Jet fuel pipeline commissioning

[brpillai]

I am working on Jet fuel pipeline over 100 km long. The fuel will be supplied from refinery tanks to the airport tanks through booster and main line pumps feeding to the cross country pipeline.
The fuel recived will be cretified as per the newly introduced stringent JIG 1530 quality certificaation. The maximum allowable particulte size of 1 micron and water content less than 15 ppm. The pipeline is having a micro filter at the pump station and a microfilter and a coalescer unit at the reciving station.

I am most worried about the calening of the pipeline and the station ping to this stringent condition. We can put about maximimu number of pigging for claening including bri=ush pigs etc, but how much residue can we remove? may be till we get 1kg.

BUt however cleaning we do, the cleaning required for this quality can not be achived, The issue is that the disposal of the duirty/ contaminated/offspec product is in 0ur (contarctor) scope. How can this be minimised? Can the experts here suggest some similar experience?

Thanks in advance.

 

[BigInch]

Don't confuse pipeline cleaning needs with quality standards of the fuel going into the tanks. You will never clean a pipeline to micron specs. That's why you have the micron filters cleaning product all the time.

The JIG spec only requires pipeline cleaning procedures consistant with industry standards. There will always be sediments, rust, weld beads that will be caught in the filters for the entire life of the system. That's what the filters are for.

 

[LittleInch]

When you pig there will be a small plug of very dirty product which you shouldn't really send through the filters unless you want to block them fairly instantly.

So then the system will need an offspec / slops tank. You can then either dispose of the slops back to the refinery or if it's good enough quality, let it settle then slowly drain it of water and inject either U/S of the filters or through its own 1 micron filter.

you just need to allow for disposal costs of a certain amount of fuel which is contaminated and also a supply of filter bags to deal with the initial surge in particles which will reduce as the pipeline becomes operational.

If there is only one storage tank in the system between the pipeline and the aircraft then you are going to run into issues in certifying the fuel in the tanks to a 1 micron level, but will probably need 1 micron filters on the way in and the way out.



Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[BigInch]

The spec requires a (totally logical) minimum of 3 tanks for jet.

 

[LittleInch]

Sorry, what I meant was whether there were big storage tanks close to the airport straight off the pipeline which then fed smaller ones on the airport which were then tested and certified ready for fueling.

That way you have some time for settlement before testing.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[BigInch]

The spec requires microfilter between pipeline and jet tanks and after the jet tanks before fueling aircraft.

 

[brpillai]

Thanks BigInch and LittleInch for your suggestions.

The Fuel will be going through temporary strainers/ filters initially, by passing the permanent ones, during initial phase of commissioning. The Airport facility is having with filters before entering the 4 tanks of 10000 cu m. They are already in service,but operators are not allowing to take the dirty products in to these tanks.

Before commissioning I am planning to do number of cleaning pigs to remove all possible debris, weld metals sand/ little stones, and as seen sometimes welding rods helmets etc as the case may be. But my issue is that even with the micro filters with commissioning cartridges, I cannot achieve 1 micron particle size.

Even if one tank of 10,000 cu m is allowed, for this stringent specification I may require one more tank, but this seems not possible, as the airport is busy and as per contract they will not give even one tank. We are supposed to take the dirty product trough tankers and dispose off in a refinery 50 kms away. but taking flow to the tankers will restrict the flow velocity that a 20cum tanker can take.
Another potion I am thinking is to build temporary storage tank to receive the dirty products and then shift to refinery through tankers. Any suggestion on this? Can I use temporary inflatable tanks?

 

[BigInch]

No you can't use inflatable tanks. JIG 1530 is clear on what is required. MINIMUM of three tanks.

I think that any airline with flight operations to EU cannot buy your fuel.