Project description
The tanks have a diameter of over 6.20 meters and are gigantic with lengths of just under 35 metres and 67.8 metres. The steel construction was carried out by BARLAGE, which is headquartered in Haselünne-Flechum. They have specialised in the production of components for power plants since 1963. Up to 2008, the hall capacity in the Europort was expanded for the production of large tanks. Tanks of up to 9 metres in diameter and 90 metres in length can be manufactured there. This means that they not only have the production technology and the necessary hall capacity, but also the Europort Haren in front of the production hall, which makes it possible to transport such tank sizes as far as possible to their destination by water. The destination in this case was the Rhine port of Krefeld. caratgas GmbH, a subsidiary of Westfalen Gruppe Münster, is building a tank farm there for the transhipment of propane and butane.
Project requirements
Industrielle Beschichtung GmbH from Schwedt (IB Schwedt) was commissioned with the application of the outer coating for corrosion protection. For more than 25 years, they have specialized in the processing of our EP hot spray products with their own equipment. This experience and know-how were also required in the current project, because in addition to the size of the tank, there was also the tight time window for the coating work in two construction phases. On the one hand to free up the production hall for the second construction phase and, on the other, a heavy-duty transport of this dimension requires precise on time planning.
Sherwin-Williams solution
When burying tanks in the soil, a permanently safe, but also environmentally friendly corrosion protection is required. In addition, these are tanks for storing liquids that are hazardous to water. Therefore, the choice of coating system was particularly important for this object. The coating material Dura-Plate® 2107 HS, a coating that has proven itself for buried tanks for decades, meets the requirements for the safety-relevant corrosion protection of these tanks. The 2-component, epoxy resin-based hot-spray coating is monitored externally by Kiwa NV and tested for CCP systems.
Surface preparation was carried out by sandblasting in standard purity Sa 2.5 in accordance with EN ISO 12944-4. During this process and the subsequent application, the tanks were turned on appropriate roller stands. In order to keep to the schedule, the IB Schwedt team used two hot-spraying machines. A total area of approx. 4,000 m2 was coated. A minimum dry layer thickness of 1000 µm is required for buried pressure vessels in accordance with the former DIN 4681. The dry layer thickness was achieved with Dura-Plate® 2107 HS in one work step. In order to exclude any pores in the coating, a pore test with 14 kV DC was carried out after curing. The quality control of the dry layer thickness and the pore testing attested to an excellent execution of the coating work. Each of the tanks had a dome shaft that forms the space for the necessary pipes and fittings. In order to further increase safety, the FIRETEX® Platinum fire protection coating with a fire resistance class of 60 minutes was applied to its inner sides as a preventive measure.
