You are currently viewing Oil Tank Cleaning

Oil Tank Cleaning

If you are currently looking for a specialist tanker cleaning company, you can call on Jomarine Services. Oil tankers are among the larger ships that do exist and they transport petroleum and other petroleum products and can be very messy. An oil tanker therefore needs a thorough cleaning at the end of each trip. The tanks which contain mainly hydrocarbon products must be given special attention.

Like a conventional tank found on land, the tanker’s tanks are also very dangerous. Like any tank, in fact, they contain suspended hydrocarbon particles that can explode at any time. These tanks are even considered more dangerous since they are generally larger, sometimes reaching thousands of tonnes per tank.

Cleaning a ship can also include cleaning its engine and fuel tanks. Most of today’s tankers run on heavy fuel oil, equipped with large diesel engines. This type of fuel, unlike gasoline for example, is a very impure fuel that must go through several purification stages before it is introduced into the heart of the machine. Of course, the impurities are stored and cleaned, sometimes manually, before the tanker takes to the sea again.

One of the biggest challenges in cleaning up an oil tanker is surely the order of magnitude of the operation. We are talking about a ship that measures several hundred meters in length, not to mention the height which will also dictate, for example, the width and height of the tanks. The cleaning of tankers therefore requires the use of heavy equipment most of the time.

The danger with cleaning tankers

Whether we are talking about the tanker’s tanks or its heavy fuel tank, the danger is the same. In both cases, suspended gas loaded with hydrocarbon molecules are present in the empty spaces left by the initial content, normally discharged. Whether gasoline, crude oil, heavy fuel oil … all hydrocarbon products are not immune to the phenomenon, to the creation of this highly flammable gas. This gas can ignite at the slightest chance, so every precaution should be taken to ensure that this does not happen. But we must not forget either. This gas can endanger the health of all exposed persons, including our technicians. This is also one of the reasons why you should absolutely not try to clean your tanker yourself, seek the services of expert company, like Jomarine Services. Here too, several precautions must be observed to ensure that cleaning operations are carried out safely.

The cleaning of the tanker’s tanks

The first step in cleaning the tanker’s tanks is to completely empty the tank of its contents. However, by content, we don’t just mean the oil, gasoline … that the tanker was carrying. It is also necessary to get rid of the gas in suspension by suction, of the hydrocarbon sludge which has piled up at the bottom of the tank and finally of the hydrocarbon molecules which have stuck to the walls. Keep in mind that an oil tanker’s trip can last several weeks. In the meantime, the hydrocarbon molecules have had plenty of time to become embedded in the walls.

This is how the tanker must be cleaned at each stopover. On the one hand, these molecules can damage the quality of the future contents of the tank if they are not detached from the walls. The various operations are carried out with the assistance of one or more tankers fitted with high pressure pumps, capable of both injecting water and pumping gas and hydrocarbon sludge. The primary role of the cistern is to receive a large amount of the rest of the contents in each tank.

Next, you have to move on to the degassing step, which involves sucking the suspended gas inside each tank and aerating the inside of the tank to lower the content of hydrocarbon molecules in the air. For added safety, the latter data can be measured by an explosimeter, an essential tool from a safety point of view in the context of cleaning oil tankers and any hydrocarbon tank. The cleaning operation then continues with the pumping of the hydrocarbon sludge that has accumulated at the bottom of the tank. This sludge comes from a mixture of sediment and water.

Each hydrocarbon product has its sediment content. For crude oil, for example, the rate of sediment is higher. For gasoline, sediments are almost nonexistent. Then the water comes from the condensation. The longer the load remains in the tank, the more water that is created by condensation will form a mixture with the sediments, resulting in a viscous material. This material is also very flammable.

Finally, the actual cleaning can begin, by injecting high pressure water. It is also possible to mix water with detergent or other products for better efficiency. What should not be forgotten either is that this wastewater is dirty, and must above all not be discharged into the sea. Like the rest of the product collected at the very beginning of the operation, at the same way as the flammable gas pumped, and in the same way as the hydrocarbon sludge, this water must be treated in the factory to separate the hydrocarbon molecules which can be reused, from the water which can be used in other fields.

But this water can also be treated directly on site with factory trucks. The role of the latter is to treat the water on site, thanks to a filter inside the tank, which immediately separates the oil and the water. This same water can then return to the circuit and be injected into the walls to once again be loaded with hydrocarbon molecules.

Jomarine Services, professionals at your service.

In the field of hydrocarbons, whether for domestic or professional services, if you are looking for a professional in the field of cleaning, you can count on the Jomarine Services team. We put at your disposal our best qualified and experienced teams, and above all well equipped to be able to face any situation.

Leave a Reply