MOD Base:
Fuel Storage Tank Refurbishment

REDS Surface Preparation team were tasked with repainting a 52,220-litre fuel tank, installing a bund alarm, and tidying up the electrical cabling for one of our MOD clients.

The tank had been painted over for several years, and upon ground-level inspection, it appeared to be heavily deteriorated, with large patches of what seemed to be rust scale covering its surface. With this in mind, REDS engineers set out to remove the surface rust scale ready for painting.

Upon closer inspection, it was found that the paint was actually delaminating between layers, and the underlying steel tank was not deteriorating but in perfect condition.

Change of Tactics

Upon discovering the true state of the tank, we adapted our approach.

We began with a jet wash clean to remove loose debris, followed by abrasive blasting to the required surface profile to meet our client’s technical standards. Finally, we applied a coating system which meets the technical requirements whilst protecting the tank in its aggressive marine environment.

We used the following coatings on the fuel asset:

• High solid epoxy primer and buildcoat.
• Followed by a two component aliphatic acrylic polyurethane finish coat.

The coating applied should give the asset around 10 years of protection.

Project Result

The site was handed back to the client with a recommendation to regularly carry out PPM inspections and maintain the coating as required.

This was a great project that took an interesting turn, REDS were able to adapt our approach, providing our client with a better outcome for their fuel infrastructure.