Having worked on vessels of all types for fifty years as a Marine Engineer, Gerald Hansen (Founder & CEO, H.M.I. Bilge Licker Inc.) witnessed a great deal of oil contaminated bilge water. More often than not the oily bilge water was discharged into the ocean, either accidentally or covertly. Early on in his career Gerald became acutely aware of this serious issue, and over the years he began to formulate a plan towards a solution, one that satisfied a need to separate the oil from the bilge water while it was still in the bilge. Designing a system to both effectively and automatically solve this oil crisis did not happen overnight however, as arriving upon a design that accomplished Gerald’s goal took many years of trial, error, and exploring many different technologies.
In 2010 our first prototypes hit the market, bearing the memorable name: ‘Bilge Licker’. While we since replaced our initial prototypes with our up-to-date units, one prototype is still out there performing above expectations in an extreme environment (a bilge jokingly called: “the bilge from hell”), proving the quality of our core design. The reception of our first wave of prototypes, and of our latest models, has been a positive experience that has continued to propel our company forward.