Oil
spill disaster prevention system test and analysis is completed
Posted: 27 April 2004
How do you test and analyze a disaster-prevention system without
risking a disaster?
MH Systems has done that and completed the extensive analysis,
under the aegis of the Office of Naval Research (ONR).
After the massive 11 million gallons oil spill in Alaska, the U.S.
Congress
enacted the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 essentially mandating Double
Hull for all tankers in the U.S. waters after 2015.
However, the OPA 90 allowed for the evaluation and approval of
alternatives that can be determined to have equal or better performance
than the double hull in protecting the marine environment.
Mo Husain, President of MH Systems, spent 12 years leading a team
of engineers and scientists developing and testing the American
Underpressure system (AUPS).
It is an active inert gas controlled system utilizing a vacuum
technique which drastically reduces or totally prevents spillage
from a rupture of the hull, either accidentally or from enemy action.
The AUPS has been tested in full scale on the USNS Shoshone in
2002. Now, the analysis of test results has been completed and the
final report submitted.
Mo Husain states that all the conceivable concerns expressed by
the USCG
regarding AUPS, directly, by inference (or anecdotal), have been
addressed. The AUPS is safe, reliable and unusually cost effective.
Mr.
Husain summarizes some of the findings of the study:
The system is totally automatic. There is no initiation of the
system
after the casualty occurs; the system is continually active from
the time
cargo is loaded until it is discharged. There is no requirement
for human
intervention.
The system is structurally safe: The American Bureau of Shipping
(ABS) was tasked to conduct the structural analysis and states categorically
"However, we can state that from a structural assessment point
of view the underpressure procedure is a viable system."
The AUPS vapor control system eliminates or prevents emission from
crude
oil due to evaporation. Very little evaporation occurs in a closed
loop
AUPS if external perturbations due to fluctuating diurnal temperatures
are
kept in check by a heat exchanger.
The AUPS is economically viable and cost effective. There are no
other
systems, including double hulls, that can match the cost effectiveness
of
AUPS. The acquisition costs, including logistic costs plus present
net
worth of operating costs over 10 years, is $6,617,000 and $7,844,000
for
tankers - 70,000 dwt and 300,000 dwt respectively.
A risk based design analysis of AUPS shows that extraordinary reliability
(approximately 0.997) is achievable using some redundancy in equipment.
For more information see http://www.mhsystemscorp.com
Posted by Richard Price,
Editor Pipeline Magazine
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