(A blueprint unrolls to reveal an image of an oil refinery)
(GFX: Sherwin-Williams - From Spec to Protect)
(GFX: Johnny Pourciau - Oil & Gas Segment Director - USCA - Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine)
Johnny [00:00:06] Hi, Johnny Pourciau again with Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine Coatings. Would like to say thank you for joining us today as we continue our series in Operational Excellence for Downstream MRO. Today's topic is Next Generation tank Linings. And our guest today is Justin Hair, our subject matter expert within Sherwin-Williams. So Justin, you work with a lot of owners. What are some of the common pain points that customers speak of when it comes to tank linings?
(GFX: Justin Hair - Oil & Gas Project Development Manager - Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine)
Justin [00:00:33] That's a very good question, John. I would say some of the major pain points that we hear about our customers trying to solve would be along the lines of the following. You know, number one would be chemical resistance. Is a tank line are going to be chemically resistant to the commodities that it'll be exposed to? And how will it handle those environments? Another one would be longevity. They're always trying to increase inspection cycles and reduce the amount of time they have to take tanks out of service and prolong the inspection cycle, if you will. Another one would be return-to-service. As we know these assets, when they're taken out of service, they're basically taken off the revenue stream for our owners and they can't make any money on those those assets, so fast return-to-service is a very big pain point for them as well. And then also, ease of application. A lot of these fast return-to-service materials have historically required plural component equipment and, you no longer need that to to provide fast return-to-service tank linings. We could do that with standard airless application now, with some of the materials that we have available, cleanability is another another area of focus for owners and pain points. Some of the additives that we can put on our tank lining and materials can make the materials easier to clean whenever you take a tank out of service, make them slicker like a nonstick skillet, if you will. And then also another pain point would be pitted tank bottoms. And there's a number of ways that you can address pitted tank bottoms or some guidance between API 652 and API 653 that can address pitted tank bottoms with coatings, welding, fiberglass reinforced materials and things of that nature. So those would probably be the top ones that I would say are the biggest pain points in our industry.
Johnny [00:02:20] So what your refineries in chemical plant asset owners be looking for out a tank lining in terms of performance?
Justin [00:02:28] You know, this is really worth Sherwin-Williams Nova-Plate 360 truly shines as a next generation tank lining. Nova-Plate 360. three sixty is a knobloch resin based tank learning material. It's flake reinforced and also has a Peterffy additive, which makes it a nonstick finish, makes it very easy to clean and the material is fast return-to-service as well.
(Aerial images of Oil & Gas plants)
So in some scenarios it can cure to service in about approximately twenty four hours at 77 degrees. It's medium film base. So you can put it on in one-coat or you can put on a two-coat application depending on the specification. In addition to those benefits, it's also API 652 compliant as a reinforced tank lining. So that has its own benefits as well. The tank lining can be applied via either single-leg equipment or it can be applied with plural-component equipment. So it makes it very, very easy to apply. It also contains our optically activated pigments, which otherwise known as opticheck technology. So this is pigments that we put in our primers that are designed to fluoresce under certain UV light. So what this gives you is an opportunity to do real time inspection on your tank linings with simple UV lights so that in the end you have much less holidays to repair.
Johnny [00:03:49] And we both know it's costly to take a tank out of service for maintenance and recoating. What advances have been made to accelerate the application process?
Justin [00:03:58] John, probably first and foremost would be a track record of how these materials are going to perform. And if there is a track record and as Sherwin-Williams, we probably have a more extensive track record than anyone else in the industry. So we have plenty of information on our tank linings, how they perform, where they perform and application details, etc. So track record would be at the top. And then also, as far as terms of performance, our owners are always looking to extend service life and longevity of these materials. So twenty years has been the kind of expectation in the industry over the over the years. But we're starting to stretch some of these tank lining projects and inspection cycles out to thirty year tank linings. And so I think going forward, Sherwin-Williams will have some more documentation on thirty year tank linings. And it's not uncommon for an owner to say, hey, we'd like to see about forty year tank linings and extending, you know, the cycle even further, so as far as performance is concerned. And then API 652 compliance, that's kind of an industry standard that makes recommendations for tank lining materials, how they should be formulated, how they should be applied in certain scenarios. So is it API 652 compliant, is it reinforced? Is it unreinforced? Is it thin film, thick film, things of that nature? So they need to be API 652 compliant. Another importance to our owners in regards to tank lining materials would be swing service. Swing service is what we talk about when we specify a tank lining for, say, commodity A in a plant and then three months later or wintertime, summertime, that commodity changes and they're storing something else. So you might have commodity A and then three months later you might have commodity B, C or D in that tank. And how will that tank perform in swing service when exposed to those chemicals? So that's very, very important as far as performance. And then probably as far as performance, probably the best performing tank lining materials in those scenarios as far as swing service is concerned and performance in swing service would be flake-filled Novolac and at Sherwin-Williams we have a number of Novolac tank linings. Flake-filled PTFV reinforced tank linings that can handle swing service. So those would be the top ones that come to mind.
Johnny [00:06:13] So Justin, thank you for joining us today. We appreciate your comments. I would also like to say thank you to our audience for listening in today. We do appreciate you. Lastly, if you have any tank lining questions, please remember to reach out to your local Sherwin-Williams representative who will be eager to help you get started. Again, thank you and have a great week.
(A blueprint unrolls to reveal an image of an oil refinery)
(GFX: Sherwin-Williams - From Spec to Protect)
