longer period of time. These cargoes
possess the hazard of static electricity.

These cargoes are called static accumulators.

ISGOTT has assigned a number to define static accumulator cargoes.

As per ISGOTT, these are the cargoes that have conductivity of less
than 50 picoSiemens/metre (pS/m).

ii) Free fall in the tank

 If a cargo or ballast is loaded from the top in such a way of free fall
into the tank, the cargo (or ballast) will splash. This produces a mist of
electrically charged droplets in the ullage space of the tank.

To avoid the explosion, ISGOTT does not allow loading on top for static
accumulator cargoes.

iii) Water Mist

Like free fall in the tank, water jet from the tank cleaning machines
during tank cleaning also generate mist of electrically charged
droplets.

iv) Inert gas

Inert gas can carry the electrically charged small particle with it. These
particles can be carried into the tank along with the inert gas in to the
tank.

v) Other sources
There can be number of other sources on board for static charges
generation. And it is not possible to check if static charge exists or not.
The best possible way is that whenever in doubt, assume static charge
exists.

Precaution against static electricity

Whatever the reason of static electricity generation is, the more

important thing is not to allow the explosion.

Even if the electrostatic discharge results in a spark generation, two

more things need to be present for the explosion to occur

 Flammable mixture which can be ignited

 air to support the combustion
 If the tanks are in inert condition, there are no specific precautions
required for static electricity. This is because there is no oxygen inside
the tank to support combustion.

Let us say tanks are not in inert condition and vessel is loading the
static accumulator cargo. The flammable mixture and oxygen would
be present inside the tank.

To avoid explosion due to static electricity, we need to take steps to

 minimise the charge separation and charge accumulation

 Avoid the electrostatic discharge

Let us see how we can achieve that

Minimising the charge separation and charge accumulation

I have already described how charge separation take place. By friction
between two dissimilar material or by mixing of two immiscible liquids
among many. If we understand the reason for static charge
generation, we would understand the steps required to minimise these.

Linear velocity restriction

When a static accumulator cargo flows through the pipeline, the
pipeline loose some of its electrons. The cargo gains these electrons
and becomes negatively charged.

This cargo when enters the empty tank, it splashes. This again
increases the static charge generation.

To avoid this static charge generation, we need to reduce the friction

between the cargo and the pipeline. Also we need to reduce the
splashing of the cargo in the tank. This can only be achieved by
reducing the rate of flow.

ISGOTT requires that for loading static accumulator cargoes, we must

restrict the linear velocity to
 1 m/s until the cargo is loaded to a level where there is no splashing
during loading. This is generally possible when filling pipes and all
other structures at the tank bottom has been submerged to twice the
filling pipe diameter.

 After all the splashing has stopped, linear velocity can be increased to
maximum 7 m/s.

Calculating the maximum loading rate as per these linear velocities is

not that difficult. Here is the calculation for loading rate through 10
inch pipe with linear velocity of 1 m/s.

The maximum loading rate for other size of pipeline diameter can be
calculated in similar way
When loading static accumulator cargoes, we must not increase the
loading rate as per these linear velocities.

Avoiding free fall of the cargo in the tank

Free fall of the cargo from top of the tank causes splashing and thus
static charge generation. So far as possible, we should not allow the
free fall of the cargo into the tank.

In case of static accumulator cargoes, it is a must to load only through

the bottom line unless the tanks are in inert condition.

Controlling the inert gas or air in the tank

The inert gas can carry some of the charged particles along with it.
Introducing the inert gas in a tank that is already inert is of no danger.

But inerting the tank that is not inert and has flammable vapours can
be dangerous because of static charge accumulation.
 In this case controlling the rate of inert gas entering in the tank will be
the best solution.

Bonding
Bonding of all equipments ensures that there is no charge separation.

Antistatic additives
Adding some chemicals can increase the conductivity of the cargo. If
these chemicals are added to the static accumulator cargoes, these
would no longer be static accumulators.
Irrespective of whether the antistatic additives are added or not, sip
staff should treat these cargoes as static accumulator.

Avoiding the electrostatic discharge

We have done our best to reduce the static charge generation in the
tank. But can we measure the charge in the tank ? No.

Even if we have minimised static charge generation in the tank, we can

never be sure that spark will not generate if we introduce a metal
object in the tank.

So taking the precautions for preventing electrostatic discharge is as

important as controlling the static charge generation.

If we have loaded a conductive cargo, the charge accumulated will

automatically be discharged through the tank sides. This is because

 Tank sides are earthed as these are directly in touch with the
seawater.

 Conductive Materials (and cargoes) have the tendency to discharge the

accumulated charge immediately.
 This means that even if the charge is accumulated while loading these
cargoes, it immediately gets discharged.

But this is not the case with cargoes that are poor conductor of
electricity (Static accumulator cargoes). It takes some time for these
cargoes to discharge the static charge accumulated.

Now what will happen if we

 introduce a non-conductor material in the tank

 introduce a conductor (Metal) in the tank

Non-conductor material will either be negatively charged same as the

cargo or will be neutral.

If the this material and the cargo have same polarity of charge, there
will not be any exchange of charge and thus no spark.

This is the reason that ISGOTT allows the tapes made of non-

conductors for static accumulator cargoes without waiting for
relaxation time.

Now if we introduce a metal in the tank, this metal will most likely be
positively charged or neutral.  When this metal is introduced in the
tank containing the static accumulator cargo, electrons will move from
the cargo surface to the metal.

This transfer of electrons can result in a spark. So to avoid this spark

we need to take few precautions

Allow 30 minutes of relaxation time

The charge accumulated on the cargo surface gets discharged through
the tank sides which are earthed through the sea water.

But this process take time in case of static accumulator cargoes.

Before introducing any metal object in the tank, we need to allow this
relaxation time. As per ISGOTT, we need to allow at least 30 minutes
of relaxation time after all the movement of cargo in the tank is
complete.

Only after 30 minutes of relaxation time, we can introduce any metal

tapes inside the tank.

If you have loaded a static accumulator cargoes, some vetting

inspectors would ask for the time sheet at load port to check if 30
minutes of relaxation time was allowed before start of ullaging.

This relaxation time is not required if the sounding pipe extends to full
height of the tank and is bonded at the bottom of the tank.

Conclusion
Static electricity is so real. Everyone have felt it at least once in their
lifetime. We have touch the door know to get a shock.

We have played a trick to pick piece of paper with a plastic scale. We

have seen it and we have felt it.

But after all this if we refuse to accept it as a risk on tankers, we are

fooling ourself. Static electricity is a real risk on tankers and all the
places where a spark can cause an explosion.

Knowledge of how static electricity is generated can help in taking

steps to mitigate the risk of explosion due to static electricity.