Aim of the project: To design a VLCC which can control water pollution due to the discharge of ballast water

and air pollution due to flue gasses from fuel oil fired boiler during port stays, tanker terminal, manoeuvring, etc. What is ballast water? Ballast water provides stability and manoeuvrability to a ship. Usually ballast water is pumped into ballast tanks when a ship has delivered cargo to a port and is departing with less or no cargo. Large ships can carry millions of gallons of ballast water.

The threat of ballast water

The ballast water inside a ship can be seen as an onboard aquarium full of microscopic life forms. Thats because small organisms living in the sea water are pumped into ballast tanks along with the water. Moreover, coastal sediments and any associated organisms may be pumped into ballast tanks. The ballast water is taken from coastal port areas and transported inside the ship to the next port of call where the water may be discharged, along with all the surviving organisms. This way, ballast water may introduce organisms into the port of discharge that do not naturally belong there. These introduced species are also called exotic species. Populations of exotic species may grow very quickly in the absence of natural

predators. In that case they are called invasive. Only few species are successful invaders, because most species are not able to survive in new surroundings, because temperature, food, and salinity are less than optimal. However, the species that do survive and establish a population are very hardy species that have the potential to cause major harm (to ecology, economy or human health).

Solution to ballast water: The discharge of ballast water from ships is largely responsible for the spread of invasive aquatic species around the world. In response to the problem, the industry is trying to find cost-effective ways of treating ballast water. A ballast-free VLCC requires a drastically different hull design. A conventional unloaded VLCC would have a mean draft of 10 to 13 feet, so that the bow and propeller would be almost out of the water. Little modification with a more V-shaped hull, provides full propeller immersion and sufficient forward draft (i.e. mean draft of about 23 feet unloaded and about 71 feet loaded) to avoid bottom slamming when unloaded.

When loading oil, a conventional VLCC empties its ballast tanks to avoid high bending moments, list or trim. Reconfiguring the cargo tanks in five longitudinal rows (rather than the three rows typical of conventional tankers) as one center tank, two intermediate tanks and two side tanks defined by four longitudinal bulkheads instead of the two commonly used in conventional tankers. By filling or emptying a cargo section along its entire length, no longitudinal bending moments can result from uneven cargo weight along the length of the ship.

Air pollution Control Conventional tankers use low sulphur fuel oil to fire boiler during operation of cargo oil discharge. About 0.2 percent, or more than 500 tons, of a VLCC's cargo is lost via evaporation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Besides contributing greenhouse gases and resulting in ozone when VOCs react with NOx in sunlight, the lost vapors represent a financial loss, especially since VOCs are basically the most valuable light ends of crude oil. A refrigeration arrangement should be made in new design such that it should condense the outgoing vapours and liquefy it to LNG. Up to half will be used in special triple-fuel burners for the auxiliary boilers that produce steam for cargo pumps. The rest can be returned to the cargo tanks or delivered to shore during cargo discharge. These measures can reduce fuel consumption by 8 percent. Besides eliminating ballast water, this design could cut CO2 emissions by a third. It could also produce 80 percent less NOx as well as reduce SOx and particulate matter up to 95 percent, while using 25 percent less energy.