Evaporation losses are today a source of great worry for people concerned with storage of highly volatile Organic Chemicals. Rising cost on the one hand and strict implementation of Environmental Laws on the other hand coupled with heightened public awareness has left them with no alternative but to find ways and means of controlling emissions. Toxicity of the product stored adds an entirely new dimension and compounds the problem.

It is well said " What cannot be replenished must be conserved." This paper attempts to understand the underlying causes of Emission, analyze the options to reduce them and look at the overall economics of the solutions available so as to serve as a guide to persons looking for conservation.

Continue reading Reducing (Controlling) Vapour Losses From Storage Tanks by S. Ramachandran [ MTech Machine Design, IIT Bombay ]

Singaporean,Stephen Seow PBM., founder of Dynamics Engineering was awarded the most emblematic personality in Asia Pacific for his contribution to the composite industry for over 40 years and received the JEC Asia Life Achievement at the JEC Composites Asia 2010 Show recently held at Suntec City, Singapore from 12th, 13th to 14th October 2010.

In his ACCEPTANCE speech, Mr. Seow took a stroll down memory lane from his very first experience with the concept of "laminates" at the age of 15. He built a single-seater paper canoe comprising of a wooden skeletal structure and about 20 layers of brown paper which was made waterproof by applying "Ponstan" a commonly used waterproof glue. Then his ‘toys’ grew bigger and ‘bolder’ and led him to build his own sports car in 1961. He called it his “SS Special”. Mr Seow and SS Special made several appearances in the Grand Prix of the 1960s.

But it was the versatility and the advancement in FRP Composite that led him to setting up Dynamics Engineering in 1971 thereafter in 1985 incorporated Dynaglass Reinforced Plastic Pte Ltd.

Here is the download link to the video: www.dynaglass.com.sg/jec-life-award-video-mr-seow.html.

More details of the JEC Composite Asia Show cum Conference can be obtained from link : www.jeccomposites.com

For inquiry on this press release:

Contact Person : John Win
Title                 : Marketing Co-ordinator
Email              : john@dynaglass.com.sg
Telephone      : 65 6862 1801
Fax                  : 65 6863 1801

Dynaglass will be participating in ProcessCEM Asia 2010 which has brought together both international Asian suppliers and buyers of process technology.  The event will mark the second International Exhibition & Conference on Plant Construction, Engineering & Maintenance For The Process Industry.

Do come and meet us at Stand No. C26 to witness how Dynaglass's relentless efforts towards manufacturing and product excellence have seen its patent-protected Vap-O-Loc Internal Floating Roof system undergo stringent industrial standard test by many recognized test centers based in Singapore, Europe and USA.

Time & Venue of ProcessCEM Asia 2010 are as follow:

Date:	5-7 October 2010
Time:	10 am - 6 pm daily
Expected Exhibition Area:	4,000 sqm
Expected No of Exhibitor:	200
Expected No of Trade Visitors:	3000

The venue is at Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre, Singapore.

GRE Internal Floating Roofs has been introduced as a better alternative to the steel & aluminium types which is commonly used in the industry.

Main advantage of GRE-IFR is lighter than steel and stronger than aluminum.

GRE material is preferred in situations where steel or aluminium are not compatible with the stored products or when mechanical mixers are installed and aluminium IFR not sufficiently robust to with stand the mechanical forces of the high-speed mixers.

Full contact GRE-IFR once installed can be considered to be free from the need of maintenance and will perform well for the service life of the tank.

At the present time there are two types of GRE full contact honeycomb sandwich IFR offered:

1. The field installed conventional system and

2. The pre-fabricated system.

The installation of the conventional system is done entirely on site, .i.e.
This is usually a concern to users, as the quantity of resin matrix needed to fabricate the entire IFR can be rather large, for the bigger diameter tanks. For example a 36 meter diameter the liquid resin for the IFR is about 10 tons.

VENTILATION
The environmental condition in tank at this stage, need to be controlled by very large blowers with high volume air flow to meet the emissions levels allowed of 20ppm specified by OSHA.

LIGHTING
In order to produce a void-free laminate, an evenly lighted and glare free condition is needed. Without the proper lighting, air bubbles or voids of air – pockets, foreign matter etc. can become encapsulated in the laminate and the product quality cannot meet specified and accepted standards.

TEMPERATURE
Room temperature cured epoxies are used in both cases, and in order to achieve proper curing the working temperature in the tank needs to be controlled to within the specified range. This is usually a challenge to achieve especially for the larger diameter tanks.

SHOP FABRICATION
Considering all these factors our engineers at Dynaglass developed the prefabricated Vap-O-Loc system (Patent protected). The system requires all components to be manufactured at the plant in Singapore under controlled environmental conditions to overcome all the above challenges to ensure a product made from GRE composite could be delivered with consistent quality, repeatedly.

SHIPPED BY CONTAINER
The pre-fabricated parts accounts for about 90% of the total work of the IFR and the connecting of the parts in the tank makes up the balance 10%

ADDED STIFFNESS CONTRIBUTED BY GRID STRUCTURE
The joints are done by a special system of lamination which is protected by our own patents. The joints are laid to a grid patent which increases the global stiffness of the IFR structure

INSTALLATION & LEAK TEST
Installing the Vap-O-Loc is systematic and quick.
All pre-fabricated parts are lowered into the tank and are located according to the positions indicated in the drawings of each individual tank.

Next the various parts are connected together by our patented lamination process. This is a laminating procedure for jointing of sandwich panels (another patented system).

Finally all connections are leak tested by air pressure and soapy water to ensure that all joints are gastight.

Note: For Information;

• For good composite practices BS.4994 is recommended that all large structures should be prefabricate into transportable sub - assemblies and ship to site to be assembled at final destination. The prefabricated assemblies are integrated inside the tank. This is to ensure the portion of the site work is minimal.
• The reduced scope of the work will also ensure that better control of the resin matrix is achieved and proper curing of the composite is assured under all weather conditions.
• Contamination from falling foreign matter on the work during fabrication can be easily prevented, as prefabricated parts are finished parts therefore the entrapment of foreign matter like rust scales, loose paint falling from steel roof structures, sand and dirt particles from workers’ foot ware etc. is avoided. This is to ensure consistent quality at all times.
• An independent test on one Vap-O-Loc installation has shown that the actual emission-Bio levels recorded are much lower than those required by OSHA.
• With the reduced quantities of resin matrix required in the tank, other benefits such as fewer workers are needed and higher safety for workers is easily achieved.
• Shorter installation time and fast handing over of projects are always welcome.

Emission of oil vapour or Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC), into atmosphere from bulk storae tanks is a known fact throughout the distribution industry worldwide.

Emission of oil vapour represents:
1) Considerable monetary loss termed as “wastages”
2) Harmful long-term consequences to environment.

The individual light hydrocarbons (HC) compounds of VOC reacts with NOx in the ozone layer. When exposed to sunlight in some cases a strong poison known as H2S becomes evident in oil vapour thus with the emission of this substance, contaminates the environment.

“The Environmental Protection Agency (API) has adopted a goal of 30% reduction of the emission of Non Methane Volatile Organic Compounds (NMVOC) at the end of 1999 compared to 1989. In MARPOL Annex VI of 1997 it is stated that the individual countries are free to decide on requirements, and to initiate efforts for the reduction of NMVOC emission in their harbours and territorial waters. Many countries have adopted a national overall of 30% reduction in NMVOC emission. Plans are made to require emission control be carried to further 37% reduction by 2010”.

INTERNAL FLOATING ROOF
Vapour recovery and other systems were implemented. However cost of implementation and the subsequent cost of operations proved to be complex not practical. This comparision was made based on the cost of installing an internal floating roof inside a storage tank.

Aluminium Internal Floating Roof (IFR):
The aluminium Internal Floating Roofs (IFR) have been used with savings of up to 90% efficiencies. However, deterioration from material corrosion occurs due to electrolysis which is a chemical decomposition by electric action from the holding tank and fittings used.

Dynaglass Internal Floating Roof (IFR):
Dynaglass Internal Floating Roof (IFR) was successfully introduced in the Petroleum Industry. Made entirely from polymer composite material, Dynaglass Internal Floating Roof withstands the typical harsh environment in the chemical and process industries.

Dynaglass IFR is developed with the use of high-grade epoxy resins and glass fibres commonly known as Glass Reinforced Epoxy (GRE).

Advantages of Dynaglass IFR compared with Vapour Recovery systems:

• Needs no maintenance.
• Has as a life expectancy of 30 (thirty) years.
• Manufactured in accordance to API 650-H.
• Very low initial investment cost.
• Can be implementation on a tank-by-tank basis as an when required
• Flexible as implementation can be added at various stages of tank farm.
• Needs no refrigeration to operate.
• Savings from vapour loss due to pay for implementation costs.
• (Typical payback of investment : 2 to 3 years)
• No need expensive pumps, pipe lines and vapour recovery condensers plants to build and maintain.
• Planning for future expansion by increasing capacity of recovery plant becomes redundant.

Today’s plant owners are faced with unique challenges as a result of a severely deteriorating infrastructure. The recurring Corrosion Costs and Preventative Strategies estimates the annual direct cost of corrosion for infrastructure and plant to be $6.43 billion to $10.15 billion. As a result, there are tremendous opportunities for FRP component parts that are corrosion resistant, lightweight, and can be rapidly installed or replace.

Features and Benefits

DYNAGLASS FRP composite component parts deliver viable solutions to meet critical needs for rehabilitation of existing plant and structures. FRP materials have been used successfully for over 50 years in a variety of demanding applications, including the marine, and chemical plants.

Primary benefits of FRP equipment include:

• Durability (highly resistant to corrosion and fatigue)
• Lightweight
• High strength
• Rapid Installation
• Lower or competitive life-cycle cost
• High quality manufacturing processes under controlled environments

Compared with steel components, DYNAGLASS FRP typically weigh 50% less, can be erected twice as fast and have service lives that can be two to three times greater.