IMPROVED TANK CLEANING

REDUCES HAZARDOUS WASTES

AND BOOSTS RETURN ON INVESTMENT

Marcello Ferrara
ITW S.r.l.

Correspondence address:

ITW S.r.l.
Zona ASI C.da S. Cusumano
96011 Augusta (SR)
Italy
Tel. +39 0931 766011
+39 348 2513276
Fax +39 0931 766011
E-mail: mferrara@itw.it

Presented at:
ERTC Environmental
London , April 8-10, 2002

ERTC Environmental 2002, London, UK Page 1 of 19 ITW

INTRODUCTION

Environmental legislation is becoming increasingly restrictive over waste disposal.

This requirement becomes even more important in the cleaning of tanks, as the removal of
tank sludge is an expensive, time consuming step before achieving gas free certification.
As a matter of facts, sludge remains in the bottom of the tanks and is removed manually to
carry out maintenance.
Manual removal of the sludge is a very expensive and time consuming operation, complicated
by the fact, tanks are difficult to operate in. Moreover, manual cleaning always implies a
special attention to safety of operations.
ITW has patented a novel technology for asphaltene stabilization. Such technology makes
use of chemical additives to be added to hydrocarbons and has proved very effective in many
industrial applications.
The technology has been suitably modified for tank cleaning and successfully tested in many
cases of aboveground storage tank cleaning (e.g. fuel oil and crude oil tanks), as well as cargo
tanks. Asphaltene stabilization achieves an improvement in sludge reuse, in that asphaltene
association is reduced, compatibility with the receiving hydrocarbon is enhanced,
precipitation does not occur and cracking of asphaltene is facilitated.
According to ITW approach, sludge is removed by the addition of a chemical additive,
which contains asphaltene stabilizers, patented by ITW. The formulation also includes
paraffin solvents and fluidizing agents.
The additive is utilized to help sludge penetration, thus favoring its solubilization into a
carrier.
Sludge dissolution occurs due to the chemical action of the additive during recycling of the
oil phase.
After a brief description of the existing tank cleaning technologies, we will report some
results achieved in the application of the novel technology.

TANK CLEANING EXISTING TECHNOLOGIES

Manual cleaning is the most widespread today’s method for cleaning tanks.
This method has many disadvantages in that it:
Is unsafe
Generates a huge amount of wastes
Is time-consuming
Is costly
Other methods have been developed to improve manual tank cleaning and, among the others,
the most interesting of them are:
Crude Oil Washing (COW)
Chemical cleaning
Robot machines
Although the above methods improve manual cleaning they do still have pitfalls.
COW simply moves the sludge from one tank to another (it is a mechanical dispersion
method). In some cases, reprocessed crude oil sludge led to Topping unit unscheduled
shutdown. Fig.2 reports a flow diagram of a sludge suspension process.
For chemical cleaning, chemicals used until now are basically dispersants: again, they transfer
the problem from one point to another.
Robot machines improve the safety and sometime the time of the operations, but they do not
have any impact on sludge reduction, therefore generating the same amount of sludge.

ERTC Environmental 2002, London, UK Page 2 of 19 ITW

ITW TECHNOLOGY

ITW uses patented asphaltene stabilizers to make sludge a reusable product.

The used chemical additive by itself is capable of stabilizing and solubilizing the sludge. The
chemical is not a dispersant, so it doesn’t create any problem in downstream equipments.
Moreover, ITW stabilizers/solubilizers:
do not contain any metallic compound
do not contain any catalyst poison for petroleum processes
do not contain any halogen compound
do not contain any carcinogenic compound
do not contain any compound which, at operating dosages, can be a poison for waste
water treatment plants
do not contain any compound which can be harmful to plant metallurgies
Therefore, the core of ITW process are highly effective chemicals which are able to solubilize
per se the sludge. This means, the sludge will be solubilized chemically, i.e. stabilized
permanently, with no danger of subsequent precipitation.
To improve the performance of the chemical (specially in large tanks), a modified Crude Oil
Washing is also used together with chemical stabilization of the sludge.

CASE HISTORY #1
A 5.000 m3 fuel oil tank needed to be cleaned after almost 20 years operations.
The tank was emptied with an external pump up to 50 cm, hence under the suction limit of
tank pump. A certain amount of fuel oil was left above the sludge.
Before starting the addition of the chemical, fuel oil was analyzed for SHF (Sediments by
Hot Filtration - IP 375), which resulted as Not Filterable (i.e. no oil filtered through a
Whatman GF/A filter of nominal porosity of 2µm).
This accounted for the asphaltene being a precipitate, hence strongly associated. Moreover,
sludge contained a huge amount of catalyst fines (deriving from the blending during fuel oil
formulation with decant oil from Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit). Therefore a strong
aggregation between sediments (substantially cat fines) and asphaltene occured.
In such a case, precipitated asphaltene incorporated cat fines creating not filterable
macrostructures.
This phenomenon was operatively well known, as during fuel oil combustion frequent
problems of burners and filters plugging occured.
Once suction of pumpables was ended (therefore leaving about 80 m3 of sludge), the
chemical was added directly in the tank, by connecting the suction of the recycle pump with
the container of the chemical.
No carrier was utilized as diluent, so the chemical was injected directly in the not
filterable fuel oil above the sludge.
Tank recycle started, and during recycle the quality of the oil phase (fuel oil+sludge) was
analyzed.
Fig. 3 reports additivation layout.
After one day recycle, SHF on the sludge were 3 %.
Such result is extremely important, as it highlights the reactivity of the chemical: the fact that
the oil phase went from not filterable to filterable is a clear demonstration of the stabilizing
effect of the chemical.
The chemical has stabilized asphaltene to such an extent that they were not more
aggregated, hence filterable; in such a way the sludge was freed from cat fines, which
contributed to the formation of not filterable macrostructures.

ERTC Environmental 2002, London, UK Page 3 of 19 ITW

Release of sediments from asphaltene could be not possible, when asphaltene structure would
have not been disjointed. The concept can be better illustrated as follows:

Chemical

catalyst asphaltenes

By continuing recycle, sediments in the sludge increased with time during recycle: 7% the
second day and 18 % the sixth day.
The chemical effect is then evident: the additive has stabilized asphaltene in the sludge,
thus allowing release of catalyst fines which were bound to them.
It is important to note that the oil phase achieved from the sludge after ITW treatment was
filterable, and SHF consisted almost entirely of cat fines.
As a matter of facts, the oil phase of the sludge after ITW treatment has always been filterable
and sediments increased gradually, once asphaltene were attacked from the chemical.
In practical terms, the word filterable means, the oil did not contain sediments having
dimension greater than 2 µm (nominal porosity of the filter utilized to measure SHF).
Fig. 4 and Tab. 1 report the values of sediments in the sludge during recirculation.
At the end of recirculation, additivized and stabilized sludge was transferred into another
fuel oil tank.
The transfer has been performed gradually, by completing the operation in about 6 hours (rate
of about 15 T/h).
This in order to reduce potential operating problems, in that the sludge was transferred
directly in the bottom of the receiving tank, and hence fed the boiler immediately (the charge
pump sucked from the bottom of the tank).
The sludge was entirely transferred into the receiving tank, and the level of the cleaned
tank deeped down to zero. This was also confirmed by visual inspection from manways.
The chemical additive has then solubilized and stabilized all the sludge (80 m3) present in
the tank after only 6 days recycle.
To confirm the success of the treatment, the sludge fed in the boiler gave no rise to any
operating problem, in that free cat fines were easily stopped by hot filters, which did not
suffer any fouling problem.
Filters were able to dispose of stopped sediments in their normal cleaning time (20 min).
Preheaters did not suffer any fouling problem too.
Still more noticeable, is that no combustion and/or no burners plugging problems arose,
which is a great success even compared to the normal combustion problems encountered
during fuel oil combustion (burners, filters and preheaters plugging).

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Any of the abovementioned operating problems would have been, in a way, justifiable as the
boiler was fed with a tank sludge, but asphaltene stabilization achieved with the chemical has
been so effective to give rise to no pitfall in the combustion of the sludge.
To further confirm the above, burners pressure had no increase during sludge combustion:
on the contrary, it decreased due to the stabilizing action of the chemical.
Fig. 5 reports the values of burners pressure and fuel charge rate.
Flame characteristics have been always at best during combustion of additivized sludge:
flame has been clear and flame pattern has been regular, whitout sputtering.
Particulate matter emissions during combustion of additivized sludge have not incresead;
on the contrary they have slightly decreased, once blowing and load change are excluded.
Particulate emissions are reported on Fig. 6; single values are the average values on 30
minutes of instantaneous values achieved by a continuos analyzer.
NOx emissions have been significantly decreased during combustion of additivized sludge.
NOx emissions are reported on Fig. 7; single values are the average values on 30 minutes of
instantaneous values achieved by a continuos analyzer. This follows the reduced sputtering of
the additivized sludge.

CASE HISTORY #2
A power station had the need of cleaning the service tank, as it had not been cleaned since
boiler construction (roughly 30 year).
Manual cleaning was not the solution however, as boiler turnaround was scheduled for only
20 days, and an important revamping had to be implemented.
As manual tank cleaning is a dirty, time consuming and almost unsafe operation, the
management decided to test ITW technology.
The purpose of the test was to have indications of cleaning during additivation of a ITW
chemical: when a tendency of cleaning had been achieved, then upon continuous additivation
the sludge had not more deposited in the tank.
To give more added value to the application, ITW formulated a tailor made chemical,
containing both asphaltene stabilizers and combustion catalysts.
ITW fuel oil stabilizer and catalyst (hereinafter referred to as “ITW additive”), was
injected upstream the service storage tank; the additivized fuel oil entered the tank from the
bottom.
After about one and a half months of treatment a digging was performed in the tank with
the following results: a layer of 20 cm solids, 30 cm of sludge with not measurable viscosity
at 100 °C and 150 cm of fuel oil more viscous than the one above.
These results were interpreted in the sense that ITW additive, by entering the tank from the
bottom, was solubilizing the sludge so this solubilized sludge rendered the lower portion of
the oil more viscous.
After still another one month of treatment a further digging was performed in the tank and
the results were surprising: the solid layer had disappeared , the same for the very viscous
sludge. At their place a single not viscous sludge layer (viscosity 132 cSt at 100 °C) was
found.
The results are summarized in Fig. 8.

The amazing results in tank cleaning were also confirmed by those in preflame and
postflame zones of the boiler. As ITW additive contains both asphaltene stabilizers and
combustion catalysts it performs its action also downstream the tank.
As a matter of facts both preflame and postflame zones were cleaner than in the previous
situation.

ERTC Environmental 2002, London, UK Page 5 of 19 ITW

In particular, hot filters ∆P was nearly nil after cleaning; on a normalized basis, the filter
didn’t increase its ∆P.
Fouling factor monitoring in the preheaters revealed no increase in fouling.
The most significant improvements in boiler operating parameters can be summarized as
follows:
∗ combustion chamber pressure decreased from about 260 mmH2O to about 230 mmH2O
∗ flue gas pressure drop in the Ljungstroem decreased from about 100 mmH2O to an average
of about 70 mmH2O
∗ air temperature at Ljungstroem outlet increased from about 395 °C to about 403 °C
∗ normalized burners pressure was almost constant
Fig. 9 summarizes the combustion benefits in the boiler.
The improved cleanliness of the boiler translated into improved combustion efficiency:
specific steam production for Kcal of incoming fuel improved from about 0.0566 tons
steam/fuel Kcal to about 0.0574 tons steam/fuel Kcal with an improvement of about 1%.
Hereinafter are summarized inlet fuel oil characteristics in the period of additivation.

Parameter/Analyses # #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6

Density @ 15 °C [g/cc] 0.9648 0.9695 0.9781 0.9688 0.9781 0.9695

Viscosity @ 50 °C [°E] 48.1 32.2 45.4 23.6 44.4 46.4
Sulphur [wt %] 2.3 2.14 2.09 2.5 1.73 1.93
Water [vol %] 0.3 0.1 0.3 0.1 0.2 0.5
Sediments for extrac. [wt %] 0.04
Asphaltenes [wt %] 5.4 7.9 10.93 5.0 10.0 9.0
SHF [wt %] 0.33 0.14 0.02 0.06 0.08 0.10
CCR [wt %] 11.1 11.2 13.5 5.7 14.1 14.1
Ash [wt %] 0.011 0.012 0.02 0.01 0.01 0.01
Sodium [ppm] 8 6 10 3 20 37
Vanadium [ppm] 41 66 55 12 40 37
Nickel [ppm] 34 32 31 11 18 21

Apart from being tremendously effective in improving both pre- and post-flame
cleanliness, ITW additive has also effective in reducing flue gas emissions.
In the previous situation, particulate matter emissions were in the range of 50-60 mg/Nm3.
Following ITW chemical addition particulate matter emissions were decreased down to 18
mg/Nm3, of which only 2 mg/Nm3 was the unburnt portion (only about 10% of total
particulate emissions).
Moreover a decrease in NOx emissions was also noted. Previous NOx emissions were in the
range of 700 mg/Nm3, while with ITW additive they were in the range of 500 mg/Nm3.

CASE HISTORY #3
An oil tanker (120.000 m3 capacity) needed to be cleaned before dry-docking.
Standard oil tanker cleaning procedure involves the use of Crude Oil Washing (COW)
followed by water cleaning.
However, these operations are not completely effective as tank washing machines have some
shadow areas, where the flow has no direct impact on the sludge.
Therefore after COW some sludge is left in the bottom of the tanks, and has to be removed
manually. Fig. 10 reports the operations of manual cleaning.
ITW additives have been added both in the COW phase and in the water-washing phase.
In the water-washing phase a patented hydrocarbon solubilizer has been added.
This product is capable of temporarily solubilizing hydrocarbons in water, when the two
phases (additivized water and hydrocarbons) are in direct contact with each other (e.g. under
agitation).

ERTC Environmental 2002, London, UK Page 6 of 19 ITW

The solubilization is temporary and, after some minutes, the hydrocarbilic and the water
phases separate out. The water phase is very clear and no emulsion is formed. The additive
also facilitates the separation of oil from water.
COW was performed with Bouri crude oil, which is a very severe crude, like the others
transported by the ship.
Before performing the additivized COW, some standard COW were performed: a) one upper
cycle 120°/30° and two bottom cycles 0°/30°/0°.
At the end of those cycles the slop tank contained 1300 m3 of Bouri crude and sediments.
This is what the standard COW procedure would have achieved in terms of recovered sludge.
One further bottom cycle with the additive (injected in the suction of the COW pump) was
performed, and stopped after only 12 hours washing (total time for all the cargo tanks).
At the end of this additivized cycle, the slop tank contained 1500 m3 of Bouri crude and
sediments.
Therefore, the use of ITW stabilizer allowed for a recovery of 200 m3 of sludge in the COW
phase.
The additivized water-washing phase was performed in the same way as the additivized
COW, with water heated at 60 °C.
At the end of this phase, further recovery of 130 m3 of oil was achieved.
Therefore, following injection of ITW additives, the total amount of recovered sludge was
330 m3.
All the 1630 m3 of crude oil+recovered sludge were sent to the refinery for reprocessing.
No operational problems were reported at all.
The results achieved are extremely positive in terms of recovered sludge.
Above results are even more valuable when taking into account the type of crude oils carried
by the ship, and hence the kind of sludge generated by them.
The carried crudes are mainly Belayim, Bouri, Bu Attifel and Es Sider; Belayim and Bouri
are particularly well-known in the petroleum industry as crudes which bear fouling problems.
Bouri, in particular, is a very unstable crude, which causes severe fouling problems in refinery
plants. Its visbroken TAR instability has been well recognized; some FCCU overhead section
restrictions (following coke deposition) have also been reported when processing Bouri gas-
oils.
Some characteristics of the above crudes are reported below.

ERTC Environmental 2002, London, UK Page 7 of 19 ITW

 Belayim Bouri Bu Attifel Es Sider
Specific gravity 60/60 °F [Kg/l] 0.8837 0.8978 0.8114 0.8417
API gravity 28.6 26.1 42.8 36.6
Kinematic viscosity at 40 °C [cSt] 13.70 17.23 14.0 (50°C) 5.266
Pour Point [°C] -12 6 42 9
Water by distillation [vol %] 0.05 0.11 <0.05 0.03
Sediment by extraction [wt %] < 0.01 < 0.01 < 0.01 < 0.01
Salt content [ppm NaCl] 22 < 20 < 20 22
Sulphur [wt %] 2.19 1.85 0.01 0.40
Acid number [mg KOH/g] 0.03 0.01 0.04 0.06
Conradson Carbon Residue [wt%] 6.88 6.28 0.38 2.72
Asphaltenes (nC7) [wt %] 3.14 3.58 0.11 0.58
Ash content [wt %] 0.02 0.012 0.005 0.005

Despite Bouri’s characteristics, the additivized COW procedure was extremely successful,
which confirms the stabilizing properties of ITW additives.
The payout of the application has been in the range of 16:1, due to the dramatic reduction in
oil tankers’ cleaning time, and hence recovered freight costs.

CASE HISTORY #4

A fuel oil tank (5,000 m3 capacity) needed to be cleaned as the owner wanted to store
gasoline in it.
ITW applied the chemical by circulating the bottom of the tank.
By opening the manways and checking the pumpability of the sludge, the customer was fully
satisfied of the results.
As the owner missed some authorizations, the tank content could have not been pumped out.
After five months, the sludge was still very fluid (easily pumpable) and stable: no
precipitation had occurred.
After the product owner got the required authorizations the fluidized sludge was promptly
pumped out from the tank (at ambient temperature) and mixed with other fuel oil.
This confirms, the stabilization of the additivized sludge is permanent and no precipitation
occurs with the time.

ECONOMICS

Apart from being environmental friendly, the application of ITW additives makes tank
cleaning an economic viable operation.
As a matter of facts, we can evaluate an approximate pay-out for the operation by taking
into account the following items:
− sludge recovery
− waste minimization
− cost of alternative cleaning
− storage capacity recovery
We will make a cost recovery estimation for 100 m3 recovered sludge.

The value of recovered oil (sludge, e.g., valorized to fuel oil) accounts for :
100 m3 * 200 Euro/m3 = 20,000 Euro

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The costs of waste disposal (tank sludge is considered as hazardous waste) are accounted for
by considering a disposal cost of about 520 Euro/m3. The corresponding saving for a total
sludge recovery of 100 m3 is:
100 m3 * 520 Euro/m3 = 52,000 USD
When not recovered, the sludge would have been manually removed, with the connected costs
of manual cleaning to be added to the evaluation.
Another item to be added to the evaluation is the time of not operation of the tank, and hence
storage capacity recovery.
This depends on tank capacity and on time for manual cleaning (hence on sludge amount) and
cannot be normalized for 100 m3.
A figure to be accounted for could be 0.026 Euro/day/m3 tank capacity.
For a 50,000 m3 tank and for a 45 days cleaning time reduction with ITW technology, the
saving is:
0.026 Euro/day/m3 * 50,000 m3 * 45 days = 58,500 Euro
Finally, although not valuable in terms of money savings, the application of ITW technology
results in a much safer operation for sludge removal.
These returns are even bigger in the case of oil tanker cleaning, where you have to add a
freight cost of 50,000 USD/day (e.g., for a 120,000 dwt tanker) for each day needed to
manually remove the tank.
Cost of ITW technology is to be determined from case to case depending on sludge amount
and chemical, equipment, manpower needed.
We can compute a minimum saving of about 80,000÷100,000 Euro/100 m3 sludge.
Normal figures of return on investment range from 3:1 to 11:1.
For example, total savings for a 50,000 m3 tank, with 600 m3 sludge will be about 620,000
Euro.

CONCLUSIONS

By utilizing ITW technology for tank cleaning is possible to effectively recover and
reutilize the sludge , thus achieving the following results:
reduction of overall costs
recovery of hydrocarbons
reduction of sludge disposal costs
safe and environmental friendly operations
reduction of cleaning time
The recovered sludge give rise to no operating problems in processing plants.
It is also possible to perform on stream tank cleaning without any detrimental effect for
downstream equipment.
For tank cleaning, those advantages account for return on investment ranging from 3:1 to
11:1.

ERTC Environmental 2002, London, UK Page 9 of 19 ITW

 Fig. 1
TODAY’S METHOD

Tank

Disposal

Waste

ITW PROCESS

Tank

Chemical additive

Recycle
ITW plant

Sludge is recovered
and reutilized
inside customers’ plant

ERTC Environmental 2002, London, UK Page 10 of 19 ITW

 FIG. 2 – SLUDGE SU SPENSION PROCESS

Suspension
process Receiving
tank

Crude
Suspended
sludge
Sludge

Crude

Water

Separation

Sludge

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 FIG. 3 - ADDITIVATION LAYOUT

MEG F 553
S 21 A
S 21 B

To the boiler

Excluded heater

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 Table 1
Sediments in the sludge
Days SHF
0 Not filterable
1 3%
2 7%
6 18 %

FIG. 4 - SEDIMENTS IN RECYCLED SLUDGE

18

16

14

12

10

SHF 8

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Days of recycle

ERTC Environmental 2002, London, UK Page 13 of 19 ITW

 FIG. 5 - BURNERS PRESSURE BEFORE AND AFTER SLUDGE
COMBUSTION T/h
bar

8,5

7,5

6,5

5,5
Start feeding sludge in the boiler
5

4,5
Stop feeding sludge

ERTC Environmental 2002, London, UK Page 14 of 19 ITW

 Fig. 6 - NORMALIZED PARTICULATE EMISSIONS BEFORE AND
AFTER SLUDGE COMBUSTION

600

load increase

500

blowing
400
mg/Nmc

300

200
Start feeding sludge in the boiler

100

ERTC Environmental 2002, London, UK Page 15 of 19 ITW

 FIG. 7 - NOx EMISSIONS BEFORE AND AFTER SLUDGE
COMBUSTION
750

700

650
mg/Nmc

600

Start feeding sudge in the boiler

550

500

ERTC Environmental 2002, London, UK Page 16 of 19 ITW

 Fig. 8 - Timing of on-stream tank cleaning

Day 48 Day 75
Starting treatment with
MEG F 223
Day 0

Analysis deposit on filter Boiler

Day 43
Ash = 17.6 %
Asphaltenes = 8.8 % Oil nearby sludge
150 cm oil with higher Analytical data:
viscosity than the Viscosity @ 100°C =
upper layer 32.6 cSt
Ash = 0.01 %

30 cm sludge
Analytical data:
50 cm sludge
Viscosity @ 100°C= Not
Fuel oil measurable
Analytical data:
Viscosity @ 100°C =
Ash = 7.4 %
132 cSt
Ash = 3.7 %
20 cm solid
layer
MEG F 223

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 Fig. 9 – Combustion benefits of additivized sludge

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 Fig. 10 – Todays methods for cleaning oil tankers

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