Rivertrace Hits the Headlines

SmartSafe is designed to prevent the negligent or wilful discharge of oil overboard, in two ships nearing complwetion in a South Korean yard. The newbuildings are a LNG carrier and a car carrier. breaks new ground in the detection, recording and prevention of illegal overboard discharges. SmartSafe is claimed to be the shipping industry’s first working automatic ‘plug and play’ bilge overboard security system to tackle those intent on using ‘magic pipes’ to discharge oil overboard illegally. The UN Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection estimates that an avoidable 68% of pollution from ships is attributable to deliberate oil discharge. The Paris Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), the Tokyo MOU, and the US Coast Guard are running continuing campaigns targeting equipment used to bypass ships’ oily water separators (“magic pipes), flouting MARPOL73/78 Annex I rules to prevent marine pollution from ships. These MARPOL regulations have or are being incorporated into regional and national laws that go as far as criminalising accidental oil discharges. Rivertrace argues that even shipowners that take pride in their green credentials, with state-of-the-art ships, sophisticated and expensive oily water separator systems and well-trained crews, are vulnerable to system failures and incorrect operation or even by-pass. Again, as crew turnover soars, blue chip owners have been exposed to total negligence in OWS operation. In some cases, fines have run into tens of millions of dollars. The PLC-based SmartSafe system uses Rivertrace in-house written software to monitor the separator system’s diverter valve and flow rate and cumulative flow through the discharge pipe, detecting any attempt to tamper. Available for newbuildings and for retrofit, SmartSafe is said to be compatible with any type of separator and separately controls its own overboard diverter valve.