Seawater-lubricated propeller shaft bearing-innovators Thordon Bearings have developed a unique modelling tool that is capable of calculating the amount of operational oil leakage that can be prevented if the propeller shaft is lubricated with seawater instead of oil.
The Oil Saving Calculator is based on detailed statistical analysis of the number of vessels that have been built with or converted to seawater lubrication, the 300 days a year each vessel is typically operational and an average oil leak of 6 litres (1.6 U.S gallons) per day per vessel. Thordon Bearings state that their Oil Savings Calculator shows that more than 60 million litres of oil pollution has been saved to date.
Independent research carried out by New York-based Environmental Research Consulting indicated in 2014 that the total amount of operational oil discharges from ocean-going vessels could be more than 240 million litres annually. To add perspective, the oil pollution from the Exxon Valdez casualty of 1989 was 41.6 million litres.
Terry McGowan, President & CEO Thordon Bearings commented: “The Oil Saving Calculator is updated constantly and will continue to track our contribution to removing stern tube oil from our waters with the greater goal of completely eliminating this source of pollution.”
According to International Tanker Pollution Federation (ITOPF) Managing Director, Dr Karen Purnell, the Managing Director of the (ITOPF), the Federation supports this initiative as well as any measures designed to help their members and associates meet high environmental standards.
“The success of this measure can now be determined using Thordon Bearings’ Oil Savings Calculator,” Dr Purnell stated.
ITOPF last year presented Thordon Bearings with an environmental award for its oil-free COMPAC propeller shaft bearing system for its part in reducing the amount of oil entering the sea annually.
The online calculator tool will be launched on the 56th annual Earth Day which falls on April 22 this year (http://www.earthday.org/)
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