Things You Must Know About Engine Room !

Last Updated on February 24, 2018 by Amit Abhishek

With high temperature, heavy noises and continues vibration, an engine room is not a very suitable place to work in. But ask any senior marine engineer and he would explain the difference between theory and practice with the working in E.C.R to getting real knowledge working dirty in the engine room.

Every marine engineer on watch should have the initial theoretical knowledge of daily operations and engine rooms machineries for identifying correct tools and machineries efficiently. So as a junior engineer or trainee marine engineer, its important to know about the engine room. He/She must be aware of the different machineries installed, their location and tools available.

Located in the aft of the ship, Engine room is the back bone of the ship with all the propulsion and auxiliaries installed in the space. It is ideally constructed into 3 decks/platforms commonly known as weather deck, utility deck and machinery deck.

Engine Room Equipment’s:

Pumps:

• Lube Oil Pump : Two set
• Jacket Water Pump : Two set
• Fire and General service Pump : Two set
• Emergency Fire Pump : Only one
• Fresh Water Pumps (Transfer) : Only one
• Main Cooling Sea Water Pump : Two Set
• Oily Water Separator Pump : Only one
• Piston Cooling Pump : Two Set
• Distillate Pump : Only one
• Ejector Pump : Only one
• Transfer Pump (HFO & D.O ) : One for each.
• Incinerator Pump : Only one
• Sewage Treatment Plant Pumps : (One for Re-circulating and One for Evacuating)
• Chlorine Mixture Pump : Only One
• Boiler Water Circulating Pump : Only One.
• Cross-head Pump : Two set
• Bilge Holding Pump : Two sets
• Ballast Pump : Two set
• Boiler Feed water Pump : Two sets
• Sludge Pump : Only one
• AC Cooling Pump : Only one
• Fuel Oil Supply Pump : Two sets
• Fuel Oil Booster Pump : Two sets
• Diesel Oil Purifier Supply Pump : Only one
• Refer Cooling Pump : Two sets
• Auxiliary Engine Supply Pump : Two sets
• Auxiliary Engine SW Cooling Pump : Two sets
• Auxiliary Engine Booster Pump : Two sets
• Hydrophore Pump : Two sets
• Purifier Supply Pump’s : ( two for each Heavy fuel oil and Diesel Oil)
• Fuel supply pump (Boiler) : Two sets
• Steering Gear Pump : Two sets

^{*Note:Feel free to comment down below if i miss any important pump!} 

Overboard and Sea-chest Valve:

• Boiler Blow-down Overboard Valve (oil fired/Exhaust Gas)
• Emergency Fire Pump Suction Valve
• Fresh Water generator, Ejector Overboard valve
• High Sea Chest Suction Valve
• Auxiliary Engine, Air compresses sea water (Cooling) overboard valve
• Sewage Overboard valve (Grey water)
• Low Sea Chest suction Valve
• Sewage Overboard valve (Black water)
• Galley water Overboard valve
• Low Sea Chest Suction to Ballast Well valve
• Main Engine Cooling Sea Water Overboard valve.
• Oily Water Separator overboard valve
• Fresh water Generator, Ejector Pump Suction Valve
• Auxiliary engine sea suction valve.

^{*Note:Feel free to comment down below if i miss any important Valve’s!}

Engine Room Machinery:

• Main Engine : Only one
• Auxiliary Engines : Depending on ship to ship can be 2 or 3.
• Steering Gear : Only one
• Emergency Generator : Only one
• Propeller Shaft
• Heavy fuel oil Purifier : Two sets
• Lube oil Purifiers : Two sets
• Diesel Oil purifier
• Economizer
• Sewage Treatment Plant
• Marine Growth Prevention System
• Auxiliary Boiler
• Incinerator
• Main Air Compressor : Two to three sets.
• Dump Condenser
• Fresh Water Generator
• Oily Water Separator
• Air conditioning Compressor
• Refer Compressor
• Main Air Bottle : Two sets
• Emergency Air Compressor
• Hydrophore System
• Lube Oil Cooler : two sets
• Auxiliary Engine, Jacket Cooling Water Cooler : Two sets
• Purifier Heater : One for each Heavy Fuel Oil and Diesel Oil.
• Jacket Water Cooler : Two sets
• Compressor Cooling Water Cooler : Two sets
• Auxiliary Engine Lube Oil Cooler
• Fuel Oil heaters : Two sets
• Lube oil heaters

^{*Note:Feel free to comment down below if i miss any important machinery!}

Tanks in Engine Room:

• Heavy Fuel Oil Storage Tanks
• Heavy Fuel Oil Settling Tank
• Heavy Fuel Oil Service Tank
• Diesel Oil Settling Tank
• Diesel Oil Service Tank
• Diesel Oil Storage Tanks
• Main Engine Lube Oil Sump
• Main Engine Cylinder Oil Daily Tank
• Main Engine Lube Oil Purifier Tank
• Main Engine Cylinder Oil Tank
• Main Engine Lube Oil Storage Tanks
• Compressor Cooling-Water Expansion Tank
• Hot well
• Steering Gear Oil Tank
• Sewage Tank
• Purifier Operating Water Tank
• Scavenge Drain Tank
• Aft Peak Tank
• Observation Tank
• Piston Cooling Leaking Water Tank
• Stern Tube Oil Gravity Tank
• Bilge Overflow Tank
• Auxiliary Engine Expansion Tank
• Main Engine Expansion Tank
• Auxiliary Engine Lube Oil Storage Tank
• Auxiliary Engine Lube Oil Purifier Tank
• Fresh Water Storage Tanks
• Wing Tanks
• Purifier Sludge Tank
• Bilge Sludge Tank
• Bilge Holding Tank
• Double Bottom Tanks
• Fore Peak Tank
• Fuel and Lube Oil Drain Tank
• Marine Engine Lube Oil Dirty Tank
• Waste Oil Tank

^{*Note:Feel free to comment down below if i miss any important tank in engine room!}

Engine Room Documents:

• TBT (Tool Box Talk) Document
• Hot Work Permits
• Cold Work Permits
• Dry-dock reports
• Engine Log Book
• Engine e-Log Book
• Oil Record Book
• Garbage Record Book
• Movement Book
• Enclosed Space Entry Permit
• Engine Room Watch Schedule
• Chief Engineers Standing Orders
• Saturday Routines
• Survey Reports & Status
• Electrical Work Permit
• And many Others (Misc.)

^{*Note:Feel free to comment down below if i made any mistake or miss anything !}

Safety and Manning

An engine room is separated from the accommodation by two air tight door’s with positive pressure inside. Every watch keeping engineer with its crew is supposed to wear full safety gear prior to entering the engine room. There is a changing room in between the two air tight door to put off the normal dress/cloth and put on the safety accessories like boiler suit, safety helmet, safety shoes, gloves and ear plugs or muff.

Modern engine room are automated and are run unmanned for most of the hour’s. Under normal condition it is only manned during the 9-5 schedule. But it can be anytime be switched back to 24 hour’s manning with four on and four off duty roster under situation such as emergency and navigating through restricted waters.

Generally on Ship; watch keeping officers follow the top to bottom path which is commonly known as “funnel to tunnel”. Here the engineer starts its watch by inspecting from top and proceeds downwards towards the bottom. Proper watch keeping assists the engineers to detect faults, leaks, uneven or ab-normal vibrations and irregular parameters.

Following are few of the things a watch keeping officers see during his/her watch:

1. Top up Main and Auxiliary Engine Expansion tanks
2. Top up Stern Tube Gravity tank
3. Hot-well level
4. Top up hot well if required.
5. Sounding of Main engine fuel and lube oil Dirty tanks
6. Sounding of Main engine Lube Oil Sump
7. Sounding of Fresh Water tanks
8. Ejector pump pressure & ampere (Fresh Water Generator)
9. Vacuum (Fresh Water Generator)
10. Distillate pump pressure & ampere (Fresh Water Generator)
11. Salinity and Flow meter (Fresh Water Generator)
12. Suction and Discharge pressure (pumps)
13. Ampere (Pumps)
14. Noise/Vibration (Pumps)
15. Drain Air bottle
16. Check Air bottle pressure
17. Suction and discharge pressure of cooling water pump (Main air compressor)
18. 1st & 2nd stage discharge pressure (Main air compressor)
19. Crankcase oil level (Main air compressor)
20. Boiler feed water pump suction & discharge pressure
21. Boiler fuel supply pump suction & discharge pressure
22. Steam Pressure
23. Turbocharger oil & lubrication in both turbine and compressor side
24. Load & rpm
25. Jacket temperature
26. Exhaust temperature
27. Piston cooling outlet temperature
28. Lube Oil Sump level
29. Scavenge air pressure
30. Thrust bearing temperature
31. Fuel Oil temperature
32. Suction & discharge pressure (Purifier)
33. Ampere (Purifier)
34. Operating water header tank (Purifier)
35. RPM (Purifier)
36. Back Pressure (Purifier)
37. And many others.

Also Read:

• Types of CO2 Flooding System On-board Vessel
• Difference Between two and four stroke Marine Diesel Engine
• UV Sterilizer used On-Board Ship
• Pumps used on board Ship
• Purifier Basic Principle and Working!

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