Shuttle tanker Anna Knudsen has installed a recovery system for volatile organic compounds with the goal of recovering 70 per cent of such VOCs.
During tanker loading and transport of oil, vaporised hydrocarbons are emitted to the environment. Instead of releasing these VOCs, they are fed into a reabsorption unit onboard Anna Knudsen and led back to the cargo tanks. Anna Knudsen is the first shuttle tanker to install a reabsorption system.
"Commissioning of the new VOC system on Anna Knudsen is under way. Permanent testing will start in December and is due to continue until the end of March," says project manager Arne Moe Tvedt in Statoil.
Anna Knudsen transports oil from the Statfjord field in the North Sea. The main source of Norwegian emissions of VOCs is through offshore loading of oil.
Preparatory modifications have been made on shuttle tanker Navion Viking (previously Polyviking) so that VOCs can be used to fuel the ship. Completion of the recovery system on Navion Viking will start in the first quarter of 1999.