ELECTRONIC FUEL MGT. SYSTEM
In order to save both fuel and energy of a ship, it is very important to first know how much fuel is being consumed. A Fuel Management System allows you to do exactly this. The system helps in monitoring, measuring, and displaying the amount of fuel oil used by a ship. Fuel management system wasn't used on board initially; however with the increasing costs of marine fuel it has become an imperative device on ship. The main goal of the system is to reduce the amount of fuel usage of the ship by improving the operational efficiency of the fuel oil system. The system also helps in keeping a continuously watch on all the fuel tanks levels right from the comfort of ship’s engine control room or bridge. This continuously monitoring also helps in evaluating how much total fuel each engine or generator can consume, and thus provides a clearer picture as to how the vessel uses the fuel oil.
On a ship devoid of fuel management system, measurement of fuel usage is done by dipping the sounding tape or stick into each of the fuel tanks or by reading the level gauges of all tanks. Using a manual method, the amount of fuel used during a particular voyage can be easily measured.
Whereas a fuel management system not only provides the amount of fuel used but also gives additional data related to fuel usage. A Marine fuel management system provides various other parameters such as the amount of fuel used while traveling at sea or at port, amount of fuel used by a specific engine or generator, comparing fuel usage between voyages, and the amount of fuel used by a particular crew. Apart from this, the system provides a detailed analysis of all fuel oil using systems on board a ship and also allows the ship's crew to track each and every drop of fuel oil, thus reducing fuel consumption and improving the over all efficiency.
A marine fuel management system helps in providing the accurate amount of fuel oil burnt at any particular vessel speed or engine rpm. This helps the ship's crew to continuously measure and monitor the fuel, an extremely important aspect when the ship is sailing. A continuous measuring system will also help in measuring the fuel burn rate or the amount of fuel required by an engine at a particular rpm in an hour, in a watch, or in one full day. The fuel management system thus helps crew members to take decisions that would not affect the fuel burn rate of the engine and would also increase the efficiency. Thus, marine fuel oil management system is extremely important on board modern ships with the increasing fuel oil cost and the need for a greener and better environment. In the process, the system not only increases the ships efficiency but also saves a lot of money.