Draft ISO 8217:2016 Standard For Fuel Quality Will Reduce Quality Control Standards And Increase Risk For Shipowners
Earlier this year the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) released the draft ISO 8217:2016 fuel quality standard, requesting feedback from the industry ahead of a deciding vote between participating national standard bodies next month.
The proposed amends to paragraphs five and six in particular have the potential to significantly impact bunker quality and increase the likelihood of impaired propulsion resulting from contaminants such as cat fines in the fuel. Additionally, this will further increase the time and resource required to carry out effective fuel management processes to prevent damage.
Read the Mfame article, The Evolution of ISO 8217 Standard From 2005 to 2016 Draft, for complete information.
Parker Kittiwake, a leading global manufacturer of condition monitoring technologies has raised concerns over the upcoming amendments to the ISO 8217 quality standard for marine fuels.
Highlights of the company’s views on the amendment:
- The amendment might have a considerable influence on the quality of the fuel and performance of the vessel.
- The new standard will result in a higher tolerance level for the concentration of harmful and abrasive particles such as cat fines, leading to a significantly higher likelihood of failures and breakdowns.
- The new draft lends further protection to the bunker supplier from claims regarding the quality of the fuel supplied.
- In effect the ship owners and operators are opened up to more risk.
What would be the possible impact of this new draft?
Larry Rumbol, Marine Condition Monitoring Market Development Manager, Parker Kittiwake said: “We would caution that some of the proposed amends to the ISO 8217 fuel quality standard would be unfavourable to ship owners and operators, most significantly as they would offer far less protection to the fuel buyer against damage caused by lower quality fuel oil.
For example, as recently stated by leading expert Dr Ram Vis, the new draft would allow the fuel supplier to deliver a bunker that couldn’t be considered out of specification unless it exceeded the specified cat fines limit value by more than the 95% confidence level. This would prove perilous for vital components such as cylinder liners as it would permit the concentration level to rise from the current maximum of 60ppm to 72ppm, despite explicit recommendations from OEMs such as MAN and Wärtsilä that only fuel with a concentration of no more than 15 ppm should be used.”
As more distillates are being taken from crude oil during the refinery process, a higher concentration of cat fines is being carried over into the fuel. When they are not reduced or removed by suitable treatment, their abrasiveness will damage the engine – particularly fuel pumps, injectors, piston rings and cylinder liners – leading to costly repairs, unplanned downtime and possible consequential damage, both mechanical and commercial.
Rumbol concluded: “Damage caused by the ingress of cat fines can incur significant expense, with the cost of replacing a single liner estimated at $65,000 for parts alone. This can rapidly escalate to more than $1million when the parts, labour and the accompanying expenses of downtime, repair and off hire are also considered, as well as the likely event that multiple cylinders are affected. Cat fines are already presenting a significant headache for shipowners and operators, and the proposed changes to ISO 8217 will only amplify this. Only last month a well known container operator incurred major engine damage from cat fines, having recently loaded bunkers in Rotterdam.”
Other Expert Opinions on the Draft:
Many experts have expressed their concerns about safety of the ship, adverse effects on machinery performance, anguish of personnel, increase in air pollution…
Continue to read here : Marine Bunker Fuels – Quality Concerns And ISO 8217 – Are We Moving Ahead?
Source: Oil Marketing
