Two British scientists have developed a marine lubricant condition monitoring system that works while at sea and could prove a hit for commercial long haul ships such as cruisers, oil tankers or even national navy ships.
The Posseidon (spelled with a second s) system features a sensor unit that monitors the main properties of the lubricating oil – sometimes up to 40 metric tons – that circulates in a ships engine. It monitors the lubricants viscosity, water-in-oil, base number and impurities, as well as its degradation. The computerized warning system aims to cut the vast cost to repair a ship at sea by monitoring the properties of its engines lube, according to the scientists.
Since several industries have already introduced on-site lube monitoring, researchers Mike Knowles and David Baglee of the University of Sunderland believe such techniques should apply to marine lubes as well.
There are a number of situations that ship owners would like to avoid: possible collision issues with drifting ships, damaged goods (i.e., food left in containers too long) and any environmental issues like oil spills, Knowles told Lube Report last week.Using our product can only be a win-win situation for many ship owners. It could only help reduce unnecessary maintenance costs, the costs involved with stranded ships and the damaged goods costs for the insurance companies.
He said that if the lubricating oil shows a problem, and the engineers are able to repair at sea with little or no stoppage, the system could be a tool that supports the marine industry.
The quickest way to measure the performance of a ships engine is to continually monitor the engine lubricant, Knowles noted. To our knowledge, ship engine lube monitoring is not carried out at sea but mostly at land-based offices, and this could take weeks.
Their three-and-a-half-year research project has been practically tested only recently, and is not yet ready to be a commercially viable product.
A prototype was developed and attached to anengine on board a ship in Hamburg [Germany], and it worked well. All prototypes can be modified, being smaller and lighter, Knowles observed, adding that while it would be great to see their project turned into a commercial product, that would require an agreement from all partners involved.
The Posseidon project is a consortium of several maritime partners that collaborated with the universitys Institute for Automotive and Manufacturing Practice in developing the system. The project is also funded by the European Union.
The researchers also have a vision to use the system in the power generating industry.
We are looking now at adapting the system to work on wind farm turbines, Knowles noted.