Considering Efficiency as a Whole

Separators remove everything that does not belong in the ship’s fuel – primarily cat fines, sediments, and water. Therefore, high-performance centrifuges are an integral component in the fuel systems on tankers, container ships and cruise ships. GEA is among the leading international specialists in diverse systems for the engine room, which the company, headquartered in Düsseldorf, integrates more quickly and intelligently into plant networks optionally using the MTP (Module Type Package).

In light of the importance of fuel treatment of ULSFO, MGO and HFO within a ship’s drive system, GEA considers a separator module to be less of a machine and more of a service. Its task is to treat the fuel so it falls within the limiting values prior to injection into the engine. Therefore, this company from Westphalia is moving away from the machine point of view and strengthening their commitment to system integration. Equipping maritime technology with the MTP paves the way easier integration into the process control level. The abbreviation MTP stands for “Module Type Package,” a standardized integration interface designed by WAGO in 2014, which is functionally comparable to the printer drivers familiar from office IT.

Interfaces: A Curse and a Blessing

Does the module have MTP on board? “There will be no doubt about that in the medium term,” says Sven Mario Jadzinski. As a sales manager for the maritime sector at GEA in Oelde, he strongly favors the “Module Type Package” and is also committed to the work carried out by the MTP working group of the VDMA. The MTP has what it takes to revolutionize especially ship building and process technology. “The savings are enormous, and everyone has had enough of the constant complaints about interface problems,” reveals his colleague Matthias Wiemann, manager of control technology for separators. However, interfaces are in greater demand than ever, to enable the networking of all components of a ship’s automation system. This networking itself is necessary for optimizing the entire organism. “Classic processing equipment has hit its mechanical limits, with regards to optimization,” says Sven Mario Jadzinski. “The key to process monitoring, availability and additional cost savings clearly lies in digitization.” Interfaces are therefore both a curse and a blessing.

Standardized Data Container

Separator modules are a concrete example of this principle. The systems built by GEA already provide a great deal of data via their PLC. However, the central ship’s automation has only used a fraction of this up to now. The reason is that each additional signal requires programming time in the control system, which costs money. If, however, all of the data is available at the push of a button in a standardized data container via the MTP, then significantly more signals, values and cross-links to other sub-processes find their way into the process control level during operation.

Peter Klomfas, a project and software developer at GEA in Oelde, points to the interplay among fuel temperature control, separator operation, consumption in the engine and exhaust gas values. If the on-board engineer looks at his separator data, he or she can tell whether that device is working well, but may not necessarily notice an imminent failure, because the preheating temperature of, e.g., the conventional heavy fuel oil has already exceeded a critical level of 98 degrees Celsius. “The interplay strays from its optimal efficiency as soon as one individual area gets out of control,” says Klomfas. “We need to distinguish between monitoring the process technology and the process monitoring.”

Considering Efficiency as a Whole

If, however, the various process modules are integrated into the control level using their MTP-capable controllers, then divergent values can be easily and effectively correlated to one another through a higher level of informational content. Moving beyond mere fault management, MTP allows optimization of their interplay as a whole by moving process technology and process monitoring closer together through a greater depth of the information. What good is efficient operation of one single machine if it negatively impacts the whole group – and overall efficiency plummets?

The “Module Type Package” also allows use of the provided data for purposes other than actually operating a ship or a process system. As an example, Matthias Wiemann cites the oil logbook, as well as the data that is collected and reported in the daily noon report on board a ship. With the aid of integration interfaces based on OPC UA, practically all relevant data for fuel conditioning can be incorporated directly into the oil logbook or the noon report. And no one on the ship has to grab a pen and paper or type key figures into a table in order to obtain this. The same to documenting compliance with national and international environmental protection regulations. Matthias Wiemann describes the new possibilities that arise from using the MTP for modular automation in the maritime sector thus: “With the MTP, we have direct access to information on how efficiently the ballast water system is functioning, and whether the oil residue in the bilge water remains below the legal limit.”

Outlook: Better to Travel the Ideal Route

Fuel consumption represents the largest share of ship operation costs. Instead of a narrow focus on the required volume per operating unit, as defined by the limits of economics and environmental protection, digitization provides opportunities for achieving increased improvements in the separating process. In addition, intelligent data exchange can be used to synchronize travel times with harbor logistics, as well as to harmonize the loading and unloading logistics that follow from this. By now it should be clear that the greatest method for leveraging improved efficiency in ship operations lies in coordinating all of the automation on board, which then extends to a self-optimizing supply chain.

Pictures:
Thorsten Sienk | GEA

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