J W Hinchliffe (Tanks) Ltd were recently contracted to undertake diesel tank cleaning for a well known generator maintenance company at a large data centre in the North of England. The site consisted of four underground diesel tanks, with a capacity of 80,000 litres per tank. The underground tanks were feeding a selection of day tanks, spread across ten back up generators. The generators provide critical power supplies in the case of a mains failure. To ensure a constant supply is maintained, it is vital that the generators can perform to the highest standards when required.
The site contained a total fuel stock of approx 160,000 litres at the time of our arrival on site. The age of the fuel stock ranged from 12 months to 24 months. Sample results found all of the fuel on site to be outside of ISO4406 standards, with increased levels of water particulate and free flowing particles. Because of the critical nature of the infrastructure, the team made the decision to clean the tanks and polish all the fuel to ensure it could be brought back within ISO4406..
Due to the tank capacities on site, we were able to polish the fuel from tank to tank, ensuring that all fuel was given a minimum of two cycles through a combination of 5 micron and 1 micron filters. The ten day tanks and four underground tanks were all cleaned over a period of 5 days, along with the polishing, without the need to take all generators off line. As a result, our customer could maintain a good level of service to their client at all times.
If you would like to know more about diesel tank cleaning or fuel polishing, please see our services section and click on the relevant link.