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By selecting China flag, you have now set your language to Chinese. This has several benefits, including:

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Don’t scupper your last line of defence

Articles

The consequences of a bunker spill can be severe, causing damage to the environment and leaving the vessel facing action from the local authorities. But the condition and effectiveness of onboard containment arrangements are often overlooked.

When it comes to bunker spills, prevention is better than the cure. Robust bunkering and fuel transfer procedures, along with correctly operating high-level alarms and level gauges, should prevent a tank from ever overflowing.

However, tank overflows do sometimes occur, either through equipment failure or circumstances that lead to human error. When this happens, the last line of defence in preventing a pollution incident are save-alls and scupper plugs. Therefore, it is important to ensure that they are up to the job of containing bunkers onboard.

Common issues

Some of the more common defects that can affect these vitally important containment measures include:

Save-alls

  • Missing or poorly fitted drainage plugs
  • Wasted steel work or cracked welds
  • Filled with debris or water that significantly reduces the capacity of the save-all

Scupper plugs and fish plates

  • Seized tightening arrangements
  • Perished or cracked rubber seals
  • Hardened rubber seals that will not compress
  • Wastage or cracks on scupper housing or on the fish plate

Regular inspections

Thorough inspections should identify any of these deficiencies. The crew can then rectify them in good time prior to the next bunkering operation.

Save-alls should also be regularly cleaned to ensure that they are free of oily residues. This is to ensure that any rainwater collected can be safely drained overboard.

Latest Articles

Signals 124

This article features in our Navigating Decarbonisation special edition of Signals 2021. To view all articles in this issue, click on the thumbnails below.

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