Marine

Fuel System Audit

Supporting efficient fuel management

Our fuel system audit programme can help provide you with the confidence that the individual parts of your system are performing correctly, helping you reduce the risk of quality disputes and machinery damage.

Marine fuel standards such as ISO 8217 refer to the quality of fuel oil at bunkering only and are based on the understanding that it will be treated before reaching the engine to meet the specific engine manufacturer’s recommendations. Onboard treatment systems are therefore vital in ensuring that fuel complies with the necessary specifications.

The fuel system audit programme from Lloyd’s Register can help provide you with the confidence that the individual parts of your system are performing correctly, helping you reduce the risk of quality disputes and machinery damage. Carried out at regular intervals and tailored to meet your needs, it tests the operational effectiveness of your vessel’s treatment system to clean fuel.

How a fuel system audit can help you

As a ship owner or operator, you need to have confidence that your onboard fuel treatment system is operating efficiently. However, it is impractical to monitor fuel quality continually at every treatment stage; unless samples are taken both before and after fuel passes through each system component, it is not easily possible to determine whether they are all working correctly. Our fuel system audit programme can help: it tests the effectiveness of your treatment system – from storage and settling tanks to the separator plant, line filters and engine inlet conditions.

In disputes involving fuel quality, machinery damage or component failure an audit can help establish that your system is well maintained, operating effectively and checked regularly. We have observed that in the event of a dispute, charterers or suppliers may claim that the fuel was of a good quality but that the ship’s purification plant was operating incorrectly. It is the responsibility of the operator to disprove this and the audit programme can provide valuable support.

A more effective treatment system can also help reduce the risk of component failure and breakdown maintenance and its associated costs. Ineffective fuel treatment is likely to prove problematic and costly for ship operators, leading to undue wear to fuel pumps, injectors, engine components and burner nozzles. This in the long term considerably reduces the time between overhauls and also results in an increase in fuel consumption.

The programme can in addition be particularly helpful when filtering a potentially damaging fuel to determine whether or not certain elements have been reduced to acceptable levels during onboard fuel management procedures, helping you take a more proactive approach.