1. 1.
INTRODUCTION
1.1 1.0 THE COURSE
This section should give a short background for and the purpose of the course as:
The International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for
Seafarers (STCW 78/95), which contains mandatory minimum requirements for training and
qualifications of masters, officers and ratings of chemical tankers.
This training is divided into two parts:
Level 1: Chemical tanker familiarization – a basic safety training course for
officers and ratings serving on board chemical tankers.
Level 2: Advanced training in chemical tanker operations for masters, officers
and others who are to have immediate responsibilities for cargo handling and cargo
equipment.
This course covers the requirements for level 1 and level 2 training required by STCW
78/95 Chapter V Regulation V/1 – 1.2, 2.2 and Section A-V/1 regulations 15- 21
1.1.1 1.1 SEA TRANSPORT OF CHEMICALS
Sea transport of chemicals started with the chemical industries’ rapid growth in the
years after the World War Two.
At first, chemicals were transported in bottles or drums on dry cargo ships; larger
quantities were shipped in bulk in the deep tanks of these ships.
As the world’s demand for chemicals increased, the need for a new type of seagoing
ship became evident.
The first chemical tankers were converted war-built American oil tankers (T-2
tankers).
Conversion work usually included:
- - adding bulkheads to provide more and smaller tanks
- - extending the line system
- - installing additional cargo pumps
In addition to these converted, relatively big chemical carriers, smaller tankers
specially designed and constructed for the carriage of "acids" – e.g. sulphuric acid – were
built during the early 1950’s, the cargo tanks of which were made of special alloy steel,
strengthened for cargo densities up to 2.0 kg/l.
In order to carry chemicals of high purity and sensitive to contamination, coating
techniques were developed for cargo tanks of mild steel.
The first real chemical tanker specially designed for the carriage of liquid chemicals in
bulk was the Norwegian M.T. "Lind", delivered in 1960; this was the first tanker equipped
with stainless-steel cargo tanks.
A modern chemical tanker has a large number of cargo tanks and is designed for
carriage of a wide variety of cargoes.
The cargo-tank section on these modern ships is normally divided into some stainless-
steel tanks and some coated mild-steel tanks, each of which is normally equipped with
deepwell pumps and a separate piping system.
The term "chemical tanker" does indeed cover a wide range of designs from quite
simple vessels designed for transport of low hazard type chemicals to highly complex
vessels designed for transport of a large variety of chemicals and special purpose vessels
built for the transport of a single or a few chemicals. In the following we shall mainly focus
on general purpose chemical tanker design and operation.
1.1.2 1.1.1 CARGO TYPES
The range of cargoes normally transported by such vessels is often grouped as follows:
- - Chemicals
- - Oil products
- - Animal and vegetable oil
- - Other substances.
However, if one wishes to consider the consequences of rules and regulations on design and
equipment of chemical tankers, it may be useful to group the different cargoes according to
the extent the various rules and certification requirements apply.
The entry into force of MARPOL Annex II has established as an overruling principle:
"NO LIQUID CARGO IS ALLOWED TO BE CARRIED UNLESS IT HAS BEEN ASSESSED BOTH FOR
SAFETY AND MARINE POLLUTION."
For crude oil and oil products this assessment has been done once and for all and the
consequential application of Regulations and Certification requirements is straight forward. In
terms of safety the SOLAS requirements for oil tankers apply to products with flashpoint less
than 60 Centigrades and the Safety Equipment Certificate is proof of compliance. In terms of
marine pollution all oils, regardless of flashpoint, are subject to the MARPOL Annex I
regulations and the IOPP certificate is the proof of compliance.
For liquid cargoes other than oils the picture is far less clear. The main grouping of the cargoes
is:
1) 1) Cargoes subject to the requirements of the "expanded" International Bulk Chemical
Code. In Chapter 17 of the Code these cargoes are listed ("expanded" means the
International Bulk Chemical Code with amendments making MARPOL Annex II
requirements part of the Code)
2) 2) Cargoes not subject to the requirements of the "expanded" International Bulk
Chemical Code. These cargoes are listed in Chapter 18 of the Code.
Cargoes under 1. are those products assessed to possess safety hazards according to the
hazard criteria of the Chemical Code or products categorized as A, B or C according to the
marine pollution hazard criteria given by MARPOL Annex II.
It is worth noticing that the chemical hazard criteria includes flammability hazards, toxicity
(human life), reactivity and corrosivity as opposed to SOLAS hazard criteria which only
considers flammability.
Cargoes under 2. are those not found to be hazardous according to the Chemical Code Criteria
and which have no marine pollution hazards (Annex II, Appendix III) or very moderate marine
pollution effects, i.e. categorized as D substances according to MARPOL Annex II criteria.
It should be observed that all products under 2. both category D products and Appendix III
products which have flashpoint less than 60 o C are subject to the SOLAS regulations for tankers
(fire protection requirements).
Products under group 1 are only allowed to be carried under a Certificate of Fitness for the
Carriage of Dangerous Chemicals in Bulk (C.O.F.) and it is required that the products permitted
are listed in the Certificate by their names. For sake of practicality the C.O.F also lists category
D products in group 2.
Products in group 2 having pollution hazard category D only are required to be carried under a
separate Noxious Liquid Substance Certificate (NLS) if the vessel does not hold a C.O.F. The
requirements to be complied with for obtaining such certificate are purely operational and
hence carriage may be allowed on all types of ship, except for those products which have
flashpoint less than 60o C or which are required to be carried in vessels of oil tanker standard
in respect of fire protection and ship arrangements. Products in group 2 which are non-
pollutants may be carried without special certification. However, products with flashpoint less
than 60o C are only allowed in vessels of oil tanker standard.
Unlike oils the assessment of chemicals and other products is not a finalized process. New
substances and mixtures of different substances appear as bulk cargoes for sea transportation
from time to time. In order not to unduly upset the trade IMO has adopted guidelines for
provisional assessment of substances and allocation of carriage requirements. Provided
sufficient information and data for the potential cargo is available, such assessment may be
completed within a few days.
1.1.2 STRUCTURE OF RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR
1.1.3
CHEMICAL TANKERS
Both our classification rules and the International Bulk Chemical Code (IBC-Code) are
composed of two main parts:
1) 1) A general part containing regulations applicable to all multipurpose chemical tankers.
2) 2) An optional part containing special requirements for some individual cargoes or type
of cargoes.
A general purpose chemical tanker must satisfy all the requirements of the general part
(Sections 1 through 14 plus Section 16 of our Rules Part 5 Chapter 4). The general
requirements offer options to choose between in several areas, e.g. tank venting, tank ullaging
etc. and the choice has an impact on the allowable range of cargoes. The extent to which a
chemical tanker complies with the additional special requirements will further determine the
extent of additional cargoes permitted.
From the above it is seen that the term "chemical tanker" is non-specific because of the
alternatives and options available. In a specification it must therefore be stated which design
and equipment options and alternatives are to be complied with, alternatively a list of cargoes
for which the vessel is to be designed must be specified.
A dedicated chemical tanker differs from the multipurpose one in the respect that all of the
general regulations need not be fulfilled. This in particular applies to the fire protection
requirements, which need not be met for non-flammable products. In terms of classification
such a dedicated chemical tanker will not be assigned the general "Tanker for Chemicals"
notation, but have a notation e.g. "Tanker for phosphoric acid" or "Tanker for non-flammable
chemicals".
1.2 1.2 CARGOES IN CHEMICAL TANKERS
1.2.1 1.2.1 PETROCHEMICAL PRODUCTS
This is the classification for chemicals derived wholly or partially from petroleum or natural
gas, although this strict definition has now been generally broadened to include the whole
range of aliphatic, aromatic and naphtenic organic chemicals no matter what their source,
which may be petroleum, coal or vegetable. Petrochemicals such as benzene and naphthalene
may be obtained from either petroleum or coal, while ethyl alcohol may be of either petroleum
or vegetable origin. Petroleum is also considered as a raw material in a number of inorganic
chemicals such as sulphur, ammonia and carbon black.
Raw petroleum or crude oil is a complex product containing thousands of different compounds
of hydrogen and carbon and other chemicals such as sulphur and therefore must undergo
numerous refining treatments before the light gaseous hydrocarbons, which form the basis for
petrochemicals, are obtained. The first process, which the crude oil must undergo, is primary
or fractional distillation. This involves heating the crude oil and since the various hydrocarbons
in it have different boiling points they can be separated out into individual cuts or fractions.
These basic cuts are gasoline (the main component of petrol) Kerosene, gas oils and residual
heavy fuel fractions. These commodities are known as paraffins and make up the traditional
bulk liquid cargoes carried in "product" tankers. They are the "saturated" hydrocarbons and
chemically, they are relatively stable and unreactive. Although they do not constitute the
most suitable materials for making other substances, they do burn readily, some explosively
when vaporized and mixed with air, and hence their value as fuels.
Further processes such as thermal and, more efficient, catalytic cracking can be carried out on
the residual heavy fuel fractions or gas oils to yield lighter and more volatile, high quality
distillates and many light hydrocarbon gases such as methane, ethane, propane, butane,
olefins and acetylenes.
These gases are the unsaturated hydrocarbons and form the basis upon which the
petrochemical industry has been built. Petrochemicals gave birth to and are the feedstocks for
the giant plastics, synthetic rubber, synthetic fibres, agricultural chemicals and detergent
industries.
Plastics are made from simpler chemicals by the process of polymerization in which single
short chain molecules or monomers are combined to form molecules called polymers. The two
main groups of plastics are the thermosets and thermoplastics. Thermosets flow like syrup
when heated and then can be squeezed or moulded into any shape of form, the shape being
made permanent by further heating for a few minutes; after that they can no longer be melted
to make them flow again. Thermoplastics soften when heated and harden again when cooled.
Synthetic rubbers are also produced by polymerization and resemble certain types of plastics
but are characterized by the particular kind of elasticity found in natural rubber. There are two
types of synthetic rubber, the first being the general purpose rubbers which have many of the
same applications as natural rubber e.g. tyres wire and cable insulation as well as a wide range
of domestic articles. There are also special purpose synthetic rubbers which have been
developed for use where some particular quality is highly desirable e.g. resistance to great
heat, to oil or corrosive action. They are made from basic hydrocarbons such as butadiene,
styrene, acrylonitrile and isobutylene among others.
the more well known are nylon, Orlon, Acrilan and Terylene. The manufacture of these
synthetics uses basic petrochemicals as raw materials and the finished products display
properties similar to animal and vegetable fibres but also possess various additional properties
such as being non-flammable, unaffected by moths, mildew or the action of perspiration,
sunlight, heat and water. The majority of synthetic fibres are also chemical resistant.
The most widespread detergents are sodium alkyl benzene sulphonates produced by the
petrochemical industry. Detergents are surface-acting agents and derive their cleansing
properties from a molecular structure which reduces the surface tension of water and gives it
greater "wetting" power. Detergents are now widely used for domestic and industrial cleaning
purposes.
1.2.21.2.2 FEEDSTOCKS AND BASIC CHEMICALS
For many years, both Europe and Japan have used mainly naphtha as the feedstock for the
production of the basic chemicals ethylene, propylene and butadiene, known collectively as
the olefin family and used as "building blocks" for the paints, plastics, dyestuffs, synthetic
rubber and synthetic fiber industries.
The European chemical industry has traditionally depended upon cheap feedstocks of naphtha,
but since prices rose steeply in the 1970s, other forms of feedstock have been used.
Particularly attractive as an alternative has been LPG, which has already made a major impact
in the Japanese petrochemical industry and has successfully competed with naphtha in
European markets. However supply of LPG has been a problem as producers sort out their
production levels and pricing policies. While large LPG surpluses from Middle East producers
were being forecast as late as 1980, these have by and large not appeared, and the
considerable number of specialist gas carriers being built against this transport requirement
have been a disappointment to their owners. Still being assessed is the arrival in Europe of
large quantities of Saudi Arabian naphtha, which could prove very important to he European
chemical industry. In Japan the chemical industry is being encouraged to use greater principal
feedstock, the argument inevitably devolves upon price. The dominance of naphtha in Japan is
however being gradually reduced, which is also the case in the European market, where gas oil
and LPG’s are making a substantial impact.
The situation is completely reversed in the US, where the main reliance is on ethane, propane
and butane, less than 20 % of chemical feedstock being made up of naphtha. In the long term
especially with the greater interest in coal it is possible that a number of chemical building
blocks may derive from this source. Some crude, benzene, toluene and xylene are at present
made from coal and work is progressing on improving the process for making ethylene from
this fossil fuel.
