The Project
A busy supermarket distribution centre in Essex was experiencing blocked filters on their dispensing pumps, causing delays in filing vehicles operating from the site, causing delays in distribution.
The Solution
The tank was 106,000 litres and had 52,000 litres of unusable fuel capacity as every time the fuel reached that level the pumps would block and either stop dispensing or dispense very slowly.
LCM attended with three tankers; a fuel polishing tanker, a petroleum regulated vacuum tanker and a tanker to hold polished fuel. The scaffold was erected to enable safe access to the tank lid to enable man entry. Fuel in the tank was polished through the fuel polishing tanker and then transferred into the holding tanker. Once this was done the tank was bottomed out and the tank was cleaned using man entry tank cleaning.
There was a lot of sludge in the tank all of which was removed. The tank was then dried and an NDT engineer then entered the tank. He undertook a detailed inspection of the tank, its internal structure and then conducted an extensive NDT inspection of the tank to ascertain the skin thickness of the tank. The fuel was then transferred into the tank and the dispensing pumps primed so that service on site could recommence.
Also on site were 15 IBCs of fuel that was of poor quality. This fuel was polished and then transferred back into the main tanks.
The Outcome
The customer was very happy and we have since been back to the site to clean an additional tank and have repeated this process at a depot in Co. Durham and have one more on the horizon.
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We have decommissioned thousands of tanks over the last 25 years, probably more than any other company, ranging in size from airfield aviation fuel tanks, forecourt tanks, chemical and acid tanks, cylindrical and vertical tanks.