API 653 regulations requires tanks with 2 adjacent leeaking pontoons to be taken immediatelly out of dervice. Once installed, our system secures the buoyancy and allows the tank to stay in service until its scheduled turnaround.
Originally sold as our Bayfield Buoyancy Recovery balls, our Buoyancy Recovery System has been in use for over 12 years in refineries and terminals in the USA and overseas. Consisting of individual patented anti-stat hollow balls, our sytem takes the volume of the leaking compartment while adding little weight to the pontoon.
Some of the advantages are:
- Installed with tank in service.
- No hot work needed. Balls are gravity fed through the manway hatch.
- Does not require difficult injection system (like Urethane foam).
- Moderate cost.
- Does not require disposal of large amount of hazardous material. Balls may be reused.
- Tank can stay in-service untill next turnaround.
- When tank is taken out of service, balls are easily flushed out for disposal.
Draining, cleaning and gas freeing a tank is not always viable. Many times the owner does not have available storage to put the product from the tank with the leaking pontoon. When that is the case our buoyancy recovery spheres are the best solution in the industry.