Cargo Surveyor for Android – Tutorials part 6: Ullage report – entering data in the editor

The tutorials part 6 for the Android version of Cargo Surveyor deals with the Ullage report.

Recently we discussed the fifth document of the set of documents required to be produced in the load port, the VEF report.

Today we will discuss part 6 of the tutorials, which will deal with the ullage report:

Cargo Surveyor is designed with user convenience and flexibility in mind. The app being used primarily on oil tankers and chemical tankers, we have chosen to give the user two different option sets regarding possible tank configurations:

• a standard layout, which accommodates a minimum of 12 tanks (5 pairs of wing tanks plus two slop tanks) and 3 bottom lines, and a maximum of 23 tanks (7 crosses plus two slop tanks) and 3 bottom lines.
• An extended layout, which accommodates a minimum of 34 tanks (16 pairs of wing tanks plus two slop tanks) and 3 bottom lines, and a maximum of 50 tanks (16 crosses plus two slop tanks) and 3 bottom lines.

The bottom lines and slop tanks can be used in any way the user wants to, they are simply considered as tanks just like the other tanks. (Not to be confused with actual bottom lines, which can either be included or excluded from tank tables). There are times however that the bottom lines L1, L2 and L3 are used to either add or deduct volume of cargo for a selected grade, and this depends indeed on whether bottom lines on the vessel are included in tank calibration tables or not, and what the grade of each bottom line is. More on this later.

When you open the app, the first screen that always appears is the layout selection screen, where you will be asked to choose between either the standard or the extended layout:

In the top right hand corner of this screen is also an options menu button, that will let you straight go to general settings etc.

For our testship, being a vessel with 6 pairs of wing tanks and 2 slop tanks (plus a residual oil tank), we will select the STANDARD layout. As soon as we press the button (‘USE STANDARD LAYOUT’) we are presented with the standard layout tank configuration editor:

At present only the ‘Open file’ button is enabled, all other buttons are disabled. If you previously created an ullage report than you can open that ullage report for editing by pressing the ‘Open file’ button and selecting the ullage report from the list of available reports. In our case we are going to create a new report from scratch so first we need to select the appropriate tank configuration; as soon as you press ‘Select tank configuration’, a pop up window appears where you can select a possible configuration. In these tank configurations slop tanks and bottom lines are not mentioned since they are always included:

For our testship we need to select ‘6W’: this will create an ullage report with 6 wing tanks + 2 slop tanks + 3 bottom lines. As soon as you press ‘6W’ on the drop down list in the above picture, you will notice that now all buttons 1-6P, 1-6S, Slop P, Slop S and L1, L2 and L3 buttons are enabled, as well as the ‘New File’ button.

We now press the ‘New File’ button; in the new window where we are asked to enter a file name, we can enter ‘Testship’ and press ‘OK’:

We are now taken directly to the tank editor (standard layout), with the new ullage report already created and opened and tank 1P selected:

Within the tank editor, the first thing we see in the top of the screen is 1P:SI Metric/2004. 1P is the name of the selected tank in the list of available tanks. SI Metric means that in general settings SI Metric units has been chosen, and 2004 indicates that ASTM 2004 tables have been selected.

There are five buttons on the screen for switching units (no.6 button ‘ULLAGE’ is only to indicate whether ullage or innage is being used, but presently this is not reflected in the actual report):

– ullage between meters and feet / inches: you can select this unit for each tank individually; this is handy in case the vessel has ullage tables using feet and inches while you want to make your report in metric units: first press the ‘MTRS’ button, so that the input changes to feet, inches. The title of the button now changes to ‘FT,IN’. Now enter the ullage (say for example ‘7, 8.5’). Now press the ‘FT,IN button again, and the ullage is automatically converted to 2.350 mtrs.

– temperature between deg C and deg F: same as with ullages, you can select the unit for each tank individually and convert between deg C and deg F with the press of a button, in this case the ‘DEG C’ button below the ‘MTRS’ button.

– density between density @ 15 deg C and API at 60 deg F: as with the other units, if you press the D15 button, the density (if you have entered one) will be automatically converted to API and the title of the button changes to ‘API’.

– volume between M³ and Bbls: likewise, if you press the M³ button, any volume you have entered will be converted to Bbls, and the title of the button will change to ‘BBLS’. Both volume in the volume field and the water dip field will be converted.

– thermal expansion coefficient (Alpha) between /deg C and /deg F: if you press the ‘DEG C’ button (below the M³ button), the expansion coefficient will be converted to /deg F.

All these units (except ullage) will be converted to the selected standard in the general settings when you generate the pdf report: if in general settings you have selected ‘SI Metric’, then all values will be printed in metric units, and if you have selected ‘Imperial’, then all values will be printed in imperial units.

Ullages however, will be printed depending on one particular setting in the pdf report settings: at the bottom of the pdf report settings there is an entry called ‘Keep ullages in original units’:

If this option is ticked, then ullages will be printed based on the ullage unit that has been used for the first tank: if the ullage of 1P is entered as ‘feet, in’ then all ullages will be printed in feet and decimal inches, regardless of whether you have selected metric or imperial units.

On the right hand side of the screen are fields to enter ullage, a maximum of three temperatures, the volume of any water in the tank, the density in vacuum at 15 deg C (or the API at 60 deg F), the tank volume, alpha (in case of special applications using table 54C or 6C and in case of chemicals), and the name of the grade.

If you have selected ‘Chemicals’ as cargo type, there is one additional field called ‘at temp’: here you can enter the temperature for the observed density (see below). Also the density button is disabled and will now have as title ‘DENSITY’ instead of ‘D15’. When chemicals is selected as cargo type, it is not possible to change the density unit to API.

At the bottom of the screen is the drop down to select the tank for which you want to enter data, currently pointing at 1P; to the left of the tank drop down is the cargo type selector, which you can set to either:

– Products

– Crude

– LubOil

– Special Applic(ations)

– Chemicals

If you select any cargo type except ‘Chemicals’, the ASTM tables are used for calculating the weights, VCF etc. In the case of Chemicals (not to confuse with ‘Special applications’) , the density is entered as observed density, together with a corresponding temperature for that density. In this case the ‘at temp’ and Alpha are used to calculate the actual weight in air. No GSV can be calculated since many chemicals such as FAME / vegetable oils are not even liquid at 15 deg C.

For all other cargo types the normal ASTM tables are used; which table is used for calculating the VCF depends on:

– The cargo type: if ‘Products’ is selected, either table 54B or 6B is used, if ‘Crude’ is selected, either table 54A or 6A is used etc.

– Whether in general settings ‘SI Metric’ or ‘Imperial’ has been selected; if Imperial is selected table 6B is used, if SI Metric is selected table 54B will be used. The same applies for Crude, LubOil and Special Applications.

Let us now enter an example referring to the screen shot below:

Testship will load the cargo of mixed aromatics in various stages, receiving parcels with different densities from different shore tanks.

Each parcel will be loaded evenly across all tanks so as to achieve a homogeneously commingled end product.

As can be seen in the picture on the left, we have entered an ullage of 15.62 mtrs, a temperature of 21 deg C, a density in vacuo at 15 deg C of 860.7, a volume of 2506 M³ and the grade name ‘ma’.

This grade name is arbitrary, you can enter any name you wish, as long as you ensure that this grade name is exactly the same for each tank carrying this grade, because the calculation of totals per grade is dependent on the grade name.

Now if you press the back button and return to the tank configuration screen, and then press the ‘1P’ button, you will see not only the info that we have just entered but also the VCF, GSV, MTons in air/vacuum, LTons, Bbls and Gallons are all displayed for this tank.

In the bottom of the screen the title of the report, as well as the grade name are displayed in an animated scrolling text field:

 

 

Phew! It has been a pretty long session already! We will take a break here, and discuss the remainder of the ullage report session in the next tutorial, part 7.

In the mean time, for those who are interested in Cargo Surveyor for Android: the app can be downloaded here:

 

 

 

 

We post updates for the app in Google Play frequently to solve minor bugs, and advise all users to update as soon as a new update is available; we don’t use advertisements in Cargo Surveyor and we never will.

If you have any queries, suggestions, comments, criticism about the app or this blog post, please let us know! We always do our best to accommodate any requests for additions/modifications to our apps if they improve the value!

OilcalcsPro for desktop 101 – Part 2

In our last post concerning OilcalcsPro for desktop 101 we discussed the settings, and the impact of the choice between SI Metric and Imperial settings.

We also discussed the drop down boxes for density and volume, and showed an example of the reverse calculation going from weight to observed volume and we briefly mentioned the inline conversion that can be done using the density drop down box.

Today we will have a look at the following subjects:

• Using pressure and thermal expansion coefficient inputs

• The different oil types

• Converting between different density units

• Some real life calculation examples

The examples here are based on working with the latest version as of 16th January 2016 (version 1.0.2.0). The latest version of OilcalcsPro can be downloaded here.

If you want to convert the demo version to the permanent pro version, buy a license code voucher here: Goto Paypal

So, lets get started and have a look at the remaining drop down boxes:

The temperature drop down box: this box has only two entries: deg C and deg F. If the temperature field contains a value, it will automatically be converted when you select the other temperature unit, e.g. if the temperature field contains a value of 32.6 with the temperature unit set at deg C, after selecting deg F the value in the temperature field will show 90.68.

The pressure unit drop down box: when using the 2004 tables, you can enter an observed pressure in either psi, kPa or Bar. This pressure could be for example the pressure in the pipeline where the liquid is being transported. You can find out more in detail about the calculations used by the 2004 tables in an earlier post on this blog under the title “ASTM Petroleum table 54 version 2004 and its implementation Part 1”. For table 6 a similar approach is used.

Just like with the temperature drop down box, if the pressure field contains a value, it will be converted automatically when you select a different pressure unit in the drop down box. For example if the pressure field contains a value of 1 Bar, if you then select psi, the new value shown will be 14.50.

When you use the 2004 version of the tables, regardless of whether you are using SI Metric or Imperial standards, the compressibility of the liquid is automatically calculated. If the pressure field does not contain a value the pressure is assumed to be zero. Compressibility is a measure of the relative volume change of a fluid as a response to a change in pressure, and it affects the volume correction factor of any liquid that is under a pressure higher than the atmospheric pressure.

It is for this reason also that the 2004 version of the tables do not anymore talk of a VCF or volume correction factor, but instead use the terms CTL (correction for the temperature of a liquid) and CPL (correction for the pressure of a liquid), and the combined term CTPL. Obviously for atmospheric storage of fuel oil, crude and lub oils, only the CTL needs to be taken in consideration, but for liquids under pressurized storage, or liquids being transported in pipelines under pressure the CPL has a significant impact on the correction factor.

The drop down box for the thermal expansion coefficient:

For crude oil, products and lubricating oils the thermal expansion coefficient is calculated using the density and three factors (K0, K1 and K2, which depend primarily on the oil type and in the case of Products also depend on the density) as input values:

The CTL in turn is calculated using the thermal expansion coefficient and the temperature difference between actual temperature and base temperature.

For Special Applications such as denatured ethanol, anhydrous isopropyl, acetone and various other liquids, the thermal expansion coefficient cannot be calculated accurately using the aforementioned formula. Instead, these liquids have been submitted to certain tests in a laboratory which enable the testing facility to establish the coefficient accurately.

When dealing with such products, the manufacturer / supplier of the liquid provides a certificate that states the correct thermal expansion coefficient, if it is not listed publicly. For calculating a volume corrected to 15°C (or 60°F when using Imperial tables) you simply need to enter the actual temperature and the thermal expansion coefficient. For calculating weights you obviously also need to enter the density or API.

The 2004 standards use a thermal expansion coefficient expressed in 1/deg Celsius for SI Metric tables and 1/deg Fahrenheit for Imperial tables, but in OilcalcsPro you can enter either as long as you chose the correct unit belonging to the value that you’ve been given.

Just like the drop down boxes for density, temperature and pressure, changing the selected unit will cause the application to convert the existing value in the thermal expansion coefficient field to the newly selected unit.

The oil type drop down box: choosing between Crude oil, Products, Special Applications, Lub oil and LPG/NGL.

By selecting a certain oil type you are basically telling the application which table to use and which section: if you are using SI Metric standards and you select Crude Oil, the application will use table 54A. If on the other hand you are using Imperial standards the application will use table 6A in that case.

Likewise when you select Products, the application will use either table 54B or 6B depending on whether have chosen to use SI Metric or Imperial standards in the settings screen, and the same goes for Special Applications (table 54C or 6C) and Luboils (table 54D or 6D).

When you select LPG/NGL, the scenario is slightly more complicated: when using density 15, the application will use table 54E, if you are using SI Metric standards. If you are using Imperial standards, the application will use table 24E, after internally converting the used density format to relative density.

When using the other density units and working with the SI Metric standard as per your settings (please note that API is not available as a unit for LPG/NGL), the density is internally converted to density at 15°C, GSV is displayed in M³ at 15°C and weights are calculated using this GSV and the internally converted density at 15°C. When using density at 20°C however, this internal conversion is not done, and GSV is displayed in M³ at 20°C and weights are calculated using this GSV and density at 20°C.

When working with the Imperial standard however, all density units are internally converted to relative density, GSV is displayed in M³ at 60°F and weights are calculated using this GSV and the internally converted relative density.

Converting between different density units:

OilcalcsPro offers inline conversion between all available density units, taking into consideration whether you are using the 1980 version or 2004 version standards. It should be noted here that the 1980 version standards do not accommodate API values below zero, while the 2004 version standards do.

For converting an observed density to any other unit, you need to enter also a temperature value, otherwise the density field will remain empty when you select the new unit. As mentioned above, converting the density has no impact on the results except when converting to / from density 20 and using SI Metric standards. When using the Imperial standard, all densities are internally converted to relative density so converting the density has no impact on the results, although you may seem minor differences when converting back and forth between for example API and relative density as a result of rounding errors.

Real life calculation examples:

To get a feel for how the calculator works, let us carry out a few examples of practical problems.

1. Using table 54A – crude oil:

Assuming that we have orders to load 2 MB of Murban Crude, API = 40.1 and load temperature  = 89°F. Our principal has asked to let him know how much we can actually load in Bbls, Metric tons air and vac, and Long tons. The available 98% tank capacity of our vessel is 314,216 M³.

First, let us make sure that our settings are in sync: use 2004 version tables, use SI Metric standard, and use Table 56 for the conversion between Mtons in air and vac.

Next, in our calculator screen select crude in the oil type drop down, select ‘API60’ in the density drop down, enter 40.1 in the density field, and select ‘deg F’ in the temperature drop down, enter 89 in the temperature field. Check to make sure that the volume unit selected is ‘GOV M³’ and enter 314216 in the volume field.

In our results display we will now see the following figures:

– GOV(M³)          : 314,216.000

– GSV(M³-15°C): 309,458.770

– MT Vac             : 255,055.918

– MT Air              : 254,722.990

– LTons               : 250,700.03

– Bbls                   : 1,947,411 (These are Bbls at 60°F)

– US Gallons      : 81,791,262

Please note that for some users (such as from Netherlands, Germany etc) decimal dot and comma are swapped.

You can see in the above example that the vessel can only load slightly under the requirement of 2 MB, namely 1.947 MB.

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2. Using table 6B – products:

A foreign vessel arrives in the US with a cargo of Jet A-1, with a density of 795.2 and a temperature of 17.6°C. The attending cargo surveyor must gauge the vessel and produce an arrival ullage report using Imperial units. Demonstrate for one cargo tank (no.1 C) how this is done: observed volume is 8,592.415 M³. Average temperature in this tank is 17.6°C.

Once again, let us make sure that our settings are in sync: use 2004 version tables, use Imperial standard, and the setting for Table 56 is immaterial in this case.

Next, in our calculator screen select products in the oil type drop down, select ‘dens15’ in the density drop down, enter 795.2 in the density field, and select ‘deg C’ in the temperature drop down, enter 17.6 in the temperature field. Check to make sure that the volume unit selected is ‘GOV M³’ and enter 8,592.415 in the volume field.

In our results display we will now see the following figures:

– GOV(Bbls)        : 54,045

– GSV(M³-60°F): 8,575.832

– MT Vac              : 6,815.957

– MT Air               : 6,806.693

– LTons                 : 6,699.19

– Bbls                     : 53,940 (These are Bbls at 60°F)

– US Gallons        : 2,265,480

Well, this brings us to the end of today’s tutorial. In the next tutorial we will cover the following subjects:

• More calculations using the main calculator

• Fuel Blending – two components

• Fuel density after blending

• The visco blender

If you are interested in obtaining a copy of OilcalcsPro, the latest version of OilcalcsPro can be downloaded here.

If you want to convert the demo version to the permanent pro version, buy a license code voucher here: Goto Paypal