MOL announces joint development of world’s first portable liquid-level fuel gauge

20 Jan 2012 - Port Planning, Shipping

• MOL and Musashino Co. develop world's first portable liquid-level gauge for vessel fuel tanks

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd (MOL) and Musashino Co., Ltd. have announced the joint development of the world's first portable liquid-level gauge for vessel fuel tanks.

The portable gauge reduces the workload needed to measure a ship's fuel level during bunkering and enables more accurate measurement, whilst preventing incidents such as fuel spills from overfilling, according to MOL.

In December 2011, MOL invited several shipowners and ship management companies to a demonstration of the system on a vessel under construction.
“This holds promise in preventing overflow problems,” one observer claimed.

Even on vessels equipped with fixed liquid-level gauges, crews measure the liquid level manually by hanging sounding tapes into sounding pipes located on the deck, to help prevent overflow and to check bunkering volume during refueling. This operation must be done by a skilled crew, which creates additional burden on the crew as he must measure several tanks simultaneously.

With the new liquid-level gauge, the pressure sensor, which is suspended into the fuel tank, senses changes in liquid-level pressure and detects the fuel level in the tank quickly and accurately.

In addition, because of the function of wireless transmission, several tanks can be monitored on the ship’s computer at the same time.

This improves the efficiency of fuel level measuring operations, reduces workload, and helps prevent overflows, thus reducing the risk of fuel spills and environmental damage from fuel tank overfill, state MOL.