Our capability to deliver fuel farms or large scale depots range from system design to commissioning on site and post installation services – from 1,000 litre tanks up to 5 million litre industrial fuel farms with modular self bunded tanks . We also have the capability to deliver flat bottom large scale fuel farms in excess of 20 million litres complete with all the necessary auxiliary equipment required
Selfbunded Tanks has made the construction and relocation of bulk fuel storage to meet mining needs a simpler and safer process. With self-bunded tanks you avoid the need for construction work to build bunds around tank farms, and the associated valve maintenance and drainage issues to ensure contaminated rainwater doesn’t escape into the water table.
Another great benefit of our modern tanks is that they are fully modular systems, which makes site design simple. Everything, including connecting pipework, walkways and ladders, can now be prefabricated and put together on the site within 1-3 weeks, depending on the size of the farm.
“This is a huge advance – using old methods the process would have taken twice as long.
“It also means that after three or four years when the operational needs change, the farm can be easily pulled apart and relocated to another site.”
While renewable energy and the electric mine might be on the horizon in the future diesel is likely to remain a primary power source for the foreseeable future in large parts of the African Continent.
With that in mind, tackling overheads by reducing fuel haulage costs and locating storage close to work sites means fuel tank farms that can be quickly built in remote locations is a logical move.
What’s more, the farms are compatible with new automated refuelling technologies that are already being trialled by major players.
Robotic refuelling that removes the need for manual intervention is not only expected to make the refuelling process safer, but boosts the potential for fuel farms by making it even easier to build them closer to operations.
The first consideration for miners planning remote fuel storage farms is consumption – getting the capacity right can reduce the frequency of fuel deliveries, which means significant cost savings in remote locations.
The first consideration is what type of machinery will you be filling and how many vehicles, and that will give you an idea of the storage capacity you need and the required flow rate.
Most fuel farms might have 5-10 100,000 litre tanks, giving them 500,000 to 1 million litres of fuel storage.
The dispensing equipment needs to deliver about 800 litres per minute, because it’s filling 3000-litre tanks and high-flow equipment means faster refuelling and cost and productivity savings. There’ll also need to be separate refuelling points for the lighter vehicles.
Security is another key consideration – while fully automated and robotic refuelling is imminent for most sites, advanced fuel management systems have significantly streamlined the refuelling process and dramatically reduced losses.
Having access to real-time data and analytics allows for predictive maintenance processes that reduce vehicle down-time.