Improving the efficiency of the fuel horizontal tank fleet management system

Abstract

The active use of helicopter transportation to facilitate the construction and operation of oil and gas facilities in the Far North has resulted in the establishment of refueling points, which include fuel tank farms. The evaporation of fuel during the filling and storage of fuel in tanks is the primary cause of product loss, which results in economic damage and environmental pollution. The lack of scientifically substantiated technical solutions to prevent fuel losses means that it is not possible to completely eliminate fuel losses. The objective of this article is to develop a control system for a fleet of horizontal tanks that minimizes fuel losses. The development is based on a study of the factors affecting the volume of evaporation, which are divided into three categories: those that can be controlled, those that cannot be controlled, and those that can be controlled and influenced. The result is a schematic solution of the automated control system that performs condensation of fuel vapours evaporating in the process of tank farm operation, and also determines the priority of tank use depending on the value of vapour pressure in them. This makes it possible to reduce fuel losses by a factor of five.