EET
Health & Safety onboard ships, is the key concern and the highest priority of owners, managers and seafarers alike. Therefore, our Emergency Equipment Testing Service (EET) aimed at supporting the maintenance of onboard emergency equipment, ensuring it will perform exactly as required, whenever required, is essential.
Why is Emergency Equipment Testing So important?
To assist in a vessel’s compliance to the Safety of Life at Sea Convention (SOLAS), the routine maintenance and monitoring of onboard safety equipment is key, therefore attention in monitoring the quality of fuel being used for emergency equipment such as emergency generators, life boat engines and emergency fire pumps, is vitally important.231
Emergency Equipment Testing
Grade DMX in the ISO 8217 specifications is intended for fuels used for emergency equipment. However, since this is not a mandatory requirement, marine gas oil (MGO Grade DMA) used for other purposes onboard, is often used to fill up the emergency equipment storage tanks. This can have dangerous consequences as the DMA grade fuels may not be “fit for purpose”. The quality of the fuel in the emergency equipment storage tanks may also deteriorate during storage. Hence, it is essential to test and ensure that the quality of the fuel being taken into the tanks is fit for purpose and monitored at regular intervals.
Remember, distillate fuels will deteriorate over time, with a “shelf-life” of up to 12 months. If emergency equipment is not called upon over this time, can you be sure it has not become “unfit for purpose”? Therefore, regular monitoring and testing to ISO8217, are highly recommended as part of preventative maintenance and safety checks. In order to provide additional protection regarding the monitoring of emergency equipment fuel quality and further identify potential fuel contamination, the following additional parameters can have great impact on the operation of Emergency Equipment and should also be monitored:
Cold Flow Properties
Fatty Acid Methyl Esters (FAME)
Bacterial Growth (Bacteria, Yeast & Fungi)