ARBOK-MarineSludge: Ambient-Temperature Vacuum Separation of Ship Oily Sludge as a Replacement for Shipboard Incineration
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Ships generate oily sludge when fuel and lubricating oil are purified before the engine. The world fleet produces about 3.6 million t of this sludge a year, and 300,000–650,000 t of it is burned in shipboard incinerators, which is permitted under MARPOL Annex I. A typical tonne contains about 45% hydrocarbons, 45% water and 10% solids, so incineration destroys a fuel-bearing stream, releases 1–2 million t of CO₂ a year that performs no useful work, and leaves vanadium and nickel in smoke and ash. We describe ARBOK-MarineSludge, an application of the ARBOK vacuum cracking platform to ship sludge. Under deep vacuum, water and light hydrocarbons boil at the temperature of the incoming feed; the stream is separated by volatility and density into a fuel fraction, clean water, elemental sulphur and a dry mineral concentrate. No heat is supplied, nothing is burned, and no reagents, membranes or catalysts are used. The heat of condensation is returned to evaporation with recuperation of up to 98%. Two configurations are considered: an onboard module placed at the end of the sludge line in place of the incinerator, and a containerised port module with a reference capacity of 70,000 t of sludge a year. The technology is at TRL 7. Keywords: ship sludge, MARPOL Annex I, shipboard incinerator, vacuum separation, port reception facilities, marine fuel, vanadium, nickel, sulphur recovery, decarbonisation
Language: English
Subfield: Ocean Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7225800341
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