Managing corrosion integrity for tanks and associated pipelines is a challenging and costly endeavor. In order to inspect tank floors, the tank's hydrocarbons or chemicals are usually emptied from the tank causing the tank to be out-of-service for an extended period of time. In addition to the monetary costs there is also a significantly increased safety risk.

The associated piping for transferring the hydrocarbons and chemicals in and out of the storage tanks are an additional integrity risk. The delivery lines are not designed for traditional in-line inspection (ILI) tools, often causing expensive modifications prior to ILI inspection. This paper explains how the attributes of "Unpiggable" tools are designed to overcome this challenge.

This paper also explains the attributes of our robotic technology that allows for tank floors to be inspected while the tank is "in-service", thereby overcoming costly delays and increased safety risk.

Finally, this paper highlights a case study associated with the inspection of a tank farm delivery line in 2017. The pipeline was located in a densely populated urban area. As a result, Phillips Petroleum Company had these pipelines on their priority list of pipelines to be inspected. The case study will highlight the associated equipment and technology attributes used to inspect the lines.

Subject
Materials, Pipelines, Tools, Inspection, Explosives, Mixtures, Internal inspection, Explosions, Equipment, Health, safety, and environment, Storage tanks, Tank bottoms, Hydrocarbons
Keywords:
ROV (remote operated vehicle for in-service tank inspection), ES350 and ES500 (ROV models used by the author's company)
© 2019 Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP). All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of AMPP. Positions and opinions advanced in this work are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of AMPP. Responsibility for the content of the work lies solely with the author(s).
2019
Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP)
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