One of the main sources of operational pollution of maritime environment by ships is propulsion machinery and all ships are concerned, as all of them use fuel 

oil for propulsion. In the past this was hidden by the operational pollution from tankers especially large tankers using cargo tanks alternatively for cargo and for 

ballast, in order to sail in safety conditions for hull stresses and keeping propeller correctly immersed. 

 These procedures are discontinued as most of the vessels concerned have been sent to scrap since the beginning of years 2000 or even converted into 

floating storage for offshore oilfields. 

ENGINES COMPARTMENT: THE PROPULSION ENGINE.

 This type of economic engine replaced the turbines installations of our old oil tankers from the Seventies, less demanding on quality of fuel simply burned to 

provide vapor, but consuming 120t per day in same conditions. 

THE FUEL.

 To be used, fuel delivered on board must be in conformity with the engine builder's specifications, of type 380 centistoke and grade RMG35 as specified in the 

report hereafter. 

 Sampling operations are conducted throughout bunkering and one average sample is sent to laboratory +for analysis in order to know injection parameters. 

Here is a concrete example of analysis report :

To be noted: 0,2% of water, density 0,963, metals, sulfur,... and the temperature of injection to the engine 131° C. 

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Oily waste management onboard of vessels

September 2006 update 

(page optimized for a full screen display, with control accessible by the main menu) 

 

Our colleague, captain LE CALVEZ, gave a lecture to air spotters cadets on training course with CEDRE, in order to explain them the origin of the 

oily effluents onboard ships, the means and rules of processing and storage of these products. 

This lecture was also given during the seminar on maritime pollution fighting by ships (AGIS), organized in Brest by the Gendarmerie Maritime for 

European lawyers, police officers, customs officers, and gendarmes. 

 The fuel used in vessels propulsion engines is a product from end of 

distillation of crude oil, directly unusable. This fuel requires purification by 

centrifugation, in order to eliminate water and abrasive particles of heavy metals 

(vanadium, nickel) sediments and others. This operation has to be carried out by 

the vessel and generates approximately 1% of residues which have to be either 

unloaded periodically, or incinerated progressively, but in no case dumped 

overboard. The logical alternative to make the poor sailor's life easier would be 

to carry out this operation industrially ashore, at refining exit, but unfortunately, 

this residue generated has a commercial value in some countries of southSaharan Africa and in China. It concerns very little our developed countries, 

which prefer to delegate to the vessels the management of these undesirable 

goods. 

Some figures to give an idea of the vessels consumption : 

 Here is the B&W engine, 7 cylinders in line, of a 300.000 tons oil tanker , on 

the construction and test bench in a Japan shipyard, with the following 

characteristics : 

 Nominal power: 30.000 HP at 82 rpm. 

 Dimensions: breadth 9.50 m, length 14 m, height 17 m, weight 996 T 

 Lubrication oil load : 30m3.

The operation average consumption is 90 to 100 tons per day at 76 rpm that is 

to say about at 25.000 Hp and includes the generator sets consumption. 

Type of ship Power 

engine Speed Daily consumption

Generated 

waste 

 Cargo liner 20.000 T 7.500 HP 12 kts 20 tons/day 0,25 m3/day

 Gas 35.000 m3 10.000 HP 17 kts 35 tons/day 0,4 m3/day

 Tanker 300.000 T 30.000 HP 15 kts 95 tons/day 1 m3/day

 Large container ship 50.000 HP 25 kts 180 tons/day 2m3/day

 Fuel Sample Nom du navire 

 VLC Log No. F040850119 

 Date 08/02/04 

 Bunk. Port and Date SINGAPORE - 07/25/04 

 Place and Date Sent SINGA - 07/29/04 

 Supplier SINGAPORE PETROLEUM 

 Date Received at VLC 08/02/04 

 Sample Type per Customer IFO 380 

 Grade RMG35 

SPECIFIED PARAMETERS FOR RMG35

 Density @ 15 deg C 963,2 kg/m3 (991,0 Max) 

 API Grade 15,32 ( 11,20 Min) 

 Viscosity @ 50 deg C 298,50 cSt (380,00 Max) 

 Viscosity @ 100 deg C 30,9 cSt ( 35,0 Max) 

 Upper Pour Point 19 deg C ( 30 Max) 

 Carbon Residue 8.89 % wt. (18,00 Max) 

 Ash 0,013 % wt. ( 0,150 Max) 

 Water 0,20 % vol. ( 1,00 Max) 

ADDITIONAL PARAMETERS 

 Si 2 ppm 

 Al < 1 ppm 

 Na 15 ppm 

 Ca 11 ppm 

 Fe 2 ppm 

 Pb < 1 ppm 

 Ni 6 ppm 

 P < 1 ppm 

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GRADE CONFORMANCE

The fuel sample tested conforms to grade RMG35. 

Temperature for injection viscosity 10 is 143° C. 

Temperature for injection viscosity 15 is 125° C. 

POUR POINT

Observation: 

Heat and store this fuel at 10°C above the measured pour point temperature. 

PERCENTAGE WATER

Observation: Presence of water noted. 

Ensure water removal through settling and purification. 

SULFUR

Observation: This fuel has high sulfur. 

High Sulfur can cause low temperature corrosion in combustion gas passages. 

Avoid temperature below dew point. 

Achieve this by maintaining higher temperatures and preventing moisture accumulation in scavenge spaces by keeping drains open. Avoid running engine at low 

speed for prolonged time. 

OVERALL QUALITY:

Engine Friendliness Number (EFN) is a unique bench-mark of fuel quality evaluated by VISWA LAB from the point of view of engine wear and tear resulting from 

the use of this fuel. Based on EFN, which is calculated from the analysis results listed in this report, the quality of this fuel is good. 

NOTE:

The conformance of this fuel to the contracted specifications may have no relationship to the evaluation of this fuel based on EFN. 

PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION.

Simplified schema of the principle of operation of a marine engine. 

Internal combustion 2 strokes engine : 

 The fuel injection is carried out at each passage of the piston at the upper part, and the gas renewal is done with air overfed at the passage at low position, with 

 Tamper Proof 0216963 : Sealed 

 Customer furnished data: Density 963,5 kg/m3

 Quantity 3000 M. Tons 

 Sulfur 3,57 % wt. ( 5,00 Max) 

 Sediment 0,01 % wt. ( 0,10 Max) 

 vanadium 27 wt. ppm ( 300 Max) 

 Al + Si 3 ppm ( 80 Max) 

 Flash Point > 65 deg C ( 60 Min) 

 Zn < 1 ppm 

 CCAI 827 

 Calorific value 40,43 MJ/kg 

 Minimum Transfer 

 Temperature 39 deg C 

 Injection Temperature 

 (For 13 cSt Viscosity) 131 deg C 

 Engine Friendliness N°

 (EFN: 1-100) 70 

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the exhaust valve opening at this moment. The smoke produced by the engine get away towards the exhaust gas economiser and the funnel through the turbo 

charger turbine, which compressor stage supplies with air the combustion chamber after passage through the air cooler. The fuel is settled in the bunker tanks, is 

centrifuged, and stored in a buffer tank, before being heated for injection into the engine at approximately 130°C. 

FUEL RESIDUES.

 Between 0.8 and 1.5% of residues are generated by centrifugation of fuel, that is to say about 1 ton per day (for our example).

 lubricating between lining and piston is done by a continuous lost injection of about 800 liters of cylinder oil per day. The cylinder oil drainage, 

cumulated with ashes and soot in the lower chambers of the pistons, (vaults), the filtering and centrifugation of movement oil generate about hundred litres of oily 

residues per day. 

 All these residues, after transit through small intermediate capacities, are stored in a sludge tank 85m3 capacity (for our example). This volume is 

calculated before construction according to the type of voyage that is to say 2,5 months. 

 This low part of piston (named vaults and scavenging manifold) requires a monthly cleaning during an interruption period. This operation generates from 200 

to 300 litres of solid oily waste. 

SLUDGE PROCESSING.

 For the elimination of this liquid sludge from the sludge tank several possibilities exist. It shall be noted that there should be no piping for direct dumping to the 

sea. 

The discharge in port of call, but more, it is necessary to find facilities or a barge able to receive this sludge, for a financial contribution of course. 

The onboard incineration. 

The transfer to the cargo slop tank (residues tank) is an option applicable only to tankers, but however with commercial constraints, and thus not always 

possible. 

Incineration of the engine oily sludge.

 A slow operation, which requires in our example the care of an engineer every day : 

to burn 1m3 in 12 hours at a rate of 80 liters per hour, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. 

for daily transfer to the incinerator tank of 1m3 at the end of the day. 

for the warming up during the night, in order to facilitate the combustion of the product and the decantation of water towards the bilge waters storage tank in 

the morning. 

 The incineration is time consuming even when the device works properly, it matches with difficulty the residue production, especially when the bunkers quality 

is poor or difficult to treat. The solution is sometimes a compromise between incinerating as much as possible, and discharging this sludge in some ports able to 

take delivery by barge, as in Rotterdam, Gibraltar, Singapore, in China or in Fujairah (Arab Emirates) with the flow rate of the small transfer pump (7 to 10 m3 per 

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hour) after reheating at 80° C, or alongside as in the ports of North Sea, with the example of Mongstad in Norway, where the discharge of sludge is free. But the

problem is to pump out the residues at 150 meters from the engine room exit, in the middle of the ship, by the cargo piping, before beginning the commercial 

operations. 

 Some oil tankers companies currently have all-in contracts for sludge removal in Fujairah, a small bunkering port located at the entrance of the Arab Gulf, 

provided that the operation is carried out quickly. This requires the transfer of the sludge the previous day at 8 m3 per hour, after reheating, towards cargo 

capacities, then the use of the reciprocating stripping pump at 200 m3 per hour to pump towards the barge during a little half an hour. The cost of the operation is 

the mobilization time of the reception barge, because for everybody, time is money. 

Solid oily waste

 Two solutions to process the oily solid waste production from the vaults and the engine scavenging manifold: The periodic discharge in 200 litres drums, which 

is a good drill for administrative correspondence and paperwork, or the incineration, a more economic operation but rather difficult, dangerous, and not very clean. 

Management of oily water from engine room bildge :

Note: the domestic waste water is not considered, being matter of a statutory specific processing. 

 Since the end of era of wooden vessels, despite the mechanical seals of the pumps and other propeller shafts watertight systems of our beautiful steel ships, 

we always pump engine bilge water, stored in a capacity located, like the sludge tank in the double bottom of the engine room compartment, which contains, in 

theory, contrary to its neighbor, a lot of water with a little oil on the surface. 

 On board a vessel in good condition, this daily water production comes mainly from condensation of atmosphere humidity from the air-conditioning plants, 

and especially from the air cooler of the main engine and of diesel generator sets, where the atmospheric air is compressed in the turbo-chargers, then cooled 

down by the passage in the air cooler. According to the hygrometry of the geographical zone, this production is about 20 to 30m3 per day in our example. Note: 

Being able to contain some compressors lubricant, the condensations dumping of air-conditioning in the bildge tank is mandatory. 

 If this production of limpid fresh condensation water does not create any difficulty for pumping to sea through the statutory oily water separator at 15 cm3 per m3

(15 ppm) , the following occasional maintenance operations will complicate this task. 

The monthly periodic washing of the aerial part of the air coolers carried out during the port stops of the main engine, dumps there 1 to 2 m3 of water 

which contains a chemical specific to this type of cleaning, and gives to this water an appearance of whitish emulsion. 

The monthly periodic washing of the exhaust gas economiser smoke element, carried out during these same stops, may at each operation pour there 

2 to 3m3 of dark water despite the passage through the decantation soots tank. 

The wash water from the workshop wash-hand basin and the washing of the engine floors pour there a dirty water not necessarily oily. 

The various maintenance and cleansing operations of the condensers and sea water exchangers carried out when stopped in ports give some 

quantity of seldom limpid harbor water and almost always unacceptable for the 15ppm separator sampler. 

During harbour stay the damages to mechanical seals of the pumps caused by muddy water of some rivers can bring in a non-oily and muddy water 

unacceptable by the sampler. 

Engine bilge waters separator 15ppm.

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 Various models of equipment, whose principle of operation is the following : 

 A 5m3/h bilge pump pumps water from the bilge tank to the stilling tank. Inside this tank the oil is separated from the water and an hydrocarbon detector 

connected to an electric valve drains the oil to the sludge tank, the water below the oil flows through filters where solid particles are retained and through the 15ppm 

sampler detector, which actuates a 3 way valve, to the sea. From experience, this system has limited capacities, reduced to light oils or gas oil, with fuel oil you get 

quickly into trouble by oil plugging of various elements. 

 On recently tested devices : The principle of operation of the approved detection device, on a vessel launched from a shipyard in 2001, is based only on opacity 

and a photoelectric cell, and not on an hydrocarbon detector by light diffraction or other technical principles (chromatography...). This system which does not accept 

dirty and whitish non-oily washing water, and the water pumped in ports, brings the user to defy the interdict by misleading the detection system with a clear fresh 

water injection. Equipment unable to differentiate hydrocarbon from dirty water...! The periodic cleansing of the bilge separator filters in the engine room 

brings the collected dirt back to the sludge tank and is recycled again...! 

 Hereafter, the standard management cycle of engine oily residues in application of MARPOL regulation : 

Daily production of 1m3 of oily sludge and 40 m3 of bilge water. 

Daily transfer at day's end of 1m3 towards the incinerator & reheating tank. 

Decantation in the morning of water towards bilge water tank 

Incineration of the sludge during 12 to 14 hours per day 

§ Pumping of bildges through the 15ppm separator during 8 hours in authorized zone. 

 Regarding the problems encountered due to the lack of reliability of this separator, everyone has his method of bilge water management!

photo P. Le Calvez 

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 It is thus better to avoid oil introduction into the bildge separator, and therefore into the storage tank, which everyone will keep clean. It will never be fully 

drained in order to maintain the possible oily layer on the liquid surface. 

 According to the structure configuration of each vessel, an additional decantation system may be installed upstream of the bilge water tank. The interest is to 

have a good decantation capacity, little influenced by dynamic movements of the vessel, with great height and small sections in length and breadth

(large and long vertical pipe), which is not the case of the bildge tanks located in the double bottom. 

 The evaporation before incineration, is another solution whose cycle becomes the following after the installation of a second storage tank : 

1m3 oily Sludge production and 40 m3 bilge water per day. 

Daily transfer at day beginning of 1 m3 from the evaporation tank towards the incinerator tank. 

Continuous sludge incineration, 24h/24h 

Filling up of the 3 m3 evaporation tank and heating. 

Pumping of the bildges through the 15ppm separator during 8 hours 

 With inertia, some ship-owners conscious of this problem, install, in line with oily water separator, a new more efficient equipment available on the market. 

Others ask their crews not to dump bilge waters in the “watched zones”...! Some coasters have instructions from their ship-owner not to use the bilge water 

separator, and to discharge these waters at port. 

 Equipments of engine bildge separators brought into service in year 2005 have difficulties to produce waters with hydrocarbon content lower than 

200ppm.

Regulation and Recordings.

 In order to facilitate to the various international administrations the control of the proper uses in compliance with the international rules of pollution prevention of 

the maritime environment, we find on all vessels the main documents and recordings as follows : 

The up to date document of MARPOL regulations (maritime pollution convention). 

IOPP (International Oil Pollution Prevention) certificate of compliance with MARPOL rules for processing plants of the engine sludge, and water bildges for 

all vessels. Are reported there the volumes of the tanks and the characteristics of the incinerator. 

An additional part to the certificate (IOPP) of compliance with the MARPOL rules for the washing and treatment plants of the cargo compartments and 

hydrocarbon discharge for the vessels carrying oil, hydrocarbons, and chemicals. 

The Oil Record Book N°1 for engine room for all vessels, in which every day and in a coded way are recorded all the main operations of bunkers and 

ecological pumping, incineration and discharge to shore plants with written certificate from the receiver. 

The Oil Record Book N°2 for the cargo capacities for vessels carrying oil and other pollutant products, in which are recorded in a coded way all these 

commercial operations of transfer, washing, water ballasting operations, and discharge relating to freight capacities. 

An O.D.M.E. (Oil Discharge Monitor Equipment) device for analysing and recording the hydrocarbon dumpings from the cargo capacities for vessels carrying 

PPM : Part Per Million, figure without dimension, which uses numbers of same nature (weight or volume). 1 ppm = 1 g per ton or 1 cm3 per m3 and not grams per 

cubic meter or cm3 per ton.

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potentially pollutant products. These recording strips must be kept onboard for 5 years. Informations recorded: date, GMT time, geographical positions (on 

some models), speed, flow rates, and dumping rates must be in compliance with the records of the N°2 Oil Record Book. 

A Ship Oil Pollution Emergency Plan (SOPEP) for fighting against accidental pollution, approved by the authorities. This plan has a worldwide application 

except in the USA, where it is replaced by the OPA90 (Oil Pollution Act of 1990). 

In this plan we find, the inventory of statutory antipollution equipment, the worldwide phone call list of the companies and local authorities, the ship's plans, and a 

blank form of assistance and towing contract. 

A register for garbage bins management on which are recorded daily the dumping to sea from galley and biodegradable waste, the incineration of solid oily 

waste (greasy rags), the periodic discharge of the plastics with the certificate issued by the receiver. 

Various pollution insurances certificates, civil liability (CLC), P&I, and others... 

OILY DUMPINGS CAUSED BY EQUIPMENT DAMAGES.

Contamination of the ballast water tanks by hydraulic leaks

COLOURED SPECIAL OPERATIONS NOT POLLUTING.

Soot tank draining.

 Due to the main engine economizer periodical washing, the contents of the soot storage tank will be drained in open sea after the port of call, using a sea water 

ejector device on the fire collector. This operation may generate a black trail, transitory, with an oily appearance in the ship's wake. This normal operation is 

applicable to all the trading ships. It is not considered as pollutant because not mentioned in the Marpol protocols. 

Contamination of the harbor water by the washing tower of the inert gas generator.

Propeller shaft sealing

 It happens periodically to all vessels some 

worries with this sealing system for propeller shaft, 

due to fouling with nets for example, the ship has a 

continuous leak of a small quantity of oil. 

 To repair afloat this damage, requires the 

sealing replacement, bring out from the water the 

propeller shaft hub, and thus the unloading of the 

ship combined with a ballast movement to trim by 

the head. 

Oil coolers

 Leaks caused by corrosion or constraint 

movement of the ship's structure on the sea water 

oil coolers may be the source of continuous or 

episodic lubricant leakages by this mechanism. 

 The operation of the seawater valves of ballast water tanks is usually hydraulic. On some 

ships without duct-keel, pipings and valves actuators are located directly in the ballast water tanks 

and may perspire, even leak episodically or continuously some oil, due to corrosion, loose 

connections, or constraints caused by the localized deformation of the ship's structure normal 

work. 

 Some vessels may be equipped with immersed ballast pumps hydraulically driven (FRAMO 

standard) with same risks of potential leakages. Damages being able to cause an unforeseeable 

and uncontrolled dumpings to the sea, of transmission lubricant, during full ballast water draining, 

even congregated to the sludge mud. Situation and event which may happen to all vessels (and 

even to good crews). 

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 Unusual, but, identical to the soot effects, the oil tankers processing the smoke of the boilers by washing with sea water before injection into cargo capacities,

may encounter this misadventure in the event of temporary bad combustion with an important smoke production, resulting in a black and transitory contamination of 

the harbor water very similar to a pollution effect of heavy petroleum product. 

Operational management of the Ballast.

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P. Le Calvez photograph 

 The pumping of ballast water in some river ports (the Loire, the Gironde, the Mersey, the Yang-tseu-kiang...) overloads the ship with mud, sometimes black , 

which it is necessary to quickly remove before decantation, this as soon as in open sea. This operation may leave a coloured trail in the ship's wake. Example: The 

ballast water mud charge of a 300.000 t VLCC in Donges harbor is about 200 tons. 

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 These sludges and muds pumped in from harbours may contain and congregate together various oily waste of unspecified origins (dumpings from other ships, 

15ppm outflows from refineries, harbour facilities, underground pipes leakages, or organic triturations in decomposition inside muds...). From experience of 

manoeuvres in some ports, the propeller movements pushes up oily irisations with the mud to the surface of the water. 

Regulation management of Ballast Water (B. W. M.) :

 In order to avoid the contamination of the ecosystems in some ports as in the USA, by live species carried from other ports of the planet, it is imperative to 

renew the ballast water in open sea before calling in these ports. 

Various cargo dumpings during the cargo holds cleaning :

 Some ore vessels, due to commercial reasons of products changes, have to clean their decks and cargo spaces after unloading. Coal, iron ore, bauxite, animal 

feed flours generate beautiful coloured trails. 

DUMPINGS FROM OIL TANKERS AND CHEMICAL CARRIERS.

 For commercial reasons of products changes, of cleaning operations before repairs, of water ballasting operations for bad weather condition, the vessels 

carrying crude oils, hydrocarbons, and chemical products, when proceeding, may have to dump their decantation water or ballast water (from cargo capacities) in 

open seas authorized zones at more than 50 miles from the shore, with an oily flow rate not exceeding 30 liters per nautical miles. The total dumped quantity for 

each voyage must not exceed the 1/30.000 of the volume previously loaded, that is to say 10 tons for a former 300.000 t oil tanker. It should be noted that the 

sampling equipment for the dumpings is a chromatography hydrocarbon detector independently of the water opacity. 

 These recordings and written traces can be found again in the N°2 Oil Record Book and on the dumpings detector paper strips. 

AFCAN photograph AFCAN photograph 

 The discovery last year, with a media coverage, of carbonaceous blackish releases on the beaches of the south western part of France, considered 

at the beginning as pollution by hydrocarbon, made me think about a voyage on a gas transport vessel, from Gijon in Spain towards the North Sea, 

during which we had to wash the decks and superstructures after a rather long call in this port with inopportune loading, by the wind, of a remarkable 

quantity of coal dust from the next quay. This operation generated a beautiful blackish trail on calm sea.

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double-hull oil tankers from years 2000.

P. Le Calvez photograph 

 Having experience of crude oil transport for the last 

35 years, the VLCC with double-hull is, today, very 

ecological operationally compared to old structures with 

simple hull and ballasting operations in the cargo 

capacities, Clean Ballast Tanks (C.B.T. ) and segregated

ballast tanks (S.B.T. ). The sea water transfers in cargo 

capacities of double-hull vessels are unusual and 

exceptional, the contamination possibilities of ballast

tanks by pipings damages impossible because there is 

no passage of ballast pipings in the cargo and 

conversely. 

 Moreover, the various crude oils are liquid ores more 

or less viscous according to the origin, and loaded at 

temperatures between 30 and 45°C. They are 

transported throughout the planet during 2 to 5 weeks, 

and sometimes discharged in winter zones. The 

products, cooled down by the heat exchange of the hull in

contact with the ocean, become thicker, adhere to 

bulkheads and structures, settles on the handrails, and 

sometimes are difficult to pump at low temperature. This 

phenomenon always applies to single hull existing 

vessels. 

 The handrails and structures of the double hull 

vessels are mainly localized in the ballast water tanks 

sections.The plane surface areas of the cargo capacities, 

bulkheads and floors, do not offer any more hiding places 

to the viscous elements, and a washing of the bottoms 

with light crude incomparably minimizes the residues 

remaining onboard at the end of the discharge. Moreover 

the empty double-hull limits the heat exchange with the 

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This type of ship is thus not inevitably the ideal remedy for accidental big pollutions. 

Air surveillance and repression of the ships dumpings :

Comments from a sailor in conclusion of this presentation.

 I perceive this initiative of our political leaders well covered by the medias like an univocal contribution to the other international maritime authorities, in order 

to give a sense of responsibility to the various intervening parties in sea transportation on improving cleanliness of the oceans.

 However, at the era of evidence by DNA in criminology, where at few meters the sight of a simple red stain (of painting) does not conclude inevitably to a 

murder, I deeply think with many reserves that the visual observation at few hundred meters, without other reliable technical means, of a coloured trail in a ship's 

wake, does not mean necessarily the effective evidence of a pollution offense, with risks of disproportionate sentences and fine, revised at increase after 

every maritime catastrophe. 

 The delocalization of legal follow-up of these pollution cases with a mediatic din towards countries of great maritime vocation seems beneficial to me. It will

allow in the medium term, I hope, to get back to a reasonable and more objective processing of these cases. The systematic sampling of the punishable dumpings, 

in order to know the nature and thus the source of the pollutant, seems essential to me to leave this present context of inculpation by presumption of culpability, 

and give possibility to reconsider the accidental dumpings (mistake or lack of luck) and to discriminate the illusions of pollution. Not rely on the judgment of God 

after sentence by all...! Being overflown by one of your planes, during the liquid gas carrier deck washing to remove the coal dust as per my previously 

quoted anecdote, I think retrospectively that I probably should have been diverted to Brest, and sould have been accused of pollution for hydrocarbon 

dumpings (with lack of cadaver), and this, due to the necessary analysis time to establish the true nature of this carbonaceous residues collected 

directly on sand during this “false” beach pollution of the Basque coast last year.

 I finish this presentation with some news of one and not the least of these maritime world intervening parties which is the I.M.O. 

 The International Maritime Organization re-examined during year 2003 the certification requirements of the engine bilge water separation and 

dumpings equipments, for the ships which construction started after january 1st 2005. By establishing a new test procedure of separation in workshop 

laboratory, and modifying the dumpings analysis device, which becomes similar to the cargo dumpings chromatographic detection device of the oil tankers, with 

recording paper strip to be kept 18 months for potential check by authorities, and with impossibility of misleading or blocking the rinsing sequences of the measuring 

cell. 

 However, during the IMO 2006 spring session, the German and Indian delegations appeal for revision of this new resolution MEPC.107 (49) of July 18th, 

2003, Germany proposing additions to the homologation tests procedures to approach the reality on board. And more realistic India, informing that today's 

systems for process of used oils from engines are inappropriate, and asking for improvements in efficiency, flow rate, and quality, arguing that equipment 

designers and those who lay down the rules do not seem to understand the real conditions of movements, of heat, of moisture, of various emulsified residues 

generated on board of vessels, which explain why, even the new installed material in accordance with the year 2003 rules is still unsuitable for onboard requested 

use. Difference between quietude of a laboratory and the open sea... Also indexed to this proposal: the insufficient vessels incineration capacity always 

calculated too short, the bunkered fuel quality, the time spent by the crews to operate and maintain these equipments in good condition, the inadequacy 

of reception facilities at a reasonable price, and request to the MARPOL 73/78 signatories countries to take concrete measures to provide in their ports 

reception facilities easily accessible at a reasonable price, rather than to engage procedures against the sailors.

 Do we have to be surprised that in a democratic country, passionate for justice, we do not seek better for the guilty? In comparison with the life expectancy 

of the ships currently operating, equipped with their origin separator, we cannot hope for an improvement of the engine bilge water dumpings quality 

only beyond the year 2036 in the legislation present state.

Captain Patrick LE CALVEZ 

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P. Le Calvez photograph 

sea during the voyage,vessel loaded. For example: 

Loaded at 42°C in Saudi Arabia, the product is delivered 

at more than 30°C in Saint-John, Canada, in February 

after 35 days at sea by the Cape of Good Hope, for 10 to 

15°C on a voyage with a single hull. 

 The disadvantage of these vessels is, at sea, the

very difficult paintings maintenance of ballast water tanks, 

because of the access, of containment, of moisture, of 

heat, of mud accumulation, and the paintings drying time, 

especially if they were not perfectly succesful during 

construction. These paintings of ballast water tanks are 

applied at the shipyard at 98% in open air before 

assembling the various elements. After the assembly, 

only are remaining the weldings to be covered, this in 

good conditions. To note: The stop periodicity for the 

careenage of these types of vessels is only about ten 

days every 5 years. 

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