Fuel Consumption Measurement System

Most of the operating costs of a ship are fuel related. Therefore it is very important to use fuel in the most efficient way. The real-time measurement of fuel consumption provides helpful information for shipowners, shipmanagers and crew about the influences of their actions on the consumed fuel. Aceinstrumentation offers various kinds of systems for the most accurate measurement of fuel consumption.

In most fuel systems fuel is circulated over the engine with a flow rate which is 2,5 to 5 times the maximum fuel consumption. When the engine consumes fuel, this is taken out of the circulation circuit. To maintain the fuel flow in the circulation system, new fuel is supplied from the daytank. Directly measuring the fuel flow from daytank to circulation system is therefore the easiest and most accurate solution.

There are fuel systems where these measurements are not possible or give too little information, for example when there is no closed circulation circuit or when there are multiple consumers (unifuel systems). In that case it is necessary to measure both supply and return flow from an engine and calculate the difference to obtain the fuel consumption. Since there is also a temperature difference between supply and return flow, compensation for temperature is necessary.