Tank cleaning: oil sludge

control & homogenization

www.blancon.net

Blancon tank cleaning: overview

Blancon offers a safe, fast and efficient method to remove unpumpable tank bottom sludges
while eliminating the high disposal costs by at clients request - recovering the previously
unusable product for customers use


Complete mobility of our equipment allows us to respond to tank cleaning problems quickly in
a cost-effective way


Safety of plant, equipment and crews represent paramount priorities throughout our
operations

All of our operators are trained to the highest standard to undertake any tank or vessel
cleaning operation

Equipment may be ATEX certified, equipped with spark-arrestors, etc. to meet Zone 1
work area requirements
Blancon offers a complete desludging service available whenever the need may arise to
reduce your tank bottoms.
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Blancons tank cleaning solution is broader and more extensive

Sludge minimization

De-sludging

Tank cleaning

Oil recovery

Oil lagoons and

and recovery

Blancon

Focus of this
presentation

Advanced, high volume jet

mixers at up to 800 m3/h/
unit

Can convert 90% of the
original volume of sludge to
salable material

Heavy sludge mobilization

and tank bottom cleaning

Remove all remaining and
tough sludge to prepare the
tank for inspection and hotwork

Advanced technology to
deliver the best level of
recovery

Recover up to 99% of
hydrocarbons

Blabo (Oreco)
COWS (Taiho)
GasTight (Hydrochem)
SuperMacs (3i)

Phaser (3i)

Hydrodozer (Willacy)
Manual labor

Up to 99% recovery
of oil from lagoons
and pits

Environmental clean
up and remediation

High volume sludge reduction without man-entry, plus residual sludge

extraction and treatment


Blancon uses a proven system that works
by directing a submerged jet of crude oil
across the bottom of the storage tank

The shell-mounted system is designed to be

placed at the tank wall


Normally using the existing tank shell
manway for mounting

Dissolves and re-suspends the

accumulated sludge throughout the
overhead oil

The solution is suitable for all roof types

(floating roof application requires the legs of
the roof to be out of the main operating
stream)

Fluid dynamically powered

Valuable hydrocarbons are re-suspended
into the crude oil and not wasted

Blancon offers solutions for very heavy build-ups where jetting may not be optimal as well as
oil and sludge treatment and separation services
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Methodology overview
Stage 1: Client bottoms tank

Stage 2: Site preparation & installation

The tank is bottomed to allow access

through the manway covers for the jet
mixers.

The site is prepared and the jet mixersare

installed in the tank, mounted on custommade manway covers.

Degassing: This operation should be carried

out before our specialist operators arrive
on site.

Then the high-volume pumps are

connected, ready for the de-sludging
operation

Methodology overview (continued)

Stage 3: Re-filling the tank

Stage 4: The cleaning process putting the

hydrocarbons back into suspension

After a thorough check of the installation,

the client refills the tank to a predetermined level with light crude.

The specialist team set the de-sludging

operation in progress by re-circulating the
light crude and pumping it back into the
tank at 700M
per hour per unit.


As the jet mixer units rotate slowly inside
the tank, the jet of crude will sweep up the
sludge-cutting, re-suspending and
homogenising it in the overhead oil ready
for normal refining processes.

Methodology overview (continued)

Stage 5: Re-suspension completed

Stage 6: Equipment removed tank now

available for re-use

The crude should now be homogenized,

with soluble hydrocarbons in suspension
and ready for processing. At this stage the
tank is drained to a holding tank and the
effectiveness of the operation assessed. If
there is still a large amount of solids not
suspended the operation is repeated but
for a shorter period.

A typical test with 2600 m3 sludge showed that after a 15hoperation, 2300 m3 are re-suspended, whereas after a 30hoperation up to 2500 m3 were re-suspended.

After removal of the Jets/shell mounted

de-sludging equipment, any small amounts
of (if any) remaining residues can be
handled by conventional methods.
Alternatively, the tank can be put straight
back into operation for storing crude.

More than 600 tanks worldwide have been treated using this approach

Optional full oil separation and treatment system overview

Note: Illustrative example. Actual configuration

and units may change.

Oil processing, dewatering and recovery

Continuous processing of extracted slope, or contaminated
soil, and separating it into its base components for
disposal, or re-use

2 stage and 3 stage, including centrifuging


Separation of oil, water and inorganics

Reuse of hydrocarbons

< 1% Water in Oil Content

< 0,2% of Sediments in Oil**

Reduced slope volume

Minimal waste generated


Environmental remediation applications for oilcontaminated soils etc.

Provides a cleaner and more liquid free cake in a 3 phase separation process*


Offers cleaner oil free tanks in preparation for inspection and repairs

As tested by US Filter on their dewatering equipment, yielded a

significantly drier cake. Instead of the usual 30% - 40% liquid
content on the filter test, the conditioned slope yielded a result of
17.5%
** Results may vary