Risk Assessment of Ship's Fuel Change-over Process - HAZOP Study on a fuel supply and booster module

Abstract

During a ship s sailing, changing over one type of fuel to another is a process that does have risks. However, as more stringent regulation on the sulphur contents of marine fuels has been activated, a ship passing through a sulphur emission control area has to perform fuel changeover to marine gas oil unless an approved exhaust gas scrubber is equipped to the ship. In this circumstance, this thesis is aimed to identify hazards of the fuel change-over process and to provide potential improvements for safe fuel change process. For this objective, a HAZOP study is performed and event sequence diagram is used. The scope of the HAZOP study is limited to fuel changeover process from HFO to MGO. The study object is a fuel supply and booster module manufactured by GenSys GmbH. Through the HAZOP study, main safety concerns of the fuel changeover process are identified and recommendations are suggested where the fuel changeover process safety can be improved. In addition, modified event sequence diagram is used when illustrating hazardous event sequence identified through the HAZOP study. Accordingly, specific guidelines are provided for ships having similar fuel supply system in accordance with each stage of fuel changeover process classified by this thesis.