Never at sea with delivery schedules

In Norway, Ankertokken Verft was building two chemical carriers, each with a capacity of 31,000 tons, suitable for all liquid cargoes.

In keeping with demands for modern freighters, quick loading and short harbour time were the key factors in the designing and building of the chemical carriers.

Because of the lack of timely and sufficient drying of cargo tanks for chemical products, the ship owners are often at sea with delivery schedules.

Drying of cargo tanks for chemical products has been and still is very difficult. Weather conditions are very rarely the way they should be for efficient drying of tanks. The quality of products being shipped is however, improving. Hence more and more shippers demand high quality shipping facilities for their products. This means that clean and dry tanks are a necessity on modern chemical tankers.

Loss of time in drying due to rain or fog leads to costly downtime and higher operating costs. This has been reason enough for ship owners to equip their new chemical carriers with onboard dehumidifiers.

Why dehumidification?

Dehumidification removes the variable of weather as a factor in efficient and timely drying of tanks. After the tanks are washed and the water puddle removed, it is the moisture inside which will not dry. In fact on an autumn afternoon if the hold is exposed to the ambient atmosphere the tank will get wetter and wetter. This happens because the sea water temperatures are low and subsequently the temperature of the steel storage tanks would be low too. If the temperature of the steel is lower than the ambient, RH being 90-95% at sea, tanks will not dry.

The dehumidifier removes the moisture from the air and blows very dry air into the hold. This dry air has a dewpoint much lower than the steel temperature. This means that the water left after the wash will evaporate, leaving the tank dry.

Several newly built ships in Holland, Germany and Norway are already equipped with Bry-Air dehumidifiers as onboard installations.

On time with delivery schedules

Onboard Bry-Air dehumidifier installations have helped overcome the variable of weather in the drying of cargo tanks which can now be dried even during rain or fog. There is no necessity to be anchored at harbour as the installation is always ready to work independently.

Initial investment is low compared to the costs that can be avoided.
Moreover, installation is easy to handle and maintenance kept to the minimum.
(Reproduced from Bry-World - Bry-Air International Newsletter, Issue 3)