Americas News
Off-Spec Bunker Fuel Alert Feature in FuelTrax System
Houston, Texas based Nautical Control Solutions, LP (NCS) has said the latest version of its FuelTrax Marine Fuel Management system now includes the ability to alert the crew to off-spec fuel during bunkering, according to a report Tuesday.
The new feature, available when using Coriolis mass flow metering, measures and monitors the fuel density as it is pumped on a vessel and displays a real-time moving graph of the data on the FuelTrax main console.
If the density of the fuel moves outside of a predefined range a visual alarm is presented, with optional siren and strobe light available for placement in the engine room to further alert the crew.
"Having the ability to identify potentially bad fuel and stop a bunker before too much has been pumped aboard can help save the costs of filter changes and tank cleaning at a minimum and help prevent damage to engines in the worst case," said Anthony George, CEO of NCS.
According to the report, the system works with any type of marine fuel and can also be applied to liquids such as drilling mud and other products transported by a vessel.
NCS said the accuracy and positive feedback on the "fit-and-forget nature" of Coriolis meters mean they have been expanding their application throughout their installations.
"Since they are also excellent densitometers, it made sense to expand FuelTrax to capture and report this information along with other parameters to produce a complete fuel signature for a vessel," said Mr George.
"We also foresee this highly accurate data helping meet MARPOL reporting requirements," he concluded.
