Wolftank Austria developed its No-Man-Entry line, which includes TCR® 6 / 7. These innovative tank cleaning robots work without opening the manhole.
Wolftank Austria tank cleaning robots
This product line was the first available technology on the market allowing to wash, clean as well as degas underground storage without opening the manhole. Moreover, it allows to clean tanks up to 2,5+ m diameter without limits on the tank length and more than 50 cm of solid sludge. The TCR® 6/7 consists of two different units. It is completely EX Zone 0 certified and it can operate in any potentially explosive environments while both units fit well into a 4 inch hole.
The scope of the project
One of our customers, ExxonMobil Italy, is highly focused on safety and protection of the people working within dangerous areas. The company was looking for a underground storage tank cleaning technology to completely avoid entering or opening the manhole of a tank.
The solution
Thus, Wolftank Austria provided its TCR solution. This is the safest tank cleaning method on the market. With it, washing and maintaining of the units is very easy and no lubrification is required.
The process consists of two parts:
- Firstly, the TCR® 6 tank cleaning prewashes the tank. It is operated solely by a pressure pump of 160-230 bar and water flow of minimum 60l/min. Furthermore, it moves by its own water pressure over the entire cylinder length. In combination with the TCR® Tank Cleaning Liquid it provides best degreasing and degassing results on the entire storage tank surface.
- The second part of the process requires the TCR® 7 unit. It works on the suction and the cleaning of the lower part of the storage tank. Also, this device is designed for water pressure propulsion and it removes the solid sludge all over bottom of the cylinder length. In addition, no matter if the furthest suction point is the most distant from entry.
At the end of the process, Wolftank Austria had cleaned without opening the manhole all the underground storage tanks of the project. And even more important, without putting the technicians at risk working in confined spaces.
The project had no delays. And, after the cleaning process, ExxonMobil’s storage tanks were ready for the next steps:
- changing of storage product
- reuse after removing bio-contaminations in the tanks
- safe manhole opening as the tank below is not explosive any more
- tank decommission without manhole opening
The outcome
The responsible project coordinator for ExxonMobil and Quant Europe, Mr. Calogero Adamo was highly impressed from the technology and stated the following:
“This is the first degassing and cleaning technology I have seen in our group, which is able to mitigate all predictable safety risks and to keep the process simple enough for field operation. This combination makes it highly attractive also from the economical point of view.”
As a result, Wolftank Austria treated more than 500 tanks with this technology for ExxonMobil Italy without any safety issues and with highest customer satisfaction.
Discover other product’s applications of the No-Man-Entry line here.