KERBER DARK AND LIGHT OIL PRODUCTS STORAGE TANK CLEANING SYSTEM

KERBER arrives at the placement site in containers located on special semi-trailers that can be transported by any standard tractor.

The installation consists of two containers — the main Module, which provides the supply of detergent, the operation of hydraulic drive equipment and coarse processing of the extracted sludge, and the Centrifugation Module, which provides fine purification of water and hydrocarbons.

Each of the semi-trailers must be equipped with hydraulic supports to fix the complex in a strictly horizontal position.

At this stage, the tractors are undocked, electricity is supplied according to a temporary scheme and other communications — the installation is refueled with water, the connection of a tank for separated hydrocarbons and drainage for water purified to the norms of discharge into the sewer.

All KERBER connections with external communications, as well as modules between themselves, are made through flanged and communication boxes built into the sides of containers.

Before opening the tank, operators check the tightness of the washing liquid supply hoses and the correct operation of all systems.
Connected boiler room or output to the operating mode, which provides heating of the detergent agent to a temperature within 70-90 ° C.

Under the technological hatch located in the tank wall, a receiving tray for oil sludge is placed. A hydraulic pumping head is placed in the tray, which will pump out oil sludge with a cleaning solution.

The placement of the tray in front of the tank is caused by high contamination of the tank. Often, after opening the hatch, it turns out that the level of bottom sediments exceeds all established norms.

After the helmet covering the tank hatch is blurred, the operator moves the pumping head inside the tank and continues to blur.

The pumping head is a hydraulic drive pump, closed with a protective coarse mesh, mounted on a stand. The size of the pump and the stand allows it to be manually carried and installed by one operator.

The pumping head itself, as well as the subframe, are made entirely of aluminum, which ensures complete intrinsic safety of this tool. And the fact that the head is driven by a hydraulic drive installed in KERBER through sleeves with a grounding function increases the explosion protection of equipment and the safety of maintenance personnel.

The blurred sludge from the tank being cleaned enters the KERBER through an inlet circular vibrating screen, which provides separation of large mechanical impurities larger than 6 mm in size — as a rule, it is household garbage or tools, as well as debris residues formed during construction or repair work.

At the initial stage of operation, the value of the vibrating screen is hardly noticeable, because the protective mesh on the pumping head allows you to avoid pumping large mechanical impurities. However, it will fully perform its function during vacuum cleaning of sediment at the end of the working cycle.

As you move deeper into the tank, the operator moves the pumping head, continuously eroding the sludge towards it with a water cannon.

The sludge separated from large mechanical mixtures enters the primary separation into the GDS separator.

The action of the GDS separator is based on the gravidynamic principle. It consists in the fact that the separation of two liquids occurs due to a specially organized movement, in which accelerated coalescence (fusion and enlargement) of small drops of oils and petroleum products is achieved, and then their separation from the aqueous medium under the action of natural gravity and directional motion.

Structurally, gravidynamic separators are a container with various elements inside that ensure optimal movement and separation of the emulsion into two liquid phases (water and petroleum products) due to the fact that the lighter phase is gradually pushed to the top of the flow.


In particular, for this purpose, the separator tank is equipped with vertical partitions dividing it into sections.

All GDS models are calculated mathematically using modern simulation methods on computers. Below is a small part of the flow calculation program, reflecting the effect of accelerations on the flow of liquid phases in different compartments of the separator:

At the outlet of the separator, a separate selection of the light hydrocarbon phase and heavier water is carried out.

Mechanical impurities with a density of more than 1.2 kg / cubic dm settle at the bottom of the separator, from where they are regularly removed by a screw and a slurry pump outside the installation for further disposal.

No filter elements, attachments or devices, as well as consumable chemical reagents are required to maintain the constant operability of the gravidynamic separator.

If there is an excessive content of sand or metal chips / scale in the sludge, the liquid undergoes additional separation on a hydrocyclone-sand catcher, which releases up to 97% of sand deposits from the water-oil emulsion.

The contaminated water allocated to the GDS passes through the heat exchanger for reheating and is sent back to the washout.

Hydrocarbons with a residual content of water and mechanical impurities are fed by a screw pump, excluding additional emulsification, for further processing into a Centrifugation Module (MC).

The MC includes a two-phase separator and a three-phase separator, with an additional heating heat exchanger installed in front of it.

Getting into the decanter, hydrocarbons get rid of residual mechanical impurities that cannot be separated at the GDS — basically, it is a light suspension and silt—like sediment - and are removed outside the KERBER system.

The impurities squeezed out of the fur are removed outside the screw-screw pump into the tray outside the installation.

If necessary, the improvement of the quality of the decanter is provided by the supply of the necessary demulsifiers and flocculants.

To do this, the KERBER kit includes a reagent supply unit that allows you to prepare chemical reagents (which, as a rule, are supplied in dry form and require dissolution in water) and dose them at all stages of sludge processing — before the GDS, decanter or separator.

At the stage of cleaning the tank from bottom sediments, a centrifugal separator is not used — it will be required later, during the internal washing of the RVS.

After the bottom sediment is completely removed, the operator removes the washing gun and places 2-3 washing heads included in the KERBER kit in the cleaned tank.

The washing heads rotate 360° in all planes and, due to a water pressure of 16-20 bar, wash the walls, roof and technological partitions of the tank.

The water supplied to the washing heads is cleaned using a centrifugal separator to the level of process water. At the same time, a separate plate heat exchanger installed in front of the separator reheats it.

Pumping out of the washing products is still carried out using pumping heads with subsequent processing inside the installation.

The final stage of the KERBER installation after washing the tank is vacuum cleaning.

In a cleaned tank, from which all auxiliary equipment has been removed, the operator cleans the bottom using a manual vacuum machine.

This device, connected to the KERBER vacuum system using reinforced hoses, allows you to pump liquids and mechanical impurities remaining in the irregularities of the tank, not extracted by the pumping head, for processing.

At the end of this procedure, the tank is ready for further work or major repairs. All hoses and remote devices used in the course of work are washed with a manual hose in oil sludge collection trays, the installation is disconnected from communications and transferred to the transport position.

The tank is handed over to the customer, and KERBER is moved to a new facility for new tank cleaning tasks.