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IOCL Renery at Haldia, India, 2000

INFO@ORECO.COM

Indian Balmer Lawrie uses BLABO to overcome difficult tank cleaning challenges

Balmer Lawrie & Co. Ltd, a Government of India enterprise, specialises in providing tank cleaning and sludge separation services to the oil and petrochemical industries in India. Balmer Lawrie met a tough challenge at the IOCL Renery in India, where they cleaned a crude oil tank with extraordinary high sludge content and had to work under very difcult conditions. Extremely high sludge content The tank to be cleaned had a crude oil capacity of 65,000 m and with an enormous sludge content of 9,651 m. In fact, the sludge content reached in average a level of nearly 2 meters exceeding the level of the man-hole openings. At certain points, the roof rested on the sludge meaning that some of the roof legs were submerged in the sludge. This made it difcult or almost impossible for robotic solutions or humans to enter the tank. The Oreco BLABO was therefore highly suitable for this job as it does not require personnel to enter the tank during cleaning.

Facts and gures

Location: Contractor: Tank size: Tank content: Roof: Sludge content: Cleaning nozzles: BLABO in use: IOCL Renery, Haldia, India Balmer Lawrie & Co. Ltd. Volume: 65.000 m, : 79 m Crude oil Floating roof 9,651 m 8 Single Nozzle Sweepers Desludging: 60 days HGO washing: 5 days Water washing: 3 hours Mobilisation: 20 manhours Ventilation: 1 day Crude oil: 12,000 m HGO: 500 m Hydrocarbons: 99%

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Time: Consumption: Recovery:

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The nozzles therefore operated at a reduced capacity (shorter throw length) and thus the desludging process lasted longer than usual. Crude oil as cleaning media Crude oil was used as cleaning media during the desludging process, in which about 90% of the sludge was uidised and pumped out for further separation and treatment. The remaining sludge was removed by steam-jetting, which forced the sludge out of the tank through one of the tank man-ways. The ejected sludge was then treated in the normal manner by the BLABO system. Once the tank was emptied of oil, the tank received a nal water wash, and after a short ventilation time, the tank was ready for inspection and manual ne cleaning to prepare the tank for hot work.

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The tank at IOCL renery at Haldia with 2 meters of sludge.

The system is intrinsically safe, economi

Cleaning under difcult conditions To get the sludge out of the tank the rst phase for Balmer Lawrie was to uidise the oil. For this purpose, a number of tank cleaning nozzle were installed inside the tank. Under normal circumstances, the nozzles are designed to spray above the liquid surface. However, this cleaning operation had to start at a oating-roof condition, so the nozzles initially functioned in a submerged state.

cally benecial and environmentally friendly. Based on performance, M/s. Balmer Lawrie & Co. Ltd. has been advised to take up cleaning operation for two more tanks. Quote from the letter of appreciation from IOCL, Haldia Renery.

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