10% of fatalities at sea are caused by fires.
Rated by the cost of insurance claims, fires are in third place, only exceeded by grounding/collision (severe consequences) and machinery damage (high frequency) .
Statistics gathered from 1992 to 1997 show that 63% of all reported fires are engine room fires. The same trend is seen for the period 1998 to 2001. These fires are often very serious fires and may disable the vessel for longer periods. A rough estimate of the related cost of an engine room fire is about £ 100.000 per minute of fire.
Of all reported engine room fires, more than 50% are caused by oil leakages onto hot surfaces. SOLAS 2001 consolidated edition requires that surfaces with temperature exceeding 220 degrees C shall be insulated or shielded.
To reduce or extinguish fires at an early stage without endangering people and to reduce the consequences of an erroneous release, there is a requirement in SOLAS 2000 amendments Ch.II-2, Reg.10.5.6 for a local application fire extinguishing system. The system shall be of the water spray or low expansion foam type and be capable of both automatic and manual release from both inside and outside of the machinery space. Automatic release is initiated by a separate fire detection system covering the high fire risk objects in the machinery space as separate sections. Activation of the system shall not cause shut down of main or auxiliary engines or malfunction of essential electrical systems. It may also be noted that there is no requirement for redundant water pumps, nor for a redundant power supply.
To further improve the fire safety in machinery spaces, DNV has developed a class notation called F-M that has requirements in addition to SOLAS. The focus is on:
-prevention of fires through requirements to the oil systems and separation and requirements for thermo scanning of hot surfaces.
-quick response to fires through enhanced fire detection and confirmation of fires by use of CCTV system.
-reliability of fire fighting systems through robust local extinguishing, reliable main fire fighting system and well specified fireman's equipment.

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Amendment of SOLAS II-2 in 2000, which requires installing the local fire extinguishing system in Engine Room, has been in force for new buildings since July 1, 2002. In this paper, we focus the local fire extinguishing system describing interpretation of the requirements for its function and/or control and several applications actually applied, and also we suggest establishing the unified design standard.

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As large-scale, high-efficiency machinery and plants increasingly apply today's advanced information technology, malfunctions and accidents have tremendous impacts on security, the environment, and economic systems. Technology for the detection and prediction of abnormalities in such machinery and plants is an important method of preventing malfunctions and failures.
This paper describes and appraises the roles, classifications, measuring principles, system construction, and characteristics of sensors for detection of abnormalities in machinery and plants.

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We improved the system of a high-speed single-acting 4-stroke diesel engine to allow it run on a mixed fuel comprised of A-heavy oil and DME (Di-Methl Ether), fuel components that discharge no soot, no SOx, and little NOx in combustion. The combustion pressure, rate of heat release, exhaust gas components, and other conditions were measured in experiments using diesel oil, A-heavy oil, and the mixed fuel comprised of DME and A-heavy oil.
As a result, the ignition timing was earliest with diesel oil, median with the mixed fuel, and latest with A-heavy oil. Mixed fuel discharged a slightly reduced level of NOx. Overall, results indicated that the engine would require further improvements before long-term operation became possible.

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High-power engines are in demand for marine propulsion use. Generally, though, an increase in rated power causes an increase in cylinder pressure. High cylinder pressure makes an engine more expensive because its structure has to be strengthened. We developed ASSIGN (Available Space Scattering Injection Geometric Nexus) Combustion to make possible both high power and low fuel consumption without cylinder pressure increase. One feature of ASSIGN Combustion is use of a staggered nozzle. As we use a staggered nozzle, however, interference between the main spray and sub spray, which is not a problem when a conventional nozzle is used, makes smoke emission worse. In this paper we describe the solution for this problem. We devised a staggered nozzle with a large number of small holes that improve the fuel atomization and mixture distribution in the cylinder.

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