World Bunkering > News > Spring 2011 > Where now?

The measurement of bunker deliveries has been a constant challenge for suppliers and shipoperators, with discrepancies leading to countless disputes, costing the industry both time and money. Shipping has been relatively slow to adopt new technologies and there is a growing opinion that any tool that could improve the process of bunkering should be thoroughly examined.

Currently, the vast majority of the industry is dependent on manual tank gauging or sounding to determine the quantity of bunkers delivered or received. The tank gauging method involves more manual work and is time-consuming, and cannot be integrated with information communication technologies. The Coriolis flow meter or inertial flow meter is a fuel delivery monitoring system that directly measures mass density and temperature, and can detect entrained gas. Flow meters also have no moving parts and use bi-directional flow measurement either for loading or delivery purposes.

Installing flow meters on barges has the potential to deliver benefits such as increased accuracy, lower maintenance costs, fewer trips to terminals and fewer hook-ups, leading to less spill risk. It also allows for faster turnaround and shorter port stays for ships, which also reduces administrative costs.

Singapore is a leading proponent in implementing standards and technologies that improve the bunkering process. From being the first port to implement bunkering standards such as SS524 and SS600, the push towards flow meters is simply the next step. Having registered record bunker volumes in 2010 of 40.9 million metric tonnes it would seem that the imposition of standards and controls over bunkering procedures, among other factors, has helped facilitate Singapore’s continued growth as a bunkering port.

At last year’s Sibcon, industry players came out in favour of flow meters, with some saying that the shift towards flow meters was simply a natural progression in measurement integrity and offered transparency to the entire end-to-end bunkering quantity measure process. Others suggested that Coriolis flow meters were more effective than other technologies, such as positive displacement meters, due to their ability to handle entrained air as well as the digital nature of the Coriolis meter, requiring less maintenance than traditional meters.

Despite the development of flow meters, research continues into their viability and the potential problems that can arise. Some suppliers who have installed flow meters on their barges for several years have commented on their experience with the technology. While the flow meters have proven to be very accurate and have a good record of reducing disputes, they are still sensitive towards external stress, vacuum and pressure pulsations, as well as pulsations in the fuel oil that come from gear pumps or engines that are nearby.

There is no doubt that bunker surveyors will have an important role to play as the shift towards mass flow meters continues. Bunker quantity measurement is a highly complex process and as technology improves, a greater level of skills and expertise will be required to maximise the use of new technologies. If the use of flow meters does become widespread, it may bring a reduction in the number of bunker quantity disputes – with bunker surveyors vital in reconciling the different interests between buyers and sellers.

For fuel testing companies like FOBAS, mass flow meters could certainly be an opportunity to aid in more transparency and efficiency when it comes to determining quantity of fuel delivered from barge to receiving ship. Notwithstanding, though, there will still be an ongoing need by shipoperators to test their bunker fuels according to ISO 8217 specifications in order to gain true understanding of the fuel quality received and its operational impact on ship’s machinery. Furthermore, since mass flow meters do not measure water content, tests by a shore-based laboratory will still be needed to claim for quantity differences based on water content of a fuel.

While the use of flow meters may not eradicate all the problems in bunker quantity measurement, it is certainly a step forward for the industry as it moves towards greater transparency and efficiency.