Maintenance of Fresh Water Generation Systems on Cruise Vessels

Fresh Water Generation systems are endowed on all vessels sailing at seas. Sufficient generation and storage arrangements of fresh water are present onboard, which assist vessels to cope up with fresh water needs during passage and long stays in anchorage or port.

What is Fresh Water Generator?

If there is something without which a vessel cannot run is the fresh water generator. It is one of the most crucial machinery on board. The fresh water is generated from the machine and that water is used for drinking, washing, cooking and also for running other machineries in cooler form.

 The fresh water is generally produced on the vessel by making use of the evaporation technique. To produce fresh water on the vessels, there are two stuffs present in abundance – Heat and Sea water. Thus, fresh water is generated by evaporating sea water by heating it from any of the heat sources. The water that is evaporated is again cooled off by the sea water. The cycle continues.

Drinking water generation while the main engine is already in use is one of the most proven and economical method for generating fresh water quickly at sea. In the process, the heat generated from circulating cool water for the diesel engine is used. A number of practices are followed at the time of carrying out cleaning and maintenance of drinking water systems on vessels are:

  - Check Salinity Indicator

The salinity indicator requires timely checks as it permits only purified water to enter the fresh water tank. The salinity alarm comprises electrodes which must be cleaned once in a month to eliminate scale deposits dirt and dust. The alarm setting should be verified before operating the Fresh Water Generation system after cleaning.
  
  - Safety Management System Manual

Whenever a vessel reaches any harbour, port or estuary, the fresh water generator must be stopped. The sea water is highly infected and there are high chances that infections may get transferred to the fresh water stored on the vessel.  According to the recommendation in Flag State Requirements or Safety Management System Manual, the fresh water tanks should be cleaned once in 6 months or once every year.

  - Proper Tank cleaning

At the time of cleaning the tank, it is recommended to use high pressure fresh water spray. The spray machine is operated electrically in some ships. One should handle the equipment carefully and it must be insulated properly to avoid risks of electric shocks.

  - Using scale inhibitors
 
In order to prevent scale formation, scale inhibitors are used. By this technique scale deposits are dispersed. This also avoids scale deposits from holding fast to heat transfer surfaces, also known as the “Threshold effect “. Scaly residues inside heat exchanger need cleaning if particular temperatures cannot be found for inlet and outlet of fresh water.

There are several modern and old cruise vessels for sale that are equipped with fresh water generator. To get more information, a ship broker in Norway can help.

About the Author:

Ove Jebsen is an experienced businessperson who takes great interest and has knowledge in the ship industry. Here, he informs readers on how to clean fresh water generation systems on cruise vessels.