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ng tanker cleaning time
Page 72
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ANEW vehicle washing machine and chemicals were demonstrated last week at the Point Pleasant, Wandsworth, fuel-oil terminal of Shell-Mex and BP Ltd. The machine and the solvents used in it are the result of two years' joint development by Shell and Sunbeam Anti-Corrosives Ltd. The prototype equipment demonstrated has been undergoing trials at Wandsworth for the past eight months.
The main problem was that of getting the extremely high volume of water for the rinsing operation whilst at the same time ensuring that there was still sufficient pressure to remove the spoil from the vehicle. This pressure, however, had not to be so great that sections of damaged paint were further stripped.
These problems overcome, there remained that of producing, first a solvent that would tackle severe deposits of heavy fuel oil (that occur for instance when there has been an overflow during loading operations) and, secondly, a detergent that would remove all traces of the solvent together with the normal atmospheric and road dirt that collects. An important point here was to see that the solutions used did not dry off before the water wash was applied and this has been the subject of considerable research by Sunbeam Anti-Corrosives.
Because of the awkward shape of a tanker vehicle it is an uneconomical proposition to use mechanical brushes, and the chore of agitating the spoil on a vehicle must still be carried out by hand. This sounds worse than it is, and at the demonstration two men working with long-handled brushes completed a 4,000-gal. eight-wheeler in well under 10 minutes. This vehicle had been running for a whole week carrying gas-oil without a wash and was in a pretty filthy condition. After only half an hour in the wash bay it was sufficiently presentable to go back into service.
A more stringent test of the equipment was that of washing a black-oiler which also had been running for a week. This vehicle had the usual long black tears of fuel oil on the sides of the tank and a heavy bloom of fumes and spray from the week's loading operations. Solvent was applied at a controlled rate automatically in a total time of 38 sec., with hand lances being used to reach the less accessible places. The cost of the solvent and detergent used on each vehicle is claimed to be only 6s. After scrubbing with the hand brushes, which took the two operators about 10 minutes, detergent was sprayed on to the vehicle, followed by a further scrub and then .the high-volume water wash. Time in all: less than half an hour—and no oil deposits on the underside of the vehicle to pick up excess road dirt once back in service.
During a year's operation the cleaning of the Shell fleet costs up to £250,000 and by halving the cleaning time the system could save as much as £100,000 per year.
A terminal official told me that one of the biggest savings made was in the hours involved in cleaning a vehicle after a spillage. With the new system, what could well have been four or five hours in the wash bay was now reduced to about an hour and, more important, the vehicle was now thoroughly clean at the end of the operation.
The chemicals developed for the job are known as Stripalene, with the solvent carrying the identification 285, and the general surface cleaning detergent, 250. The qualities incorporated in the 285 material cut down considerably the engineering complications necessary in the application plant. Application of the solvent is by a simple spray, the material being diluted with distillate.
The detergent is diluted with water and foamed before application. This is claimed to have several advantages: it provides maximum coverage for the minimum material used; it ensures maximum period of retention of chemical on the contaminated area; it combats the drying effect of high ambient temperatures and/or heated cargo; and it gives visual evidence of coverage.
Cleaning materials and water rinsing are • carried out by a travelling arch, controlled from a position outside the wash building, so preventing contamination of the operatives.
Any enquiries about the equipment should be made to Mr. B. Webster at S.A.C. Equipment Ltd., Central Works, Central Avenue, West Molesey, Surrey.
R. D. CATER