Environmental care with the manufacturing processes of petrochemical products includes leak control routines. At the Dow Brasil S/A polystyrene plant, located in the municipality of Guarujá, all hydrocarbon storage tanks (Styrene Monomer and Ethyl-Benzene) have containment dikes. drain to prevent leaks. Drainage is done through siphon systems, which are manually activated in the field by the operator.
For safety reasons, the factory's storage tanks are installed in remote areas that are difficult to monitor. To check for leaks or spills in the tanks, periodic rounds are carried out, which do not always detect internal accidents in a short time, which may delay the response actions to any internal incident and cause damage to the environment.
Monitoring systems for hydrocarbons in water were installed on these dikes with the function of constantly supervising them and alerting operators about the existence of material to be drained (water or hydrocarbons). The monitors installed are model ID-223/500 + PS-220 from Ionics Agar Environmental (Leakwise).
The system alerts the operator when there is or is not water in the dike and issues warnings through two alarms in the control room. One of them alerts the operator that it is necessary to drain the (rain) water from the dike, while the other informs the presence of hydrocarbons in the water. If hydrocarbons are detected, operational discipline requires the operator to go to the field urgently, for on-site verification, and all the supply valves of the hydrocarbon tank contained in the dike are automatically closed.
The Ionics monitor can be used extensively in industries with tank parks where hydrocarbon products are stocked, such as refineries, petrochemical and chemical plants, among others. The equipment demonstrates great operational reliability, being an excellent tool for monitoring tanks in remote areas.
Armando Rodrigues - Improvement Engineer at Dow Brasil SA