See our customer cases | ShipCore Fluid Systems

Optimizing Marine Performance

Read our selected cases that highlight how ShipCore’s technologies have improved performance, reduced maintenance,
and delivered measurable results for our customers.

Case Study:

Hapag-Lloyd

M/V Brussels Express
9S90ME-C10.5-GI

Maintaining engine efficiency and reliability is crucial in ship operations. We at ShipCore, a Danish provider of main engine optimization solutions, have developed an automatic drain cleaning system for the main engine (M/E) drain pipe system and scavenge space. The system is patent protected.

Successfully tested by Hapag-Lloyd, this system has been operational for two years on two of the nine M/E cylinders of the MV "BRUSSELS EXPRESS," a dual fuel vessel with a M/E 9S90 ME-C MK10.5-GI.

Hapag-Lloyd container ship carrying freight

Customer background

Hapag-Lloyd, a world-renowned shipping company, operates a large fleet of container ships, all of which must be carefully maintained to ensure optimum performance and safety standards.

Mr. Lars Voss, Superintendent at Hapag-Lloyd, is involved in overseeing the technical aspects of the vessels assigned to him in cooperation with the Chief Engineers (C/E) on board the vessels.

Challenges faced

Over the years, the marine industry has accepted the "status quo“; that two-stroke engines face significant problems due to the accumulation of sludge in the M/E scavenge air drainpipes system and under piston space.

This impairs the sampling of M/E scavenge air drain for the M/E scrape down oil analysis. Scrape down oil analysis is an important tool for assessing the wear behavior of the M/E (piston rings and liners) and for setting the optimal M/E-cylinder oil feed rate.

Sludge buildup in drain pipe running out

The solution

ShipCore recognized the need for a proactive approach to drain cleaning and maintenance and developed an automatic drain cleaning system based on founder Thorbjoern Petersen's 25 years of experience as a C/E at sea.

This innovative solution effectively addresses the problems of sludge deposition and significantly reduces the risk of scavenging air fires. Mr. Thorbjoern Petersen has experienced this himself over the years.

Implementation and results

After installing the automatic drain cleaning system for M/E- scavenge air drain on board of MV "BRUSSELS EXPRESS" for two of the nine M/E cylinders from ShipCore for Hapag-Lloyd, the results were remarkable.

The two C/E’s active on board during this given test period, Mr. Christoph Bartuschat and Mr. Ansgar Lehmkoester, as well as Mr. Lars Voss, Superintendent at Hapag-Lloyd, confirm the effectiveness of the system:

"ShipCore's automatic drain cleaning system has improved our M/E maintenance- and analysis practices. We have seen a significant reduction in sludge build-up on the bottoms of the respective M/E cylinder blocks for the two M/E test cylinders, making it much easier for our crew to extract M/E scrape down oil for these two test cylinders in relation to the other M/E cylinders."

At Hapag Lloyd, we use SDA (scrape down oil analyze) as an important tool to continuously monitor and optimize the wear behavior of the M/E. It is therefore crucial that we can trust the results of SDA, as only M/E scrape down oil extracted from residue-free M/E scavenge air drainpipes meets these specifications. An additional benefit of effective sludge removal is the reduced risk of a scavenge fire."

Benefits for Hapag-Lloyd

ShipCore’s system is built to optimize daily operations while supporting a more efficient,
predictable, and reliable engine environment.

Savings

A cleaner engine and effective sludge removal combined with “live” SDA results enable ship owners to directly reduce their cylinder oil consumption.

Optimized maintenance

The easy and optimal collection of scrape down samples results in a more accurate assessment of the wear behavior of the engine components liner / piston rings , targeted intervention in case of negative deviations and thus a saving of costs and resources.