Idrabel Italia

Tank Cleaning Technology

Idrabel Italia S.r.l. focuses its activities mainly on the oil industry and provides services directed to minimizing waste contamination, preserving the environment and recovery of valuable fractions of oil from sludge.
Idrabel Italia offers a range of solution for crude oil, fuel oil and slop oil tank cleaning.
Our consolidated experience of over ten years has allowed improving and optimizing our Tank Cleaning Technology, procedures and know how in setting up the BioRecOil® Process (Biological Recovery Oil) which differs from the other systems. It aims towards maximization of resalable oil recovery from the oil tank bottom sludge and therefore minimizing the volume of the residual bottom sludge to be disposed of.

BioRecOil® PROCESS - TANK CLEANING AND OIL RECOVERY SOLUTION
The automated system is based on the hydro-mechanical action of rotating devices which are installed into the oil tank shell through the manholes that are connected to powerful pumps installed on site, and on the action of biological surface active agent compounds (biosurfactants) delivered within the tank.
The BioRecOil® Process can be applied without emptying the tank and within a safer environment without carrying out operations on the top of the roof, but from the tank basin and with a ‘ no man entry’ fashion during the whole oil recovery process. The work is carried out using ATEX certified equipments suitable for hazardous environments and an environmentally-friendly technology with continuous monitoring of performance and results in qualitative and quantitative terms.

BIORECOIL® PROCESS ADVANTAGES
The main operation advantages of BioRecOil® Process are:

• Recovery of HC from the Sludge
  There will be over 95% recovery of the hydrocarbons present in the Sludge.
  The missing % is composed of hydrocarbons with high boiling point and high distillation point (above 450° C).
• Reduction of the Sludge
  The HC %, water, sediments and not extractable HC (with distillation point > 450°C) are the elements that influence the reduction of sludge.
  According to previous experiences, we would expect a reduction of about 90% of the sludge.
  In this way the waste quantities and costs for disposal are reduced and the cleaning times are optimized.
• Biosurfactants compatibility with water treatment plant and recovered oil
  The biosurfactants have not effect on the recovered oil quality and are compatible with water treatment processes.
  It is available detailed documentation and literature about this aspect.
• Quality control of recovered hydrocarbons
  The recovered HC will be continuously monitored.
• Safety
  The work procedures meet the Client’s requirements, in accordance with the more severe Health & Safety and Environmental System.
• Other advantages
  1. The downtime of the tank is minimized because BioRecOil® Process allows to keep the tank in service except during the circulation step; in this way the Client can still have the use of the tank during the works,
  2. No need for a second tank to perform the BioRecOil® Process,
  3. The same crude inside the tank can be used during the process to dissolve the SLUDGE (instead of having some batches of fluxing oil),
  4. Safety is of the most importance, therefore, the work is carried out outside the tank through the shell manholes by the cold-tap technique, if the sludge is higher than the manholes and the work is NOT performed on the top of the floating roof,
  5. BioRecOil® Process does not need the removal of legs or tapping of the roof,
  6. No need to use Nitrogen gas to control the explosion risks since BioRecOil®  Process is done with the floating roof kept in floating position at all times preventing the presence of vapours,
  7. With BioRecOil® Process, the floating roof can land uniformly avoiding possible mechanical troubles and increasing the safety which MUST be a priority in any process,
  8. Additionally the mechanical modules can be left installed on the manholes after work completion and they may be used in future for desludging/cleaning operations in order to avoid large SLUDGE accumulation,
  9. The pipelines and line connections are used only during the oil recovery phase (carried out in one time and for a few days),
  10. No in-direct, hidden costs arising form utilities demands.

BioRecOil® Process has been applied in over one hundred large tanks of crude, fuel, slop oil in further important European and worldwide Oil Companies.  They consider our process ideal for solving their tank cleaning problems.

3D SLUDGE MAPPING
Sludge mapping, thermographic and manual measurements are initially carried out on each tank to assess sludge amounts and distribution profile within the tank.
Sludge samples are collected to determine its characteristics together with the lab simulations to enable identifying the optimum tank cleaning strategy to be carried out as well as to forecast the amounts of recoverable hydrocarbons and sludge residuals.
A specific software displays 3D sludge distribution in the tank giving full indication of its quantity/quality and recoverable oil and residues quantities.

TANK CLEANING AND DEGASSING
During the tank cleaning activities, emissions and hydrocarbons spills represent a critical aspect with negative environmental impacts and safety problems.
Idrabel Italia S.r.l. has developed activities for tank degassing, through an application of a mobile gas washing column. The additive used is “LECS”, which is a specific biotechnological product. The application allows the elimination of VOC (volatile organic compounds) emissions and the reduction of explosion risks.

LECS VOC CONTROL™ SYSTEM
Idrabel Italia S.r.l. has also pioneered the LECS VOC CONTROL™ System which has been specifically designed for floating roof storage tank seeking to minimize and rather eliminating VOC emissions, odours and explosion risks using aeration/nebulization of specific biotechnological (enzymatic) product delivered on site of emission.

HEAVY SLUDGE REMOVAL SYSTEM
Idrabel’s Hydro Mini-Bull is a tank cleaning equipment for large oil storage tanks.
It is very a efficient system to be used during the final tank cleaning operations and to remove the remaining waste. The system is certified in accordance with the ATEX regulations.
The Hydro Mini-Bull is equipped with rubber tracks and hydraulic drives suitable to work inside the oil tanks for pushing the residual towards the intake pumps.
This equipment is composed of two track groups linked by cross members; a mobile blade with a hydraulic cylinder, a seat for the driver and the manoeuvring drives are linked to the cross members.
All the equipment is demountable in units in order to be set up easily inside the tank through a 600 mm diameter opening (manhole).
All the equipment has been designed to meet the most severe safety requirements and to eliminate the explosiveness risks.
The Hydro Mini-Bull is hydraulically powered. The hydraulic power pack system is located outside the tank and connected to the hydraulic pipes equipped with fast clutches in their final parts.

SYSTEM TO PREVENT TANK BOTTOM SLUDGE ACCUMULATION
System preventing sludge sedimentation by mixing to improve heavy HC fluidity.
The hydrocarbons are re-suspended in the oil. The system consists in one or more modules installed on the shell manholes with different API standard devices. It is easily demountable for maintenance also with tank in service.

MULTIPHASE COMBO SEPARATOR (MC-Sep)

System for external heavy sludge treatment.                                                         The primary function of this equipment is to perform a post-treatment operation to further reduce the residual heavy sludge/waste quantity and to maximize the quantity of the recovered oil (in respect to what already obtained inside the tank by the BioRecOil^® desludging internal system).

1. quality improvement of the recovered oil (water content reduction, sediment quantity reduction, pour point adjustment),
2. potential external use of the BioRecOil^® system to treat heavy sludge coming from basins, API separators, lagoons, pits, etc….,
3. use of the system as a buffer/intermediate tank,
4. use of the system to warm up relevant quantities of water or gas oil for final washing operations (tanks, equipments, etc….),
5. waste water quality improvement (oil and sediments content reduction).

1. Coil heating system for connection to steam generator.
2. Cone down bottom to enhance draining and cleaning operations.
3. Completely sealed system equipped with a retaining sump.
4. Fixed covering with manholes and valve spools on top (for potential emissions treatment) and sideways for external connections, as needed, at different heights.
5. Equipped with an oil/water separation system.
6. The system can be divided in two sections for a double function: a) blending operation through mixing devices and b) decanting or multi-phase separation
7. Proper setting to add and dose different chemicals (pour point depressants, surfactants, bio-surfactants, de-emulsifiers, poly-electrolytes, etc…..)

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