Cleaning of fuel tanks

In order to avoid the wear and tear of expensive equipment and the creation of emergency situations, the regulations for the operation of gas stations and oil depots require regular cleaning of tanks in which oil was stored.

Why is the cleaning of the tank for petroleum products an important part of the technical and technological process? There are several reasons for its necessity:

• regular cleaning of the walls and bottom is a condition for maintaining the maximum useful volume;
• the absence of bottom sediments, precipitation and oxides on the body of products increases the operational reliability of the tank for storing petroleum products;
• without cleaning, it is impossible to obtain objective data about the working condition of the equipment (as checking this condition is mandatory).

Cleaning is carried out both as part of the prevention of wear and tear, and before repair or regular maintenance of the tank park. Depending on the operating conditions of the structure, it can be performed with different frequency. The periodicity of cleaning the tank depends on the characteristics of the fuel, its type and the specifics of its use. For example, equipment that stores several types of products (usually one container is used for one substance, but sometimes businesses deviate from this rule) should be processed more often.

The process of cleaning the tank from oil products involves processing:

• The wall of the reservoir to remove precipitation and rust. After the process is completed, a small layer of sediment or rusty streaks may remain on the walls if their removal is difficult. But there should be no detergent on the walls.
• Tank bottoms. Bottom deposits cause more damage to the system. Therefore, maximum attention is paid to their cleaning.
• The internal space of the tank for the purpose of its degassing. At this stage, the remains of steam released by oil products during their storage are removed.