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ISTCCA 2019 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 780 (2020) 042022 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/780/4/042022

Improvement of Defects in ZYFM type oil-water separator

Jun Li1, Yuhua Zhu2

1
School of Transportation Engineering, Wuhan Institute of Shipbuilding Technology,
Wuhan, Hubei, 430050, Peoples R China
2
Guangzhou Branch, COSCO Shipping Seafarer management Co. Ltd, Guangzhou,
Guangdong, 511464, Peoples R China
Abstract.the working principle and automatic control principle of ZYFM type oil-water
separator are analyzed. It is found that the design of this type of oil-water separator is defective,
which is easy to cause the crew to intentionally discharge excessive oily water. By improving
the control circuit and changing the open three-way valve of the gas installation, the design
defects are eliminated, and the phenomenon of the crew's malicious discharge of excessive oily
water is eliminated.

1. Introduction
ZYFM vacuum oil-water separator is the latest product developed by Shanghai Shijiu Marine
Equipment Co.Ltd. It uses vacuum and microfiltration technology to carry out secondary separation of
engine room oily water[1],which can separate engine room oily water with high emulsion
concentration,meet the requirements of Annex I of MARPOL 73 / 78 convention[2],the discharge
standard of ship oily water stipulated by the Chinese government,and also the resolution
IMO-MEPC107 (49)[3]. It is required to obtain the type approval certificate issued by CCS, which has
the functions of high automation, simple maintenance,backwashing gathering elements, etc. It is loved
by the majority of crew members, and it is widely assembled on Chinese ships. However, the author
found that there are defects in the design of this type of oil-water separator during the work of the ship,
resulting in the excessive discharge of oily water into the sea.

2. Working principle (as shown in Figure 1)

2.1. First separation

The oily water pump (screw pump) draws water from the bottom of the separator to create a vacuum
in the separator. Under the action of atmospheric pressure, the engine room oily water are sucked into
the separator from the three-way valve 3 (left bottom) on the upper part of the first stage separator for
preliminary separation. The large oil drops float to the top of the separator, and the small oil drops and
oily water enter the special coalescer together to form a larger oil droplets, and then float to the top oil
collection chamber[4]. The oily water of the first level treatment is discharged out of the ship through
three-way valve 5 (bottom left), oily water pump, three-way valve 4 (bottom left) and outlet pipe 20.

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ISTCCA 2019 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 780 (2020) 042022 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/780/4/042022

2.2. Secondary separation

If the oily water of the first level treatment does not meet the discharge standard, the oil concentration
meter sends out an electrical signal, the solenoid valve 9 is powered on and opened, the compress air
enters the cylinder of the three-way valve 4, the three-way valve changes from the original "bottom
left" to "left and right", the oily water enters the second level processor and continues to separate, the
oily water reaching the standard is discharged overboard through the three-way valve 7 (bottom left)
and returns to the first level separator every 30 minutes. If the oily water separated by the secondary
processor still fails to meet the standard, the oil concentration meter will issue a command again, the
solenoid valve 10 will be powered on and opened, the compressed air will enter the cylinder of the
three-way valve 7, the three-way valve 7 will change from the original "bottom left" to "left and right",
and the unqualified oily water will flow back to the engine room bottom.

2.3. Backwash
When the oil layer accumulated on the top of the first level separator reaches a certain thickness, the
oil level sensor triggers the signal, the solenoid valve 8 is powered on and opened, the pressure air
enters the 3-way valve cylinder at the same time, the 3-way valve changes from "bottom left" to "left
and right", the engine room oily water is suspended from entering the oil-water separator, and the
clean water enters the bottom of the first level separator for reverse flushing through the 3-way valve 5,
oily water pump and 3-way valve 6. The internal part of the first level separator changes from vacuum

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ISTCCA 2019 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 780 (2020) 042022 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/780/4/042022

to pressure. The oil gathered on the upper part of the first level separator is discharged to the sump oil
tank from the three-way valve 3. When the high oil level sensor detects clear water, the backwashing
is finished and the normal separation starts again.

3. Control Principle (as shown in Figure 2)

3.1. Main line

The main line is divided into two ways, one is the air switch of regional distribution board → power
switch K0 of control box → main contactor C0 → thermal relay RJ → motor, the other is the air
switch of regional distribution board → power switch K0 of control box → main contactor C1 →
heating wire R.

3.2. Control line

Start button QA → stop button TA → relay J0 normally closed contact → main contactor C0 coil →
thermal relay normally closed contact.

3.3. Motor operation

After pressing the start button QA, the motor will be operated by energizing the main contactor C0 of
the above line. The normally open contact of the main contactor C0 and the start button QA will act as
self-protection in parallel. The time relayJS1 will be energized and the normally open contact will be
closed in delay, leaving the vacuum pumping time for the oily water pump.

3.4. Oily water pump protection

When the liquid level in the oily water tank is too low, the vacuum degree will drop to the atmospheric
pressure, or when the suction filter is blocked, the vacuum degree on the upper part of the separator
will rise sharply. When these two situations occur, the vacuum degree will change obviously, and it
will be converted into electric signal through the electric contact vacuum meter. When the vacuum is
too high, the actual vacuum degree pointer (black needle) and the high vacuum degree pointer（The
green pointer is adjusted to -0.05mpa) for connection. When the vacuum is too low, the vacuum
pointer and the low vacuum pointer (the red pointer is adjusted to -0.01mpa) are connected. The
vacuum meter pointer is connected to the coil of relay J0, so that the normally closed contact
connected in series on the coil of main contactor C0 is disconnected, so as to stop the pump.

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ISTCCA 2019 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 780 (2020) 042022 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/780/4/042022

3.5. Automatic control of waste oil temperature

The waster oil temperature in the oil collecting chamber is controlled by the electric contact
thermometer. When the temperature is too low, the actual temperature pointer (black needle) contacts
with the low temperature pointer (red needle is adjusted to 35 ℃), and the coil of main contactor C1 is

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ISTCCA 2019 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 780 (2020) 042022 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/780/4/042022

energized, so that the normally open contact connected in series on the coil of main contactor C1 is
closed, and the heating wire is connected to heat the waste oil and protect itself.When the temperature
rises to a certain extent, the actual pointer contacts with the high temperature pointer (the green needle
is adjusted to 45 ℃), the coil of relay J1 is energized, the normally closed contact is disconnected, the
coil of main contactor C1 is deenergized, the normally open contact is disconnected, and the heating
wire is deenergized to stop heating.

3.6. Automatic oil drain control

High and low limit oil level sensors are installed in the oil collecting chamber at the top of the first
level separator. The conductivity of the oil level sensor in oil and water is different, so that different
resistance values are generated between the oil level sensor and the oil-water separator shell. This
resistance value is sent to the liquid level relay in the control box, and the liquid level relay outputs
different electrical signals to control the on-off of the J2 coil of the relay. When J2 coil is powered on,
normally open contact is closed, solenoid valve DF1 (Figure 1, solenoid valve 8) coil is powered on,
compressed air enters three-way valve cylinders 3, 5 and 6, as shown in Figure 1, clear water is
pumped into first level separator through three-way valve 5 and 6, vacuum is converted into pressure
state, waste oil is discharged to waste oil tank through three-way valve 3, J2 coil is powered off,
normally open contact is off, solenoid valve DF1 (Figure 1, solenoid valve 8) coil is powered off
Close, three-way valves 3, 5 and 6 are turned over, and automatic oil discharge is finished. Automatic
oil discharge and reverse backwash are carried out synchronously.

3.7. Secondary separation control

When the primary treatment oily water fails to meet the standard, the alarm contact of the oil
concentration meter is closed, the coil of relay J4 is powered on, the normally open contact is closed,
the coil of relay J5 is powered on, and the normally open contact is closed for self-protection; the
solenoid valve DF2 (solenoid valve 9 in Figure 1) is powered on, the pressure air enters the air
cylinder of three-way valve 4, the state of three-way valve 4 is turned over, and the oily water enters
the secondary separation; the time relay JS2 is powered on, and the normally closed contact turns off
30 minutes later. When the secondary treatment oily water reaches the standard, the alarm contact of
oil concentration meter is off, the coil of relay J4 is deenergized, and the normally open contact is off.
Within the delay time of time relay JS2, the coil of relay J5 is on, and the solenoid valve DF2 is on for
secondary separation. When the delay time reaches, the delay contact of relay JS2 is off, the coil of
relay J5 is off, and the normally open contact is off, and the solenoid valve DF2 is off. Electric
three-way valve 4 turns over to the original state, and the oily water returns to the first level separator
for further separation. When the secondary treatment oily water fails to meet the standard, the alarm
contact of the oil concentration meter is closed again, the coil of relay J4 is powered on, the normally
open contact is closed, the solenoid valve DF3 (solenoid valve 10 in Figure 1) is powered on, the
cylinder of three-way valve 7 is ventilated, the state is turned over, and the oily water exceeding the
standard flows back to the bottom of engine room.

4. Existing Defects

4.1. Defect 1
When the oil concentration meter detects that the oil content of the oily water after the separation of
the two-stage processor exceeds 15PPM, the system will give an alarm. The solenoid valve 10 (DF3 in
Figure 2) is electrified and connected with the pressure air circuit, the three-way valve 7 is turned over,
the relevant pipelines are switched, and the oily water exceeding the standard returns to the bilge, but
the oily water pump will not stop working immediately, and the pump can not be stopped until the

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ISTCCA 2019 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 780 (2020) 042022 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/780/4/042022

vacuum degree in the first level separator reaches the set value , which is not reliable. If the three-way
valve 7 is not closed tightly or fails (such as the air source is not supplied), the system may still be able
to work, resulting in excessive discharge.

4.2. Improvement measures

The original design of solenoid valve 10 was changed from normally closed type to normally open
type, and the original design of three-way valve 7 was changed from air closed type to air open type,
so as long as the air supply stopped, three-way valve 7 would automatically close and the oily water
would return to the bilge. At the same time, an intermediate relay controlled by 15PPM over limit
signal is added to the 15PPM oil concentration meter to expand the normally open and normally
closed contacts of the monitoring device, so as to realize the functions of automatic pump stop for
15PPM over limit and audible and visual alarm at the far and near ends.

4.3. Defect 2
The test water connected to the oil concentration meter (one is clear water, the other is sea water) is
not interlocked. That is to say, as long as the system is connected with clear water to test the oil
concentration meter, the oily water after separator separation can be discharged out of the ship
smoothly no matter whether it exceeds the standard or not. It is not the operator's idea or practice of
intentionally exceeding the standard, but the defect of the system is objective.

4.4. Improvement measures

A normally open solenoid valve is installed on the clean water side, and the wire is controlled by the
normally open contact of the oily water pump contactor. When the oily water pump is running, the
solenoid valve is powered on to close the pipeline on the clean water side, realizing the interlock
protection between the clean water and the oily water, preventing the clean water from entering the
detection pipe of the oil concentration meter, diluting the concentration of the oil, and the oil
concentration meter can not truly detect the oil content in the discharged oily water.

5. Precautions
After the above improvements, the practice of intentional over standard discharge by crew members
and over standard discharge caused by lax closing of three-way valve are prevented to a great
extent[5]. The effect is remarkable in practice. It is worth noting that the relevant columns on the
attachment of IOPP certificate after the modification must be changed correspondingly, and the
classification society should be applied for affixing the modification seal or replacing the certificate to
avoid being listed as defects in the PSC inspection in the future.

Acknowledgments
Grateful acknowledgment is made to my classmate Mr.Zhu Yuhua who gave me considerable help by
means of suggestion, criticism. His encouragement and unwavering support has sustained me through
frustration and depression. Without his pushing me ahead, the completion of the thesis would be
impossible. In addition, I deeply appreciate the contribution to this thesis made made in various ways
by my friends and family.

Fund
This paper is supported by Department of Science and Technology of Qinhai Province under grant
number 2017-SF-138 .

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ISTCCA 2019 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 780 (2020) 042022 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/780/4/042022

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[3] Liu,W.Zhang,Y.(2012)Two new oily water separators inline with MEPC.107 (49) resolution.
Marine technology,47:49-50.
[4] Chen,A.(2012)Ship management . Dalian Maritime University Press,Dalian.
[5] Wang,S.Zheng,H.Li,Y.(2014)Design of marine oily water separator monitoring system based on
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