FAQ with regard to Interim Guidance by US EPA on North American ECA

IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) adopted amendments to MARPOL Annex VI (amendments to regulation 13, 14 and new Appendix VII) to designate the North American Emission Control Area for NOx, SOx and particulates. With regard to this, EPA has released a memorandum on June 26th 2012 containing Frequently Asked Questions.

Please note that we have tried to shorten the answers and make them more relevant and focused on what is likely to be of interest to our customers.

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WHAT PROTECTION DO YOU HAVE AGAINST SUPPLY OF PROBLEM FUELS?

You have received two technical updates in the recent past, one about fuels containing several contaminants causing machinery damage to three vessels (2011/2/3 ) and the second technical update(2011/2/4) about a fuel supplied in Sevilla, Spain containing unacceptable high levels of contaminants. The question on your minds is likely to be "What protection do I have against supply of problem fuels?”

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Low sulphur fuels a summary of DNV’s

The present paper intends to inform DNV clients and other interested parties about potential consequences of the introduction of various international and regional regulations, specifi cally the EU Directive 2005/33/EC and new sections of the California Code of Regulation title 13/17.
Both of these regulations set forth limitations on the sulphur content of marine fuels used in specifi ed areas (EU ports and Californian waters)
The paper specifically aim at providing a summary of DNV’s and various industry stakeholders concerns regarding operations using fuels that comply with the abovementioned regulations general recommendations for safe operation.

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Change over to low sulphur fuel – a practical example to consider

From feedback recently received from one of our surveyors, we give an example of a change-over from high sulphur to low sulphur fuel operation that did not work as intended.

More stringent requirements for low sulphur fuel (LSF) operation came into force on 1 January 2010 (EU ports) and the requirements concerning operation in European and Californian waters will stepwise become stricter.

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Bunkers styrene contamination

Viswa Lab wishes to share our knowledge on this subject:
First of all, styrene in isolation does not cause problems, unless these levels are very high. Similarly, DCPD in isolation does not cause problems.

However, styrene and DCPD and Indene (which is being seen more, lately) together do seem to cause machinery problems.

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Diesel Fuel Lubricity HFRR test method

Accepted by SAE and ASTM, the standard test method to measure diesel fuel lubricity is conducted on the High Frequency Reciprocating Rig (HFRR).
With HFRR, a ball is placed on a flat surface and rapidly vibrated back and forth with a stroke distance of one millimeter while 200 grams of weight is applied.

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