Original Articles
M. Gajendiran1 and N. Nallusam
Abstract
High viscous heavy fuel oil (HFO) is used as fuel for economic operation of the ship. This HFO cannot be fed to the engine directly without reducing the viscosity. The HFO is stored in the settling tank is heated to a certain temperature in order to maintain the viscosity. The heating of the heavy fuel oil in the settling tank of the ship is achieved by means of application of steam from the boiler and the temperature is controlled by throttling the amount of steam, which results in the fluctuation of the temperature of the oil in the tank. In order to avoid this problem Thermal Energy Storage (TES) using the latent heat of phase changing materials can be used instead of existing steam heating system. Thermal Energy Storage provide a high degree of flexibility since a variety of energy sources such as solar energy, industrial waste heat, heat pumps and off-peak electricity can be utilized, either combined or separately. This paper presents the feasibility of application of solar heating system integrated with thermal energy storage unit for the enhancement of settling tank for marine Heavy Fuel Oil Systems.