JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #107 - August/September 2016 - 44

TRANSPORTATION design
that the liners, and therefore the tanks,
have greater durability, longer life, lower
maintenance costs and higher purity of
transported products compared to standard liners. Standard liners used for dangerous goods transport tend to breakdown
in a three to six year period, resulting in a
need for high cost refurbishment involving
scraping out the old liner and replacing it.
Furthermore, towards the end of the life
of standard liners, the breakdown of the
liner materials results in product contamination. Omni Tanker liners do not break
down in the harshest of chemicals, such
as sodium hypochlorite, resulting in tanks
that have low maintenance costs and can
transport high-purity chemicals continually without contamination.

3D Render of Omni A Tanker B-Double

ficiency. The exterior surface of the tank is
formed against a mould to obtain a smooth
surface for excellent aerodynamic performance and aesthetics. The reinforcement
used throughout the tank is carbon fibre,
which was chosen because it is lightweight
and strong. The resin used is a vinyl ester
for good chemical resistance. The carbon
fibre / vinyl ester composite is herein
referred to as carbon fibre reinforced
polymer (CFRP). The CFRPs are manufactured using a combination of conventional wet layup and vacuum resin infusion
methods. The liner that contains the fluid
during transport is designed to provide
operators with a significantly improved
chemical resistance compared to standard
liners.

Low weight and
chemical resistance
The Omni Tanker A and AB tanks are
composite tanks that combine low weight
with very high chemical resistance at a
good selling price, providing a high-value
innovation to transport operators. The first
group of benefits stems from the tanks being very lightweight and strong. The tanks
come in at approximately half the mass of
a steel tank with equivalent volume. The
first and most commonly understood benefit of the tanks being lightweight is that
the fuel consumption per litre of payload
transported is reduced, leading to fuel

savings and reduced emissions associated
with transport.
The second benefit, which is less known
but potentially much greater, is that a higher payload can be transported in a single
run on the road, owing to a government
mandated limitation total mass of the
truck, trailer, tanks and payload. This increased payload is highly beneficial as dangerous corrosive chemicals are transported
at a premium rate per litre of liquid cargo,
resulting in significantly higher company
profits. Finally, the tank wall is highly effective means of insulation of the chemicals
during transport, preventing breakdown
as outside ambient temperature rises on
long hauls.
The second group of benefits stems from
the tanks having excellent chemical resistance by design. This is attributed to the
liner technology, which was specially designed to work alongside composite materials. This increased chemical resistance
offers a number of benefits to operators.
The first one is that many corrosive liquid dangerous goods that were previously
only transportable in lined steel tanks, or
extremely costly tanks made from exotic
metallic materials such as Incoloy, can now
be transported in lightweight composite
tanks with high confidence. This supplements the lightweight composite benefit
mentioned above. The second benefit is

jec composites magazine / No107 August - September 2016

The third benefit is that the thermoplastic liner materials allow a high utilisation
of tank assets and flexibility, far exceeding that of standard liners. This is because
the thermoplastic Omni Tanker liner does
not absorb chemicals, which in turn permits very effective washout and cleaning.
Standard liners absorb the chemicals that
they carry, and often become dedicated assets for transporting a single type of chemical. The benefit of the Omni Tanker is that
two incompatible liquid cargoes can be
transported using the same tank with just
a washout.
This washout also permits transporters
to do what is known as two-way loading.
Two-way loading is where the tank transports a certain chemical from point-topoint in one direction, and then, rather
than the tank returning to the first point
empty, it is washed out and filled with a
different and often incompatible chemical for the return trip. This is only possible
due to the effective washout capability of
the tank interior. The tank assets can also
be utilised in high seasonal demand periods for one type of chemical and then be
changed to a different material of transport
for the low season. Finally, the composite
tanks are provided to customers at competitive pricing. This, combined with the
high chemical resistance and low weight,
results in a tank that increases company
profits through greater payload capacity,

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #107 - August/September 2016