D semester

A bilge is the lowest space of the ship. It is the area where two sides of the ship meet. The corners of the lowest compartment of the ship a bilge. You can see a bilge compartment if you go to any corner of the lowest platform of the engine room and peep beneath the floor plates. It’s a space which is often filled up with an/a black liquid. These bilge compartments are also known as bilge wells, where all the bilge water gets . The depth and the number of bilge wells depend on the ship’s size, its capacity and the amount of bilge it generates. A bilge well is the most important collection tank of the entire engine room. A amount of sea water can seep into the bilge well if there is a leakage in the shaft gland or stuffing box. Sea water can also enter from leaky main sea chest valves. Fresh water from heat exchangers, fresh water generators and boilers often to the filling of bilge wells. Oil finds its way to the bilge well mainly from the fuel oil purifiers, leakage in fuel line and oil spills. It is a governmental law that any liquid which has oil particles in it should not be discharged in the open sea. Bilge wells are helpful to store this water but can sometimes be a threat to the engine room. If the bilge wells overflow it could cause a rise in the level of water up to or above the floor plates. This could lead to accidents, emergency situations or even in the stability of the ship. For this reason, bilge wells are periodically emptied by pumping out the bilge with the help of bilge pumps. MARPOL states that bilge water cannot be directly pumped out into the sea. For this reason, bilge water is first passed through an Oily Water Separator where the level of oil particles in the mixture is significantly brought down. When the PPM of oil particles in the mixture comes down to the permissible limit, it is allowed to be thrown overboard but only when the ship is en . Bilge wells are always provided with strainers to prevent solid particles from entering. This is done to prevent in the oily water separator or bilge pump. Absence of strainers might lead to drop in bilge pump outlet pressure and reduction in outlet flow of oily water separators. A bilge well has two compartments, separated by a bulkhead that extends half or three quarters of the height of the well. A with small holes covers the well. As soon as the water reaches a certain height, it flows to the well next to it.