A major supermarket chain approached Simon Fowler Design to create a specification for a fuel installation suitable for a site designated as an SSI (Site of scientific interest).
The brief was to create a fuel installation design that could minimise the risk of fuel escaping into the environment.
Starting with the fuel storage tank we specified a cylindrical, totally enclosed above ground fuel tank with a capacity of 140,000 litres to store 120,000 diesel, 10,000 gas oil and 10,000 Adblue.
A cylindrical fuel tank was chosen to maximise the useable storage capacity and to make internal cleaning simpler as there is no internal bracing in the tank.
The fill points, fuel level gauges and overfill alarms were located in a free standing cabinet mounted at the end of the tank. The cabinet incorporated drip trays to catch any spills during the tanker offload procedure.
Brugge Secon-X stainless steel double contained pipe was chosen to deliver the fuel to the dispensers. Stainless steel was specified over plastic to allow for future changes in bio diesel fuel additives.
A vacuum leak detection system was fitted to all the pipelines with connections to the building management system.
Single lines serve each fuel dispenser rather than branching two pumps off each line. This gives a greater resilience in the event of pipe failure.
All pipes are enclosed in ducts enabling them to be removed and replaced without digging up the yard. All pipes terminate above ground level with the ducts sealed with purpose made mechanical devices to prevent fuel collecting in ducts. The same seals were used for the cable ducts under the fuel pumps.
Eight Hytek Alpha fuel pumps dispense the products. All are fitted with self sealing breakaway couplings and automatic cut off nozzles.
Fuel usage is secured and recorded by a Hytek fuel management system and all data is stored on a cloud server where it can be accesses from any Internet enabled PC.
Finally, OLE tank gauges were installed and connected to the same cloud server. This allows fuel issues to be reconciled against stock level changes in realtime and discrepancies alerted to the client as they happen.
The whole refuelling area and the fuel tanker hardstand drains into a 7,500 litre, full retention Class 1 interceptor. This is capable of containing a full compartment of a delivery vehicle in the event of a catastrophic failure.
The equipment selected can be maintained by most fuel pump maintenance companies rather than tying the client into a contract with a single supplier.
