Eurotank Environmental proved its versatility on a recent tank clean of this heavy fuel oil (HFO) tank using one of the company’s new Rolba tankers usually used for interceptor and drainage cleaning.
The uplift and clean of the HFO tank presented certain challenges. Greg Wyatt, EE’s Tanks & Industrial Services Manager, explains: “The challenge working with HFO is you can never tell the viscosity of the fuel so several processes are needed depending on how thick the HFO is.”
On this job kerosene was added to the fuel to make it more viscous. Kerosene was mixed in along with hot water to keep the product moving.
“The new tankers help massively because of their high vacuum capabilities,” says Greg. “We used the Rolba tanker and that also needed to be coated with kerosene to make sure the product could be offloaded.”
When all of the HFO was uplifted, the engineers cleaned the tank, removing all residual oil. This was done with one of EE’s Falch hot wash jetting units set at 90 degrees centigrade and 7,000psi.