5 Tanker Terms That Can Help

You in Being Safe On Tankers

Written by Capt Rajeev Jassal on August 7, 2016

Did you know a rich flammable mixture can ignite with just 1
Joule of energy ? If that does not surprise you yet, let me tell you
how much energy we are talking about here.
By just rubbing your hands with force for just one time
produces 12 Joules of energy. Surprised ?
When the ships started exporting oil cargoes, people were too
afraid to sail on them. And those who sailed on them had to listen
to something like

You are sailing on a bomb, you never know when it is going to

explode.
And they were absolutely right about that. Back then there were
no procedures and controls to mitigate the risks imposed by
carrying flammable cargoes in bulk.

Fast forward today and we have all the controls to avoid

explosions on tankers.

But irrespective of type of tanker and controls in place, explosions

are always a concern. But what will be a even bigger concern is
the people working on tankers not knowing about these controls
and the basic terms used on tankers.

Well I am sure we all have gone through basic and then advanced
courses on tanker operations. But sometimes all that we are
taught does not seems to sink in.

In this post we will discuss 5 of the basic terms very commonly

used on tankers.

1. Fire Triangle

Ahh !! We all know what is fire triangle ?

But when we talk about safety on tankers, fire triangle has to
have first mention. It is because every thing we are doing for the
safety on tankers is to avoid the three sides of the fire triangle to
meet.

Fire needs three things to start and continue burning. Fuel, air (or
Oxygen) and source of ignition. And when three of these meet,
Fuel will catch fire.
On tankers all the three are present in abundance.

The cargo carried on tankers acts as fuel. Air is present on

tankers as it is present elsewhere. And there are few but enough
sources of ignitions which if not controlled can make a tanker
explode.
Our only aim is that these three elements of a fire triangle should
not be present at the same location. In fact almost all fire safety
related regulations are based on achieving this.
For example, regulation for inert gas is for reducing the oxygen
level in the tank. Not allowing lighters, match boxes on deck is
for removing the source of ignition.
Requirement of maximum Loading rate of 1 m/s for static
cargoes is to avoid a spark inside a tank (source of ignition).
There are many things we do on tankers to ensure that three
elements of the fire triangle do not meet. Even the deck foam
system used for deck fires uses the smothering effect to
extinguish fire, which aims to remove one element (air) from the
fire to extinguish it.
When we follow these guidelines, we succeed. But if we do not
then this there can be explosion and casualties . Only the
knowledge of the atmosphere on and around tanker vessel can
help in avoiding these situation.

2. Flammable limits

Let me ask a question. You are on a tanker and you measure the
atmosphere of cargo tank by a portable gas meter. The reading
shows 80% LEL value. Now if there is any spark inside the tank,
will the tank explode ?

If you know the answer, well done. If you do not know or are in
doubt I hope you will get the answer in this post.

As I said fire (or explosion) needs three things to occur. If we

leave aside the spark, for something not to explode, either there
should be insufficient fuel or insufficient oxygen or both.

Lets talk about insufficient fuel. How much less is insufficient ?

A 10 litres Jar containing 1 litre of gasoline will explode if we

spark it. But a 10000 m3 tank containing same 1 litre of same
gasoline may not explode.
This is because It is not the fuel that burn but the vapors. A
mixture of hydrocarbons and air cannot be burned unless its
composition is in the correct range. This range is called
flammable range.

Vapors of 1 litres of gasoline in 10 litres jar are enough for

ignition but in 10000 m3 tank, these are too small and will get
diluted in the air inside the tank.

This concentration of hydrocarbons is measured as percentage

of volume.
When we say 10% hydrocarbons by volume inside the empty
tank of 10000 m3 capacity, it means around 1000 m3 of
hydrocarbons are present. Rest 9000 m3 is air.

Now how much percentage of volume of hydrocarbons is

insufficient to burn ? Each gas will have different percentage.
Isnt it ?

For example, for propane this concentration is 2.3% and

for pentane this concentration is 1.5%.

If the concentration of propane in a tank is 1.5%, and we spark

it, it will not burn. That is because the concentration is below
minimum required to burn the mixture of air and propane.
This minimum concentration of hydrocarbons required in the air
for it to be able to ignite is called lower flammable (or explosion)
limit.

Want the text book definition of lower flammable (or explosion)

limit ? Here it is..

Lower flammable (or explosion) limit is the concentration of

hydrocarbons below which there is insufficient hydrocarbon to
support and propagate combustion

Now let us talk about the insufficient oxygen.

When oil is placed in a container, it has a tendency to vaporise.

Different liquids (and different oils) have different tendency to
vaporise. The amount of vapors emitted also depends upon the
surrounding temperature.

The concentration of these vapors dilutes the concentration of

other gases in the air including oxygen.

At some point, these vapors may dilutes the air to a level when
there is insufficient oxygen to ignite these vapors.

This concentration of hydrocarbons is called upper flammable (or

explosion) limit. The text book definition of UFL is

Upper flammable limit is the concentration of hydrocarbons above

which there is insufficient air (or oxygen) to support the
combustion.
Again let us take example of propane. Propane has UFL of 9.5%
by volume. So if the concentration of propane is 11%, we can say
that there will not be enough air to support combustion and this
mixture will not ignite.

Now lets say you measure the concentration of butane in a tank

and found it to be 2.0% by volume. Are you in flammable range ?

Ahh !!

You need to check what is the lower explosive limit of Butane.

Right ? And so do we need to know the LEL of each cargo we
load. That sounds like crazy. But wait, how about this ?
What if we say for any cargo or flammable liquid,

LEL by percentage of volume = 100% LEL. And then we get an

equipment to measure percentage of LEL.

So, for propane 2.3% Volume = 100% LEL

Now if this equipment shows a reading of 70% LEL, it means it is

30% below the lower explosion limit.

Returning back to our question, we now understand that when we

say 100% LEL, we have just touched the lower explosive limit.
Anything below 100% LEL, we are not in the flammable limit.
When the concentration is above 100% LEL, we need to measure
the concentration in percentage of volume.

Now have you ever come across this flowchart ? This flow chart is
from ISGOTT.
This is the flowchart for tank cleaning on oil tankers in non-inert
atmosphere. If you notice the flowchart tries to maintain the
hydrocarbon concentration between 10% to 35% LEL. The whole
idea is not to allow the tank atmosphere reach in the flammable
range (100% LEL).
3. Flash Point

Flammable liquids has a tendency to vaporise. Some of the the

vapors also turns back into the liquid and these finally attain an
equilibrium state. At this equilibrium state, these flammable liquid
may have a mixture of hydrocarbon and air that is between LFL
and UFL (flammable range).

But not all the flammable liquids will be in flammable range at

this equilibrium. This depends upon the tendency of the
flammable liquid to vaporise.

It wont be hard to believe that with more temperature, the liquid

will vaporise more. And at some temperature it will release
sufficient vapors to form a flammable mixture.
Flash point is the minimum temperature at which the liquid emits
sufficient vapors to form flammable mixture with the air.

Flash point is calculated by heating a liquid slowly and then a

spark is applied to the surface of the liquid. The temperature at
which surface of the liquid catches fire indicates the presence of
flammable mixture. This temperature will be the Flash point of
that liquid. This method of determining the flash point is
called close cup method.
Now why knowledge of flash point is important ? If the flash point
of a liquid is less than the ambient temperature, it just needs a
spark (source of ignition) to explode. We need to have more
stringent controls for these cargoes.

This is also the criteria for determining the cargoes that would
need stringent controls. Industry has set the ambient
temperature criteria as 60 C as a safety margin.

Liquids with the flash point of less than 60 C are called volatile
liquids. And the one with flash point above 60 C are called non-
valatile liquids.

4. Flammability Diagram

Anyone who is or have been on tankers would have seen this

diagram called flammability diagram.
The principle used in the flammability diagram is simple. It
emphasizes on the fact that at no point we should be in
flammable range during a critical operation. It also shows us a
way to do it.

The principle used in the flammability diagram is simple. It

emphasizes on the fact that at no point we should be in
flammable range during a critical operation. It also shows us a
way to do it.

Let us say our cargo tank is at point F (10% flammable cargo

vapors, oxygen reduced by inert gas). We wish to gas free the
tank to arrive at point A where there are no flammable vapors
and oxygen content is 21%.
If we start putting air inside the tank, the decrease in
concentration of flammable vapor and increase in oxygen level
will follow a line FA. This passes through flammable range which
we need to avoid.

It is thus required to first reduce the concentration of flammable

vapors by inert gas to a point H . After this when we introduce air
inside the tank, the dilution of flammable mixture will follow the
line HA which ensures that we are never in the flammable range
during this process.

Knowledge of flammability diagram reminds us how important it

is to be outside the flammability range.

5. Exposure limits

While we cannot deny that flammability is the top concern for

anyone involved with the tanker operations. But no one can deny
this too that human exposure to toxic gases is will be a close
second if not top concern.

It is the fact that many of he cargoes carried on all

tankers contain deadly gases like benzene and H2S.
Even WHO has recognised the exposure to benzene as a major
public health concern. This makes it of utmost importance that a
person taking first step on a tanker is aware of presence and
exposure limits of these gases.
To know how best to protect ourselves from the health hazards of
these gases, we must know the terms related to exposure limits.
i) Threshold limit value (TLV)
This is also sometimes known as Permissible exposure limit (PEL).
However the term PEL is not used on tankers these days. This is
because the word permissible gives the feeling of allowed.
Though this is safer limit but we need to aim for minimum
exposure (and not the permissible exposure) of toxic vapors.
Threshold seem to be a better word for that.

TLV is the maximum concentration of toxic vapors that a person

can be subject to each day without any adverse health effect.

Though there are three types of TLVs , persons working on

tankers should know at least two of these.
 TLV-TWA (Threshhold limit value Time weighted
average)
This is concentration of toxic vapours that a person can
be subject to continuously for 8 hours in a day without any
adverse health effect.
TLV-TWA takes into account the normal working schedule of 8
hours per day and 40 hours per week.

TLV-STEL (Threshold limit value- Short term exposure

limit)
TLV-STEL is the maximum concentration of toxic vapours that a
person can be subjected to for a short duration of 15 minutes
without any adverse health hazard.

Since STEL is for shorter duration than TWA, it will always be

more than TWA value. But does that mean we can expose a
person to the value of STEL for 15 minutes, take a break for 5
minutes and then again expose him for 15 minutes. A time
duration need to be set. Right ?

So if a person is exposed to toxic vapors concentration above

TWA but below STEL,

The person can be exposed to maximum 15 minutes

The minimum duration between subsequent exposure should be 60 minutes

Exposure cannot be more than 4 times in one day

ii) Odour threshold value

This is the minimum concentration of toxic vapors at which a normal human being
can sense the smell (odour) of the gas.

Why it is important to know the odour threshold value of a toxic gas ? If odour
threshold value is more than TWA or STEL, you may get exposed to the toxic gas
before you can even smell the presence of the toxic vapours.

Everyone working on tankers must be aware of the exposure limits of the vapours
released by the cargo onboard. And they should not enter any compartment which
has the vapour concentration in excess of these exposure limits.

Conclusion

Every vessel type have some must know terms. And like all the vessels, tankers too
have some of these terms which any one associated with tankers must know before
they board a tanker. On tankers these terms are related to the flammability and
exposure limits of the toxic vapours.

Knowledge of these terms helps the seafarers in identifying the risks. And once
you know the risks, it just needs you to follow standard practices to mitigate these
risks.