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Maersk Fluid Technology will be present at SMM, on stand number A5.210, with actual examples of the company’s Blending-on-Board (BoB) system and the associated XRF scrapedown oil analyser.
BoB was developed in 2008 by Maersk initially for the A.P Moeller group’s own ships, and over 200 installations in Maersk and other fleets have now logged millions of cylinder operation hours. The technology has proved reliable, and is now in its third generation, which is being made available commercially and is being shown at SMM for the first time under the ‘SEA-Mate’ brand name.
MFT will be exhibiting a new blender, the SEA-Mate B1000, which is specifically designed for medium-sized two stroke engines. The new unit, along with its larger sister, the SEA-Mate B3000, means that the SEA-Mate system can cover all engine sizes from 480mm to 980mm bore.
BoB has been used with both Wartsila/WinGD and MAN B&W engines, and both companies have issued letters of no objection to the use of BoB technology.
The system utilises the in-use system lubricant as base stock, and blends it with a high-alkalinity (which may be as high as 300BN) cylinder oil concentrate to produce a cylinder lubricant with the optimum base number (BN), anything from 40BN up to well above 100BN.
With current industry concerns about cold corrosion, and the need to adjust fuel sulphur levels to meet emissions limits, the importance of using cylinder oil of the correct alkalinity level has never been greater. Experience in some of the world’s largest fleets has proved that BoB is a simple, low-cost, flexible, reliable and environmentally-friendly method of achieving this.
Run at minimum recommended cylinder lubrication regardless of fuel sulphur content.
Sune Lilbaek, Head of Sales at Maersk Fluid Technology, explains, “The BoB system added to the existing lubrication system and after installation it will no longer be necessary to adjust cylinder oil feed rates is needed regardless of the sulphur content in the fuel oil. When switching from traditional lubrication oil to our future-proof blending system, experience with the current 200 installations has proved that it will be possible to achieve lubrication at or close to the lowest allowed consumption of lubricant as specified by the engine manufacturer. This results in the cylinder lubricant from the BoB system always matching the sulphur content in the fuel. It is no longer necessary to increase lubricant supply to counter corrosive wear or fouling – instead the concentration of BN and other additives are adjusted on-the-fly, creating a fit-for-purpose cylinder oil at same or better quality than a standard fixed-BN cylinder oil. Being able to match lubricant with the fuel in use translates to proven reductions of up to 50% in consumption. Once the system has been set up, on-board engineers will merely need to enter the sulphur content of the fuel in use and the system will automatically blend a cylinder oil matching the fuel sulphur – the process can be fully automated and does not require interaction from the operator.”
Best of all – BoB is easily retrofitted to existing vessels
Utilising the in-use system oil for blending is a clear-cut win for the engine
As the oil used for blending down the concentrate is taken from the in-use system oil, system oil is frequently replenished with new stock. This prevents the oil quality deterioration that otherwise takes place for any system oil. As a result, anti-wear and detergency properties are as for a new oil and on top of this, the system oil viscosity is maintained and waste system oil disposal and oil cleaning energy consumption is reduced by up to 80%.
Experience has shown that by maintaining the original viscosity of the system oil, friction losses are reduced and fuel consumption has proven to be cut by up to 1.5%. Cleaner system oil has, in addition, a positive impact on wear of components and maintenance of separators and filters. Taking into account the reduced fuel and lubricating oil consumption and lower waste oil disposal costs, payback times of less than two years can be expected.
Try the SEA-Mate onboard oil analyser at SMM – bring your own sample
The Sea-Mate XRF analyser, which will also be on display at SMM,, is an accurate lubricant analysis tool that can provide accurate and reproducible results within 7 minutes, rather than the average two-week delay in obtaining laboratory results. Although it is perfectly possible to utilise BoB without the analyser, including the XRF as part of the system facilitates fast and precise evaluation of every lubrication adjustment made. The XRF is the only system intended for onboard use, which gives a precise on-board measurement of both corrosive and abrasive iron in scrapedown oil, making it possible to identify if corrosive wear is taking place and take appropriate action without delay.
At SMM, visitors will have the opportunity to try out the XRF using their own oil samples, and to calculate savings that can be expected through using BoB.
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