Challenge

Phenol is classified as a highly poisonous material. When handling or shipping phenol, strict safety recommendations must be followed.  The operators of tank trucks must be familiar with the potential hazards connected with phenol handling before loading or unloading of this product starts.  As careful as they are, though, they cannot predict the defects or malfunctions of installation. Having this in mind we designed and made a hose system for phenol unloading.

Solution

The phenol hose loading system is intended for tank truck unloading using a bottom unloading method. Phenol is pumped via phenol reloading hose from the tank truck into the receiving vessel. The pump is a fixed part of the loading station. A top quality composite chemical hose DN 75 (phenol hose) operates as product line. The same type of a chemical hose but DN 50 works as vapour recovery line.  Both tank truck hoses are assembled with emergency breakaway couplings – the same as are usually used for oil transfer hoses or petroleum hoses.  In emergency situation, the breakaway couplings transmit the load of the strained hose to breaking bolts. The bolts break before the hose and its fittings collapse. Simultaneously the coupling disconnects, the spring valves in both coupling valves lock so phenol is not released to the atmosphere.

The tank truck is connected to the pump of the receiving vessel via the phenol loading hose. For the connection to be safe, it is assembled with Tank Wagen couplings. The TW coupling consist of two parts locked together by a turn of the coupling and then secured by a locking handle.

The temperature of molten phenol during transport, loading and unloading, must be maintained at about + 60°C. Both the tank truck and the phenol loading hoses are heated to such temperature, otherwise phenol solidifies and plugs the lines.

To prevent phenol corrosive activity, our composite chemical hoses are lined with E-CTFE and reinforced with stainless steel inner and outer wire helix. The same applies to the couplings used within the hose loading station – they were all made of stainless steel.

Result

One may think this was a challenge for us, but it was rather a standard project for our team. The state-of-the-art phenol hose loading station was built to meet the highest safety standards and technical requirements. The phenol reloading hoses work reliably with no leakages, no obstacles disturbing the flow of chemicals.

 

 

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