ExxonMobil’s XRF technology offers instant insight

ExxonMobil and engine designer WinGD announced a collaboration in April 2019 to derive additional technical insight by combining ExxonMobil’s Mobil Serv℠ Cylinder Condition Monitoring service with WinGD’s Integrated Digital Expert (WiDE) predictive maintenance technology.

The Mobil Serv℠ Cylinder Condition Monitoring scrape down oil analysis service helps operators maximise the performance of their two-stroke engines. Like other analysis services, it identifies total iron and total base number (TBN) levels within each cylinder in the engine.

What is different is that by using a patented X-Ray fluorescent (XRF) scanner, which integrates the transmission of results to ExxonMobil via the cloud into the sampling process, the entire analysis process from sample gathering to final reporting is compressed.

Mobil Serv℠ Cylinder Condition Monitoring, which is available on a subscription basis, offers vessel operators a range of actionable insights, including feed rate recommendations, that can help cut costs and reduce maintenance issues. The scrape down used oil analysis service can spot over- and under-lubrication, the presence of cat fine and the early onset of cold corrosion.

The recommendations are based on a comparison between the reference results and a database of over 500,000 samples. Analysis of this database revealed that over 50% of vessels were operating on incorrect cylinder lubricant feed rates.

“The system is lubricant and brand agnostic, and can produce accurate results and recommendations regardless of the supplier,” Joseph Star of ExxonMobil told The Motorship during London Internal Shipping Week in September.

ExxonMobil has documented the operational benefits of optimisation of feed-in rates, as well as early identification of potential issues such water washing, cold corrosion and elevated iron levels in the scrape down oil. These include reduced expenditure on maintenance, as well as improved service availability.

An additional benefit of the system is that XRF analyser allows accurate measurement of the sulphur content at the engine inlet. This can help vessel operators ensure IMO compliance on the spot, offering rapid peace of mind.

One ship owner, operating deep sea tankers, implemented Mobil Serv Cylinder Condition Monitoring across its fleet of 11 vessels. The ship owner is estimated to have achieved reductions of cylinder oil consumption of over USD140,000/year.

“These direct cylinder oil consumption savings do not capture the full Total Cost of Ownership advantages the system offers,” Star noted. By combining the analysis data from the system with other data, Star expects the system to help optimise the operating life of cylinder liners, for example.

A digitalised future

Maximising the possibilities of combining the data from the Mobil Serv℠ Cylinder Condition Monitoring service with other technical data lies behind one of ExxonMobil’s current technical initiatives.

“We announced that it was undertaking technical collaboration with engine designer WinGD in April 2019 and are in the process of redesigning the data files from our Mobil Serv℠ Cylinder Condition Monitoring service,” Star said. The two companies expect to derive additional technical insight by combining Mobil Serv℠ Cylinder Condition Monitoring service data with WinGD’s Integrated Digital Expert (WiDE) predictive maintenance technology.

The agreement is expected to result in improved performance benefits, as both WinGD and the ship owner will benefit from improved visualisation of engine performance. The collaboration will result in fewer unplanned stoppages, lower opex through engine performance optimisation and longer intervals between engine overhauls.

XRF technology

At the heart of the system lies ExxonMobil’s proprietary XRF sensor, which utilises established X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) analysis techniques that are widely adopted in ExxonMobil’s upstream oil and gas business and applies them to the maritime market.

While ExxonMobil’s XRF device is a state-of-the-art refinement of XRF technology, the underlying principle of XRF analysis is established in other industries. The technology uses the specific response characteristics of different materials to ionisation, after exposure to short wavelength x-ray beams, to determine the chemical composition of a material.

The process itself is non-destructive and produces results in around 30 seconds. The system itself has been digitalised since the end of 2018, permitting the results to be uploaded to a cloud server, whenever the ship has a connection available.

The XRF device itself is small enough to be fit within the engine room without any significant additional space requirements. The device features an ethernet connection system to avoid difficulties in transmitting results from the device to the bridge.