Preventing Failures of Oily Bilgewater Systems

A properly functioning Oily Water Separator (OWS) is required aboard ships by international convention. The OWS controls operational discharges overboard of waste water that accumulates in the bilges of machinery spaces. But shipboard bilges can be a sink and reservoir for a range of substances other than oil and water, including chemicals, particles and biological activity, any of which can cause an OWS and related systems to fail. SNAME Issues Technical Bulletin To Help Prevent Failure of Oily Bilgewater Systems.

A technical bulletin, Guide to Diagnosing Contaminants in Oily Bilgewater: Operation and Maintenance of Bilgewater Treatment Systems, now available from the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME), provides crew and shore side personnel with a foundation for the development of bilge water contaminant identification skills, along with diagnostic and troubleshooting techniques to prevent and remedy many types of oily bilgewater system failures.

The bulletin was compiled by the Oily Wastewater and Bilgewater Panel, Panel EC-3, of the SNAME Technical and Research Program. The panel is one of several under the Environmental Engineering Committee, which is jointly staffed by SNAME and the American Society of Naval Engineers.

Technical and Research Bulletin 6-1, Guide to Diagnosing Contaminants in Oily Bilgewater: Operation and Maintenance of Bilgewater Treatment Systems is available on a CD and can be ordered by calling Tommie-Anne Faix at 1+(800) 798.2188 (in the U.S. & Canada) or 1+201.499.5068.