Parat Halvorsen AS has this week gathered key personnel from the maritime industry to a technical review and discussion of tank heating solutions for supply vessels with NOFO notation. Technical and operational persons from shipyards, shipowners, consultants and the NCA (Norwegian Coastal Administration) were present and practical tests were performed at the company fabrication and test facilities in Flekkefjord. The seminar also covered the basic background theories for the empirical tests. One important aspect being that oil has less than 20% of the thermal conductivity of water. In addition the oil has a much higher viscosity which increases the conductivity gap even more.

Parat has over the last five years had great success delivering their OSR system based on steam injection into the oil storage tanks. Lately alternative solutions based on tank heating with low temperature compact heating coils has come on the market. To verify if this hot water based solution can work, Parat has installed one compact heating coil and one steam injection nozzle into a test-tank filled with heavy oil. The results from the tests clearly showed the participants that use of a heating coil for increasing the viscosity of the oil is not a viable solution and that the theoretical conclusions match the empirical results.

Tags: Parat Halvorsen AS