Water, water, everywhere: When you’re at sea, one of the most precious commodities you need to produce and protect is, somewhat ironically, clean water. Your offshore rig or vessel depends upon disinfected, pure seawater to keep all of your seawater utility systems running safely and efficiently. One way to ensure effectiveness and efficiency is to reduce or prevent any instances of biofouling in your rig’s seawater utility systems.

Your vessel’s electrochlorination units work to reduce biofouling in your system’s pipes, heat exchangers, and firewater systems. These treatment systems also prevent biofouling in your system’s pipes, pumps, and heat exchangers. It even reduces corrosion from microbes present in seawater, leading to system durability and longevity. 

In short, investing in a good electrochlorination system is a good way to ensure that your rig’s seawater utility systems run smoothly. 

Interested in what’s going on behind the scenes? Here’s what you need to know about how electrochlorination systems work:

Your sodium hypochlorite generator keeps your rig or vessel’s cooling water systems free of biofouling. This system is essential—and expensive. Fortunately, routine maintenance and consistent check-ins on its performance will go a long way towards protecting your hypochlorite generator and its parts as well as your investment.  

However, it’s equally crucial to have an expert inspect your hypochlorite generator from time to time. Your annual inspection will serve as a baseline to help you keep tabs on your generator throughout the year, and also help your team flag issues for immediate maintenance to avoid unpleasant surprises with higher-cost repairs later on. 

Interested in what your inspector will be assessing during your hypochlorite generator’s annual checkup? This checklist will give you an idea of what they will be looking out for.

Offshore platforms and drilling rigs are in essence a small community of people living and working at sea. Just like with community water systems reliability and safety are of vital importance. Your watermaker helps meet the need of your floating community, which is often located hundreds of miles from an alternative source of fresh, safe water. As this is the case, your watermaker is as important to you as any piece of production equipment.  Watermaker manufacturers realize this and build water treatment systems that are built to last.

Watermakers produce potable water that is safe for both human contact and consumption. As they meet such a critical need, offshore watermakers tend to have extensive safety features, durable components that can last a long time, and easy use and maintenance practices. 

However, it’s also important to realize that you need to be prepared for what could happen if your watermaker ceases working at an inopportune moment. Without a properly working watermaker, you would either need to rely on emergency water deliveries or delay the use of your boat or offshore rig. 

Watermakers are expensive; a brand-new unit can cost up to $150K. What’s more, improper maintenance can accelerate their replacement time line. However, the alternative does suggest good news. Keeping an eye on the health of individual parts of your watermaker, knowing when it’s best to replace each component, and practicing routine maintenance can extend the life of your offshore watermaker.

Your desalination unit is one of the water treatment systems on your offshore rig that helps ensure that you have the water you need for daily functions at sea. As such, it’s critically important to the safety of your crew. Offshore platforms are often located in the most remote, inhospitable places on the planet. Entire crews—often, hundreds of people—work on and call these platforms home.

In order for your crew to be safe and healthy, it’s crucial that fresh water is available at all times. On-site water desalination units provide a reliable source of water purification.

These types of seawater desalination systems use reverse osmosis (RO) technology, which uses a pressure-based filtration process to separate pure water from seawater.

If you don’t have a properly working desalination unit, you could be liable for danger to your crew and guests.

When you’re crafting, purchasing, or maintaining your vessel, it can be easy to get caught up in the exciting specifics of boat care: the equipment you use to perform daily tasks, the engines and motors your boat needs, and other aesthetic or performance upgrades.

Other systems, such as your vessel’s marine sanitation device (MSD), can often go unnoticed. However, your MSD is crucial to the enjoyable, safe function of your boat. Just imagine what would happen if you didn’t have a properly working sewage treatment system. The resulting smells, sights, and gross sludge would be unpleasant, to say the least. 

While you’re spending time on your offshore vessel, it’s important to ensure that you can enjoy a safe, sanitary life at sea. For both your guests and your crew, this includes simply and effectively getting rid of the waste your personnel produces on a daily basis. 

Not only is this crucial for a pleasant atmosphere on your vessel, but it’s also required in regulations set forth by the International Marine Organization (IMO) and the United States Coast Guard. Failing to have a smoothly running wastewater system can net you serious fines, as well as an unhealthy environment for everyone aboard your vessel. 

Fortunately, there’s a simple way to ensure that your vessel’s waste management system is always taken care of. With a correctly sized marine wastewater system, you’ll be able to make sure your boat is safe in no time at all.

*Disclaimer: This article originally appeared on EXIM‘s website.

PROJECT FACTS

The Juniper project is in the East Mayaro Block (EM) off the south east coast of Trinidad and Tobago.

When you’re working on a boat or rig over a period of several days, there’s no getting around it: You’ll be using the facilities several times and, well, if your marine sanitation device isn’t maintained properly, that can result in less-than-aromatic situations.

It might seem like a small thing, but an unclean or stinky boat bathroom can definitely affect your quality of life. More than that, a perpetually unpleasant smell coming from your boat’s bathroom can signal a larger issue with your marine sanitation device or other systems aboard your vessel. What might be the root cause of this issue? Is there anything you can do about it? 

In this blog post, we’ll go over common problems that may arise with your marine sanitation device, as well as the ways you can work to make the problem (and the smell) disappear.