Have you ever heard of the term oil water separator? Well, you are new in this field and have no clue what it is! Well, you are not the only one. There are so many other people with no clue what this equipment is. This particular product is used for separating water and oil mixtures into two separate compartments. In fact, the name itself is quite self-explanatory!
Searching the internet will let you come across so many types of water and oil separators. Each one comprises of a different separation capacity and used in so many industries. The separators are widely designed and selected after considering the separation performance parameters. It also depends on the cycle cost considerations in here. Here, the term oil can be anything right from mineral oil to vegetable one and can also be animal oil. It can be multiple different hydrocarbons too.
The separator for ships:
One oil water separator is available for the ships, whose main aim is to clear the water body from harmful oil pollutants. The main aim of this separator is primarily to clear the bilge water of the oily content for bringing it inside acceptable range to discharge it overboard.
- This separator is primarily termed as one machine of high importance. It is widely used and handled by chief or 2nd engineer.
- It can only operate whenever the ship is sailing and en route. The oil content of this effluent needs to be less than 15 ppm and ship has in operation and oil discharging monitoring and control system. It comes with filtering equipment too.
If these options are not followed as asked for, the ship will then be fined and stopped. Even the chief engineer might face some problems of failed to use the oil water separator properly. Mainly because of the higher risk factors, operating a proper separator is to be done with utmost precision. It helps in minimizing the risk of the marine pollution. There is no room for mistake to approach in this regard.
Treat various forms of contaminants:
The main purpose of oil water separator is to work on various contaminants in water. It will include anything from emulsified oil to free floating oil, suspended solids to dissolved oil. Always remember that not all kinds of separator types are able to separate all forms of contaminants. There are some parameters which will be considered in here like the oil density, oil droplet size, water viscosity, feed oil water flow, feed oil concentration discharged water quality checked and range of oil concentrations.
Ways to operate the Oil Water Separators:
There are some easy ways in which you might have to operate the oil water separator, especially if dealing with the shipping lines. The steps are well-designed to help people in the best manner possible.
- It is mandatory for you to lock down the overboard manual discharge valve of OWS. The chief engineer is the one to be in charge of the keys.
- It is time to open the lock and then the overboard valve. Then you have to open the other valves of system.
- Now you have to open the bilge tank valve from where the oily water mixture is likely to be discharged from the oil water separator.
- If the controlling valves are air operated, then open the air. Now, you have to switch the power supply on of the controlling panel and the OCM unit.
Next, fill out the separator and filer unit with sea or fresh water for cleaning up and priming the system. Do that, till the water comes out from second stage’s vent.
All said, the oil water separators are a life saver for sure.