New vapour unit cleans air

New vapour unit cleans air

From left, GM Supply & Distribution Alex Strang, Managing Director Des King and Gavin Bath, SA Operations Manager, at the commissioning of the vapour recovery unit in Adelaide.

Adelaide terminal’s new vapour unit will cut losses and clear the air. Cleaner air and reduced safety risks are among benefits to be gained from the recent installation of a vapour recovery unit (VRU) at Caltex’s Birkenhead terminal in Adelaide.

The Adelaide facility, officially commissioned by Managing Director Des King, joins Caltex’s Newport, Banksmeadow and Lytton terminals in having VRUs. These units remove most hydrocarbons from the vapours released from tankers during filling thus controlling emissions.

The project’s $2-million price tag represents a saving due to recycling. The unit was removed from the Caltex Newport terminal in Melbourne and reconditioned before being installed in Adelaide. (The new VRU commissioned last year in Newport, Caltex’s largest throughput terminal, is 50 per cent bigger than previous units that operated there.)

It is estimated that around 0.1 per cent of a typical tanker load can be lost in vapours while refilling.

The work is part of a broader project to upgrade facilities, improve compliance and increase storage capacity at Birkenhead terminal – which is in turn part of Caltex’s ongoing huge supply chain infrastructure program. The Adelaide work includes the demolition of old tanks and warehouse buildings and an advanced new safety monitoring and control system, in which tank gauges have independent high-level alarms.

The upgrade and expansion is designed to improve overall compliance at the terminal, improve the efficiency of its operations and better equip it to service growth markets. Originally built in 1937, Birkenhead terminal has been under increasing pressure since 2003 when Mobil’s Port Stanvac refinery in Adelaide closed and the terminal became reliant on ship imports, mostly from Asia.