Thordon Bearings sums it up

Launched on 22 April to coincide with Earth Day 2016 the Oil Savings Calculator shows that more than 60m litres of oil pollution has been saved to date.

Terry McGowan, president and chief executive of Thordon Bearings, explained: “In our opinion the only acceptable propeller shaft stern tube oil leakage is zero. Thanks to those vessels that have already installed seawater-lubricated propeller shaft bearings, over 60m litres of stern tube oil has been saved from entering our oceans, seas, lakes and rivers.

“The Oil Saving Calculator is updated constantly and will continue to track our contribution to removing stern tube oil from our waters with the greater goal of completely eliminating this source of pollution,” he added.

The International Tanker Pollution Federation (ITOPF) supports the initiative and last year presented Thordon Bearings with an environmental award for its oil-free COMPAC propeller shaft bearing system.

Dr Karen Purnell, managing director of ITOPF, said: “Though our primary function is to promote effective response to marine spills of oil and chemicals worldwide, we also support the maritime industry in its efforts to reduce ship-sourced pollution and provide for more sustainable marine operations.”

“The success of this measure can now be determined using Thordon Bearings’ Oil Savings Calculator, aptly launched to coincide with Earth Day when thoughts turn to a greener, more sustainable future,” she added.

The oil saving calculation is based on detailed statistical analysis of the number of vessels that have been built with or converted to seawater lubrication, the 300 days a year each vessel is typically operational and an average oil leak of 6 litres per day per vessel.

Independent research carried out by New York-based Environmental Research Consulting indicated in 2014 that the total amount of operational oil discharges from ocean-going vessels could be more than 240 million litres annually. Currently only 10% of commercial ships have adopted the seawater-lubricated technology.

In November, Thordon Bearings was presented with the Tanker Shipping & Trade environmental award for its COMPAC seawater-lubricated propeller shaft bearing. The technology has also been nominated in the Seatrade 2016 Awards’ Clean Shipping category and the technology category of the Green4Sea Awards.