Engine Room Ventilation
An engine room ventilation system is of great importance to the engine life. In many vessels, there is enough air for engines to burn their fuel, but not enough to cool the engine room as well. Since warm air doesn’t hold as much oxygen, engines end up with less power, and less efficiency. Engines will need to burn more fuel in order to achieve the same power level.
- Keep equipment in the engine room clean and in better working order
- Increase the engine life
- Reduce the required maintenance
Engine room heat doesn’t just affect engines, it also damages other equipment such as generators, cooling, and electrical systems.
Engine room fans
Engine room ventilation systems consist of both intake fans, which insert combustion air and cooling air, and exhaust fans, which pull out cooling air only. In case the temperature in the engine room rises, the exhaust fans start to pull out cooling air. Consequently, the resulting depression in the engine room ramps up the intake fans.
Mist eliminators for engine vents
Engine room ventilation systems are often equipped with mist eliminators. Mist eliminators are designed to extract mist and seawater from intake air. These are the grills you typically see at, or inside, the engine vents. These can be built to fit any size or shape of vent and play a major role in keeping water out of the engine room by reducing the amount and size of the water droplets in the air coming into the space. Salty mist becomes steam in the 300- to 400-degree air inside turbochargers, instantly vaporizing water and crystallizing salt. This causes minerals to be deposited on turbo blades and intake air coolers get clogged. Mist eliminators can prevent this process.
The increasing importance of engine room ventilation
The greater need for proper ventilation can be attributed to the advancement in turbocharged diesels as well. With more air needed to allow the engine to achieve a proper combustion cycle, the design and implementation of the properly sized fans and vents are increasingly more critical. This is especially true on refits when a new set of higher-horsepower engines is going into a tight space. The engines will most likely choke if you wait until after the installation to consider the air requirements of the new power.
More information about engine room ventilation?
In case you would like to get more information about our engine room ventilation systems, don’t hesitate to contact us. Our skilled employees are eager to help you. For a deeper understanding into how engine room ventilation works, check out this article.