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Crude Oil Washing

Crude oil washing (COW) involves using crude oil cargo to wash out tank residues on oil tankers, dissolving sediments so they can be recovered and sold. It replaced prior methods like seawater washing and load on top that involved discharging contaminated water. COW equipment became mandatory in 1978 and modern tankers also use segregated ballast tanks to eliminate ballast water discharges.

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2K views2 pages

Crude Oil Washing

Crude oil washing (COW) involves using crude oil cargo to wash out tank residues on oil tankers, dissolving sediments so they can be recovered and sold. It replaced prior methods like seawater washing and load on top that involved discharging contaminated water. COW equipment became mandatory in 1978 and modern tankers also use segregated ballast tanks to eliminate ballast water discharges.

Uploaded by

Bharatiyulam
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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CRUDE OILWASHING (C O W)

CRUDE OIL WASHING

• Crude oil washing (COW) is washing out the residue from the tanks of an oil
tanker using the crude oil cargo itself.
• The oil dissolves the sediments and allows them to be recovered and sold.
• It replaced the load on top and seawater washing systems, both of which
involved discharging oil-contaminated water into the sea. MARPOL 73/78
made this mandatory equipment for oil tankers of 20,000 tons or greater
deadweight.
• Starting in the 1970s, equipment capable of using crude oil itself for
washing began to replace the water-based washing, leading to the current
technique of crude oil washing. This eliminates the remaining deliberate
discharge of oil-contaminated water and increases the amount of cargo
discharged, providing a further benefit to the cargo owner.
• Crude oil washing equipment became mandatory for new tankers of 20,000
tons or more deadweight with the 1978 Protocol to the 1973 MARPOL
Convention. Revised specifications for the equipment were introduced in
1999.
• Modern tankers also use segregated ballast tanks and these remove the
problem of discharge of ballast water,

SEAWATER WASHING

• Originally oil tankers used one set of tanks for cargo and about one third of
the same tanks were for water ballast on their empty trips.
• High pressure, hot, sea water jets were used to clean the tanks and the
mixture of sea water and residue called slops discharged into the sea, as was
the oil-contaminated ballast water.
• The 1954 OILPOL Convention attempted to reduce the harm by prohibiting
such discharges within 50 miles of most land and 100 miles of certain
particularly sensitive areas.

LOAD ON TOP

The discharges from seawater washing were still considered a problem and during
the 1960s the load on top approach began to be adopted. The mixture of cleaning
water and residue was pumped into a slop tank and allowed to separate into oil and
water during the journey. The water portion was then discharged, leaving only
crude oil in the slop tank. This was pumped into the main tanks and the new cargo
loaded on top of it, recovering as much as 800 tons of oil which was formerly
discarded.

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