Environmental compliance assurance through waste management module

The original purpose of the Thome NAU app was to support shipmanager decisions. It tracks vessel performance within the parameters of the charterparty or the vessel’s own design speed, showing current location time to next destination and estimated time of arrival.

At a glance a manager can see fuel, lubes, cylinder oil and freshwater consumption and the weather as reported by the tanker. The information is shown on a live basis and parameters can be set to trigger alerts. Other functions include a map and archive.

In a drive to reduce, control and monitor waste generation onboard, the software now includes a module called ‘Environment’; this monitors the accumulation and disposal of machinery space bilges and sludge on board across all managed vessels and alerts the vessel manager of excessive build-up beyond set benchmarks.

Besides a daily status update, including total quantity of sludge and bilges retained on the ship, alerts indicate when the total retention on board has reached 75% of the capacity level, or where there is a build-up of more than 5% of the capacity level in a single day. This helps the vessel manager co-ordinate with the master and chief engineer to ensure measures are taken for disposal and to address the source of the accumulation.

The vessel is required to update the module daily at noon and this allows Thome shipmanagers to monitor the IOPP section 3.1 and 3.3 tanks, their daily ROBs and disposal activities carried out each day. The system gathers the data and presents trends on a day-to-day basis.

The system alerts users of low efficiency of incinerators and OWS by measuring their output against optimal capacities.

The IOPP tanks are colour coded. The quantity retained in each tank is shown by a coloured band, which allows the vessel manager to see if there has been any sudden increase or decrease in quantity.

The app also provides a leakage log/remarks column which allows managers to explain any excessive change in quantities due to leaks or to add other remarks for clarification. The garbage monitoring section of the fleet performance monitoring software caters to Marpol Annex V part I and II, for the recording of all categories specified as per Marpol regulations for sea and shore disposal and incineration.

The module increases the data load transferred from the ship to the Thome servers. This is one of the reasons why Thome is installing VSAT across its managed fleet of 70 chemical carriers, 17 Aframax, 13 product tankers and seven VLCCs.

Discussing the benefits of VSAT, Thome Group chief executive Olav Nortun says: “We are getting more information, such as voyage time, time in port and efficiency, and total performance of the vessels.”

Via VSAT, the company’s managers are able to provide information to crew on fuel use, ballast water management and other waste management issues, to ensure they remain on the correct side of the regulatory divide. Explains Mr Nortun: “[The process is automated] so when ships are close to port or a coastline, they will get information on regulatory requirements for that country or region.”