InTANK's OTIS-G Robot Successfully Inspects Gasoline Tank Full of Product For NYSERDA and Major Oil Company.

Business Editors/Energy Writers

LAUREL, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 9, 2002

InTANK Services, Inc., working in cooperation with NYSERDA & a major oil company, opened a new and exciting chapter for the Petroleum Industry. InTANK successfully deployed the new OTIS-G (On-Stream Tank Inspection System - Gasoline) robot which promises to increase a plant's safety and drastically cut costs incurred during traditional out-of-service AST inspections. Best of all, OTIS-G inspections meet API 653 guidelines and help tank owners/managers comply with the Ka, Kb, MACT, NFPA, etc. regulations for vapor emissions.

Without removing the gasoline from the tank, InTANK used two remotely controlled robots to conduct API 653 floor and seal inspections. InTANK's OTIS-G is an intrinsically safe robot specifically designed for highly volatile liquids with low flash points.

Using proprietary ultrasonic and navigation systems, OTIS-G inspects tank floors for topside and bottom-side corrosion. This provides information to map the floor via thousands of UT plate thickness readings. These readings are supplemented with elevation readings (which analyze tank settlement under normal product loads) and edge settlement. The end result is a highly accurate, three dimensional settlement profile of the tank floor. OTIS-G also uses an onboard advanced camera system to perform the inspection of Internal Floating Roofs' (IFRs) primary seals and the IFR's penetration seals. The OTIS-G system has been certified to meet US and Canadian intrinsically safe standards (Entela and EntelaC). InTANK's highly successful Quik-Look(TM), a proprietary remote, laser based camera system was used for the inspection of the secondary seals. The demonstration gasoline tank was 93 feet in diameter and 48 feet high with a steel shell and coned roof. Once inside the tank, InTANK minimized the risk of creating a flammable atmosphere by installing a man way cover they specially designed for use in an IFR.

Continuous testing of the atmosphere was conducted to ensure personnel safety - Lower Explosive Limits (LEL) of greater than 10% required the entrant to evacuate exit from the tank. As an added measure of safety, the robot's electronics are locked out until a pressure transducer senses that the robot is submerged in at least 10 feet of product.

The tank being inspected is due for a cleaning and inspection this year so it was not until the robot's entry that it was discovered the tank bottom was coated with a layer of sludge approximately 3 inches in depth. OTIS-G successfully overcame these adverse conditions with its exclusive on board pump system that cleared away the sludge while its ultrasonic system simultaneously obtained quality UT readings. During twenty hours of data gathering OTIS-G generated approximately 500,000 UT readings (data points).

With InTANK's robotic systems, industry environmental concerns are mitigated by reducing VOCs, eliminating spillage, and virtually eliminating the hazard of confined space entry (now, confined space entry is only an hour or two rather than weeks on end). The full process was performed without interruption, despite the remnants of Hurricane Isadora's nearly two day's visit that completely soaked the site and the operation.

InTANK's OTIS-G successfully presented to the Petroleum Industry the answer to eliminating or greatly reducing the costly, time consuming, hazardous and regulation riddled, traditional inspection processes of gasoline tanks. Keeping personnel, the environment and our client's bottom line safe, is what InTANK Services, Inc. is all about.

InTANK offers a suite of robotic solutions including: OTIS to clean and inspect ASTs with light and middle distillates; OTIS-G to inspect large ASTs with highly volatile products with low flash points; OTIS-G Probe to inspect smaller tanks containing hazardous chemicals; OTIS-HD for heavier products such as #6 and light crude; Quick-Look(TM) to inspect secondary seals on IFRs and internal tank structures; and, Scavenger(TM) for lagoon, basin and pond cleaning.

For more information on InTANK Services, Inc. contact Dan Quinn, EVP at [phone], go to www.intank.com, or email us at [e-mail].