What Compressed-Air Leaks Cost a Ship, and How to Find Them in Minutes.
Service air, control air and starting air run around the clock on every vessel, and every leak in them is a compressor running longer than it should, burning fuel and adding running hours. In a working engine room the ear will never find those leaks. An acoustic imaging camera does: it overlays each leak on the live image from metres away, in normal operation, and puts a number on it before you walk on.
The Air System Never Sleeps, So Neither Do Its Leaks
Three compressed-air systems run on virtually every vessel. Service air feeds tools, cleaning and general ship's use. Control air holds the pneumatic valves, positioners and automation of the whole plant. Starting air receivers must sit at pressure, ready for the main and auxiliary engines. All three are pressurised twenty-four hours a day, at sea and in port.
Compressed air is not free. It is made by compressors driven off the ship's electrical plant, and every kilowatt they draw is generator load, which is fuel. When the system leaks, the compressors cut in more often and run longer to hold the same pressure. The leak never trips an alarm; it just quietly converts fuel into noise, adds running hours to the compressors, and drags their maintenance intervals forward.
- Service, control & starting air are pressurised around the clock
- Every leak = longer compressor running hours = fuel
- Extra running hours pull maintenance and overhauls forward
- Leaks in control air can also mean unstable pneumatic control
A Fifth to a Third of the Air, Gone
Energy authorities such as the US Department of Energy estimate that 20–30% of compressed air output is typically lost to leaks in systems without a leak-management programme. Ashore that is an electricity bill; afloat it is generator load, fuel and compressor running hours, paid continuously, at sea and alongside.
The Engine Room Hides Its Own Leaks
The traditional hunt, walking the plant listening for a hiss, or brushing soapy water onto suspect joints, fails aboard ship for a simple physical reason. A small air leak emits most of its energy as ultrasound, above the range of human hearing, while a running engine room fills the audible band with broadband machinery noise. The one sound you are listening for is drowned exactly where it lives.
The leaks are also in the wrong places for the ear: behind lagging, in overhead pipe runs, at the back of control-air cabinets, on fittings you would need staging to reach. Soap-testing every joint means getting to every joint, and you still only find the ones you thought to test. What the job needs is a way to see every leak in the field of view at once, from the deck plates, while the plant runs.
- Small leaks emit mostly ultrasound: inaudible over machinery noise
- Leaks hide behind lagging, overhead and inside cabinets
- Soap-testing is contact, joint-by-joint, and finds only where you look
Every Leak in the Frame, From Metres Away
An acoustic imaging camera turns the hunt on its head: instead of listening joint by joint, it images the ultrasound of the whole scene and draws each leak onto the live picture, in normal operation, with nothing shut down.
The hiss becomes a spot on the screen
Air forcing its way through a fitting, a perished hose, a flange or a valve gland emits ultrasound. The camera's MEMS microphone array beamforms that sound and overlays it on the live camera image, so the leak appears as a bright spot sitting exactly on its source, visible from metres away even over full machinery noise. Sweep the camera across a compressed-air run and every leak in the field of view lights up at once.
- Detects leaks from as little as 0.0032 L/min at 2.5 m (HA3 series)
- Non-contact: inspect overhead runs and cabinets from the deck plates
- Works in normal operation: nothing isolated, nothing shut down
From a hiss to litres per minute, and a cost
Finding the leak is half the job; deciding whether it is worth a work order is the other half. Once a leak is located by sound, the software estimates the leak rate in litres per minute and converts it on screen into an estimated annual cost and carbon mass. The operator tags each finding with voice, text and photo annotations, and the camera generates the inspection report on the spot, so the survey ends with a ranked defect list, not a notebook of guesses.
- Leak rate (L/min) · estimated annual cost · carbon mass, live on screen
- Voice, text & tag annotations on every finding
- Inspection report generated on site, exported by Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or USB-C
The on-screen cost and CO₂ figures are indicative estimates the camera derives from user-set inputs (gas price, run-time and emission factor); they are not a guaranteed or independently verified figure.
Four Passes, Repeated Every Few Months
A compressed-air survey with an acoustic camera fits inside a normal watch. The routine below works the whole system, quantifies what it finds, and closes the loop after repair.
1 · Engine-room walk-through
Sweep the compressor discharge, receivers, dryers and main distribution runs, including overhead pipework and lagged sections the ear and soap-brush never reach.
2 · Deck service air
Follow the service-air line up and out: deck connections, quick couplings, hose stations and workshop drops, the fittings that live hardest and leak first.
3 · Control-air cabinets
Image the control-air cabinets, valve positioners and instrument connections. Leaks here waste air and can mean unstable pneumatic control.
4 · Quantify · tag · fix · re-verify
Read the leak rate on screen, tag each finding into the on-site report, raise the work orders, then re-survey after repair to confirm every leak is closed.
One Handheld for the Whole Air System
Compressed-air surveys are the natural work of the acoustic camera family: the Hertzinno HA3 (144-microphone third-generation flagship), the HZ-HA-170P and the long-route HZ-HA-171P with its replaceable 7-hour battery. All three run the gas-leak mode used for air surveys, plus partial-discharge and mechanical modes for the switchboard and the machinery on the same walk-through.
SepcoTech specs the right model and configuration to the vessel, and the same camera then covers leak, discharge and bearing checks fleet-wide.
Leak Detection by Sound, In the Field
Footage published by Hertzinno: an acoustic camera locating pressurised-gas leaks by sound on an oil & gas site. Compressed air aboard ship is imaged exactly the same way.
Compressed-Air Leak Surveys: Common Questions
New to acoustic imaging? Our guide explains how it works and where each mode is used.
How much compressed air does a ship typically lose to leaks?
Why can't compressed-air leaks be found by ear in the engine room?
Do I need to shut systems down to survey for air leaks?
Can the camera tell me what an air leak costs?
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