Case Study: Oil boom systems for hazardous areas

Vikoma was recently awarded an order for a containerised boom reel system that was for location on an oil jetty. The entire jetty has been designated as an ATEX Zone 1 area and this meant that a standard diesel-hydraulic driven boom reel was not suitable.

Due to the loading / unloading operations with tankers alongside the entire jetty can be designated as a hazardous area.

It is typical for oil containment boom systems to be located on the jetty to allow for rapid deployment to contain any spill if there is an accident or equipment failure.

As the jetty is designated as a hazardous area it does not allow the use of standard diesel-hydraulic boom reel systems.

Vikoma solution:

Our solution is an ATEX Zone 1 electric powered boom reel.

This is housed in a curtain sided 10’ ISO container with the boom reel controls integrated into the end door to allow the reel to be operated with this door open or closed.

The curtain side allows the container to be located close to the jetty edge thereby making effective use of the available space.

Controls

Lever operated control valve (deploy/ stop/recover). Valve is pressure compensated and has integral pressure relief and shock valves. Relief valve setting is 140 bar, shock valves 150 bar.

The boom reel is designed, manufactured and certified for operation in an ATEX Zone 1 hazardous area. It is powered by an onboard electro-hydraulic powerpack (EHPP) that is fitted with a local control panel (LCP)

Motor Power: 7.5 kW

Supply: Multi voltage, 3 phase, 50Hz. ATEX Zone: Suitable for Zone 1, Category 2 operation.

The reels are often housed in ISO containers for storage and protection.

Space on a jetty is often small and this can lead to the reel / containerised reel system needing to be placed close to the edge with limited space in front of it for deploying and recovering the boom.

LCP:

Electrical Controls Local Control Station with lamps, push buttons, DOL starter. High hydraulic oil temperature shutdown (via switch). Low hydraulic oil low level shutdown (via switch). Motor winding overtempt (thermistor).

The design concept of the unit is plug and play and requires the customer to just wire it to their power supply.

The container is supplied with ISO swivel locks so that it can be locked down to the jetty, thereby allowing for quick and easy installation.

The reel can take a wide variety of boom up to 2m overall height.

Container and reel can be painted in various colours to match customer requirements.

There are hundreds of loading / unloading jetties around the world and tightening legislation and enforcement is leading to review of equipment located on these jetties.

This equipment allows for safe and certified operation in an ATEX Zone 1 hazardous area.

Boom reel controls: Located under a high visibility weather cover.