DOPA® - The No.1 alternative to tank replacement

Replacing an underground storage tank can be one of the most time consuming maintenance works on a service station, accounting for high related investment and costs. Today, several tens of thousands tanks are replaced every year. Wolftank Adisa has worked on solutions to offer alternatives to tank replacement - with large success.

Which are the main reasons to replace a tank?

• Changing of the normative situation
• End of the tank’s lifetime
• Malfunction of the tank
• Closing of non-economic sites

The first three situations have one thing in common: the continuation of the tank’s core activity, which is the dynamic storage of fuels, is the most important target.

With the tank lining system DOPA®, Wolftank Adisa offers a solution that satisfies this demand, without interruption of service and, providing an extension of the tanks’ lifetime for decades. DOPA® is designed for being installed in underground and aboveground chemical and petrochemical storage tanks. As one of the most successful developments in this sector over the last 30 years, it answers to the requirement of creating a monitorable double walled tank according to the European Normative EN13160-7 and including class 1 vacuum monitoring. As a first step of installation an electrochemical barrier is created between the liquid and the steel tank which starts by preventing any further corrosion in the tank.

Thanks to the fast installation and well calculable limited investment costs, DOPA® is chosen by the global players in the petrochemical industry for the transformation of a single walled tank to a double wall tank instead of an expensive substitution, which leads to an interruption of service. In fact, major oil companies confirm that the lost margin on fuel sales during tank replacement is higher than the investment cost for DOPA® without considering the cost of tank replacement. It has to be mentioned that, compared to the installation of a new tank no construction work on the forecourt and no rebuilding of the mechanical plant and the sumps is necessary.

With more than 17.000 tanks transformed until today DOPA® has proven that it can basically be installed in any tank. Even challenging reinforcement structures, advanced corrosion and lost wall thickness can be fully compensated by the DOPA® installation leading to a residual lifetime comparable or higher than a new tank.

Despite any possible difference between the local normative and requirements the system can be installed in fiberglass, steel and concrete tanks and vessels in order to make them compliant to the European Normative EN13160-7. Moreover, DOPA® is based on high solid epoxy materials which were specially developed to be in contact with aggressive fuels, solvents and chemical products such as: gasoline, diesel, blended biofuels, aviation fuels, bioethanol and many more.

Summarized benefits of DOPA®:

- Excellent projectability of the investment directly compensated due to no loss of sales
- No construction work on the forecourt
- Extension of tanks’ lifetime by 30+ years

For further details and technical specifics please feel free to contact us.

See also "The perfect coating materials for significant lifetime extension of fuel storage tanks" here.

This and further innovative products will be presented at the Wolftank Adisa booth D4 (6) at the OilnonOil trade fair in Verona, Italy (from 11th to 13th October, 2016).  Don't miss this opportunity, come to the booth and find the right solution for your business.