Inert Gas ProductionN2 Plant Vs Conventional Plant

Resumen

The modern oil tanker industry has been subject to many changes over the last 50 years. Both continuous and scrupulous improvements have led the industry to show more responsible and secure technologies. It is more so now obligatory for vessels that have inert gas production systems. These systems maintain oil tankers with an inert atmosphere. In other words, vessels do not have enough oxygen to sustain combustion. While under operation, the inert gas is pumped to tanks or cargo tanks. The inert gas is produced either by an inert gas generator or is released by a clean exhaust from the vessel’s boiler. Accidents related to the loading and unloading processes have been almost completely eliminated as a result of the obligatory use of these systems on all vessels. In this article a descriptive study of the two most used methods is carried out taking two model types of opposing plants used in the Merchant Marine, as far as possible, similar transport vessels of refined products derived from oil that possess different systems of the generation of Inert gas, for example, a state-of-the-art asphalt plant with N2 generating plant. The most characteristic data of their inert gas generation plants have been taken by comparing them, on the one hand, with vessels with a conventional inert gas generation plant, most of which are characterized by being large vessels with low speed, trips with more than eight days on average and with very few maneuvers during the week and on the other hand, vessels of medium length IMO II type and over 100 meters in length, low speed, travelling similar paths and with a greater maneuverability index. The selection of the inert gas generation system depends mainly on two operating factors: The load capacity and the type of load. These factors depend not just on the calculation necessary for the maximum load / discharge speeds, the maximum capacity of inert gas generators, limitations of the load type, number and power of electric generators, The impact on maintenance cost, required safety levels depending on the adopted generation plant, etc.