Ship’s Machinery Spaces
Engine room: This consists of Main Engine and associated equipment. Main engine is a huge thing like about 8- 9 m. tall and 3-4 m wide. It is fixed on bottom framing on the center fore and aft line of the ship. Around engine there is MAZE of Pipelines, valves, filters, pumps, air compressors and electrical cables. There is colour coding to identify pipelines and valves. If nothing is done, we will not be able to walk in the engine room. To ensure that we can reach each and every place in the engine room, platforms are built around main engine. They also cover up pipelines and other obstructions. We can walk over all platforms. They are painted with Anti-skid paint.
Even though there is no fixed rule, generally following description will fit most of the engine rooms.
Steering gear compartment: This is located above the rudder and has steering gear equipment. Normally this is the aftermost part of the ship at that level. It is NEVER part of an Engine room.
Boiler room: This is where boiler is located. It may not be present on all ships.
Purifier rooms: it is part of Engine room but isolated due to higher risk of fire.
Battery room: It is located away from the engine room.
Emergency pump room: Contains emergency fire pump and is located outside the engine room.
Emergency generator room: Contains emergency generator and is located away from the engine room.
VERY IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER THAT NO FUEL OIL IS STORED IN THE MACHINERY SPACES EXCEPT SMALL SUPPLY FOR ABOUT 48-72 HOURS CONSUMPTION. THAT TOO IS STORED IN TANKS WITH QUICK CLOSING VALVES FOR EMERGENCY CUT-OFF.
Top platform: This is where you generally land first. It has lots of tanks and pipelines.
Tanks
Main engine crank case lube oil tank
Hot well / cascade tank
Diesel oil settling tank
Diesel oil service tank
Heavy oil settling tank
Heavy oil service tank
Mixing column
Cylinder lube oil storage tank
Jacket cooling water expansion tank
Pumps
sanitary hydrophore pump
Fresh water hydrophore pump
sludge discharge pump
Auxiliary Machinery
Exhaust boiler
Incinerator
Sewage plant
Fresh water hydrophore
sanitary hydrophore
Engine room over head crane
Auxiliary steam condenser
Spare Parts
The top platform contains the spare parts of main engine and spares for the operation of the ship including the following.
Spare piston rod
Spare cylinder head
Spare cylinder liner
Spare propeller
What is an Incinerator?
Burns waste oil, sludge, cotton waste etc.
What is Hot Well?
Hot Well recollects the steam after the work is done and it is condensed. Boiler water tank is known as the hot well.
What is a Hydrophore System?
It is used to maintain the pressure of the water supplied to the different parts of the ship at various heights to keep the constant pressure of water in all lines and at all floors of the ship.
There are two hydrophore systems used on board:
Fresh water hydrophore system
Sanitary hydrophore system
What is the Jacket Cooling Water Expansion Tank?
This is part of engine cooling system. Expansion tanks are provided for venting of gas, air or vapour formed in the jacket cooling water line, which has to be released.
Expansion tank also consists of a sight glass to observe the water level in the tank.
WorkShop
WORK SHOP is present in the top platform it contains :
Lathe machine
Drilling machine
Grinding machine
Milling machine
Working bench
Bench vice
These machines are normally used for fitting and maintenance purposes only.
List of Stores
Engine room consumable store
Engine spare store
Electric store
Ordinary tools store
Middle Platform:
Following pumps are found on the middle platform of the ship’s engine room:
Main engine booster pump
Boiler feed pump
Fresh water condenser pump
Maine engine fuel pumps
Coolers
Jacket cooling water cooler
Main lube oil cooler
Fresh water generator cooler
Heaters
Purifier steam heater
Main engine fuel oil heater
Auxiliary Machinery
The following auxiliary machinery is generally found at the middle level of the engine room
Main air compressor
Auxiliary / topping air compressor
Emergency air compressor.
Control air compressor
Dehumidifier
Fresh water generator
Auxiliary air blower for main engine.
Auxiliary generators / alternators.
Heavy oil purifier
Diesel oil purifier
Why generators are provided at the middle platform?
Generator are provided at the middle platform because in the extreme situation of flooding of bottom platform. immediate shutdown of the power supply or black out condition can be avoided.
Why Fresh Water Generator is located at the middle platform?
Normally the waste heat is used to heat water in the fresh water generator. If the fresh water is generated is located at the bottom platform, there would be a back pressure of sea water and sufficient vacuum will not be created. Therefore it is placed at the middle platform.
Why lube oil & heavy oil heaters are provided?
Heavy oil and lube oil is heated before entering the purifier for the effective purification of the oil, and since the purifiers are located at the middle tier, the heaters have to be there.
Air Bottles: These bottles provide air for the starting of main engine. Compressed air from the air bottle is taken and pressure reduced to (6-8) kg/cm2 by the pressure reducing valve and this air is used for control and service purposes.
Mainly vertical air bottles are used for less space consumption.
Auxiliary air bottles are used for the auxiliary engines.
Emergency air bottle is used to start the emergency generator in case of power failure and gives control air for the QCV (quick closing valve).
Bottom Platform:
Bottom platform of the engine room contains the following:
Various pumps including :
Main sea water pumps
Auxiliary sea water pumps
Main ballast pump
Heavy oil transfer pump
Diesel oil transfer pump
Lube oil transfer pump
Main engine lube oil pump
Bilge pump
Sludge pump
Air conditioner condenser pumps
Fridge pump
Fire and general service pump
Fresh water generator ejector pumps
Piston cooling water pump
Jacket cooling water pump
Tanks
There are lots of fluids that need storage space on a ship, and hence there are different kinds of tanks meant for such storage. Given below is a list of tanks that you would normally find on the bottom platform of a ship
Fuel oil drain tank
Sludge drain tank
Lube oil drain tank
Lube oil renovating tank
Scavenger drain tank
Stuffing oil drain tank.
Piston cooling water tank.
Bilge holding tank.
Bilge holding tank
Bilge Wells
Basically all leakage oil and sludges along with engine room wash water gets collected in the spaces known as bilge wells.
There are normally 4 bilge wells inside the engine room as follow
Aft bilge well
Port side bilge well
Starboard bilge well
Central bilge well
Auxiliary Machinery
Auxiliary machinery does not directly help in ship propulsion but is very important to carry out related tasks without which it would be literally impossible to run a ship smoothly. Here are some of the auxiliary machinery found on the bottom platform of a vessel
Lube oil purifier
Diesel oil purifier
Oil water separator
Cofferdam and Drain Tanks
What do you mean by cofferdam?
To avoid the mixing of two different liquids a void space/empty space is provided between two tanks. This prevents any accidental intermixing of two different liquids due to leaking.
What is stuffing drain tank?
Stuffing box oil can be re-used because the oil is not contaminated. Whatever oil from crank case is scrapped by the stuffing box from piston rod; it is drained to the stuffing drain tank.
What is scavenge drain tank/dirty tank?
Whatever waste oil produced in the scavenge spaces or present in the scavenge spaces is drained to scavenge drain tank.
The oil present in the scavenge space is mainly from the cylinder lubrication drained along with the unburned carbon particles which are present due to the blow past of the piston rings. This oil cannot be re-used so it is called dirty oil.
The scavenge drain oil is mainly burned in the incinerator which is present in the ship to burn the wast sludge and oils which cannot be used.
Pump room
Normally pump rooms are found on liquid carriers. They are dedicated to cargo pumps and have independent ventilation systems. They are located out side engine rooms, generally forward of engine room bulkhead.
Miscellaneous Machinery Spaces
They are found out side engine room and are located at convenient places. They may contain Electrical, Hydraulic or Pneumatic machinery and/or control systems.
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