CA2059994A1 - Containment integrity system for vessels for use in transportation of petroleum products - Google Patents

Abstract

ABSTRACT

A unique liner is provided for the hull of a vessel transporting petroleum products to prevent leakage of the petroleum products. The liner consists of two materials known as KEVLAR and SPECTRA. A number of KEVLAR and SPECTRA
fabric sheets of appropriate configuration are layered in a continuous fashion to create a fluid tight barrier between the fluid and hull of the vessel. A fastener system is provided to attach the upper edges of the liner to the hull of the vessel.

Description

~ITLE OF T~ INV~NTION

Containment Integrity System For Vessels For Use In Transportation of Petroleum Products B~C~GROUND AND SUMM~RY OF TBE INVENTION
This invention relates to storage devices for fluids being transported, and more particularly to a containment integrity system for vessels for use in transportation of petroleum products.

PRIOR ART
The best known prior art, including patents, is listed below:

2,556,321 - Denton 4,320,699 - Binks 2,912,137 - Taylor 4,371,288 - Borca et al 3,082,927 - Winstead 4,393,531 - Hodel 15 3,101,839 - Holman 4,453,875 - Johnson, Sr.
3,906,555 - Scott et al 4,461,402 - Fell 4,054,226 - Bjelland et al 4,658,989 - Bonerb 4,133,451 - Ratter 4,860,916 - Winters 4,216,256 - Lindner 4,863,339 - Krein 20 4,239,416 ~ Borca Denton Patent No. 2,556,321 teaches the use of a liner for a receptacle of substantially rectangular configuration, while the Taylor Patent No. 2,912,137 also illustrates a rectangular configuration with a liner therefor.

25 In the Winstead Patent No. 3,082,927, use is made of a ?

container having a lining on the inside thereof. The Holman Patent No. 3,101,839, the patent teaches a cylindrical container with a liner for receiving a second container.
Scott et al Patent No. 3,906,555 teaches a disposable liner for body wastes which is formed of a flexible moisture proof sheet of material and is positioned loosely in a receptacle. Bjelland et al Patent No. 4~054/226 teaches a flexible bag positioned in a frame and bulkhead configuration. The Ratter Patent No. 4,133,451 shows a liner for a cylindrical type container.
The Lindner Patent No. 4,216,256 shows the use of a liner for bread baskets formed of partly stiff cloth, of circular shape, and have a stiffened circular base, while the Borca et al Patent No. 4,239,416 shows a reservoir or the like with a rubber liner of flexible impervious sheet material for lining the reservoir.
The Binks Patent No. 4,320,6g9 teaches flexible plastic separable, non-stick lines for heated cooked surfaces.
These lines can rest in readily removable covering relation on a heated cooking surface in order to keep the cooking surface substantially clean.
The Borca et al patent No. 4,371,~88 shows a fluid impermeable liner for a cavity in the earth's surface. Its purpose is to prevent flow of liquid into and from the surrounding earth, while the Hodel Patent No. 4,393,531 teaches a liner for a water bed wherein the liner includes a flat planar flexible panel to form the bottom and upright ~ 2 ~

sides covered with a flexible material to form a watertight enclosure. Johnson, Sr. Patent No. 4,453,875 teaches a liner consisting of a plurality of belt members arranged between the end walls of a wheel supported receptacle, with the sides of adjacent receptacle, with the sides of adjacent belt members overlapping in a direction between the end walls, and with each belt overlying the side walls and bottom of the car. The ends of the belts are correspondingly attached to each other. The material is progressively unloaded laterally outwardly of the car by sequential displacement of the belts.
The Fell Patent No. 4,461,402 teaches a disposable liner formed of a thin sheet plastics material that is arranged into a long tube having sides and a top and bottom.
The tube is closed at opposite ends by end panels.
Patent No. 4,658,989 to Bonerb is directed to a disposable, flexible, expandable lantern-shaped liner which is opened at two ends. It is provided with a pneumatically assisted cup-shaped bag. The liner is equipped with 2Q adhesive spots for adherence and conformity to the shape or the bag upon inflation of the bag and linerO
The Krein Patent No. 4,863,339 teaches a vacuum assisted method for installing a waterproof liner. This method includes disposing a bag within a container and attaching the peripheral edges of the opening of the bag to the peripheral edges of the container opening.

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T~E PROBLEM
The Petroleum industry is plagued with the problem of spillage of its petroleum products into an environment where the products are not wanted, not needed and/or are hazardous from vessels it has employed to transport the products.
Here of late, there has become a great concern about the ecological damage that has been done as a result of oil spills. The Exxon Valdeze accident was really the incident that led to many people thinking about ways that they might be able to help prevent these disasters.
Subsequently, there were a number of oil spills that occurred off the California Coast early this spring. One of these oil spills resulted when an oil tanker, one of Exxon's, punctured its own hull with the vessel's anchor.
Shortly after this incident, the news media began to report a movement by certain environmental groups and California politicians to push for oil companies to be required to "double hull" their tankers as a means of minimizing oil spills. This process is a very costly one, not only in the dollars necessary to implement this on existing ships or incorporating it in new ships, but also in the loss of volume that this would incur to these vessels.

5UMMARY OF THE I~VE~IO~
The present invention provides a novel liner for the hull of the ship that consists of a polymeric material sold by DuPont under the trademark KEVLAR, which currently is - . ..

used as a major component in body armor used by the military and law enforcement agencies and a second material manufactured under the trademark SPECTRA by Allied Signal, Fiber Division.
These materials are used to form a flexible liner of sufficient thickness and composition to provide the necessary protection against leakage of petroleum products from the hull of a vessel that has been punctured or other event leading to the loss of containment integrity of the vessel. A number of fabric sheets of the two materials of appropriate configurations are layered in a contiguous fashion to create a fluid air or petroleum tight barrier between the fluid and/or petroleum and the hull of the vessel. A suitable fastener system is provided for fixing the liner to a hull of a vessel.
While this specification specifies vessels used in the transportation of petroleum products by the petroleum industry, it should be recogniæed that application of this invention need not be limited to vessels and products specific to afore mentioned application. Said vessels and products are only specific configurations of generic items.
It is, therefore, possible to extrapolate the application of this invention to said generic items as well. All other potential applications should apply to this invention.

t ~ '~Ji T~E OBJECTS OF THE INVENTIOM
It is a principal object of this invention to provide a new and innovative system for the petroleum industry to combat undesirable spillage of petroleum products.
Still another object of this invention is to provide a containment integrity system for vessels used in transportation of petroleum type products.
And a further object of this invention is to provide a containment integrity system for vessels used in transportation of petroleum products that utilizes a novel configuration of materials in the construction thereof.
And further objects of this invention are to provide a containment integrity system for containment of petroleum products which is economical in cos-t, efficient and reliable in operational use, and which is easy to install in vessels for operational use and which is of low maintenance costs.
Still other objects of this invention is to provide a containment integrity system that provides the greatest flexibility in design, manufacture, and installation thereof into a containment type vessel for transporting petroleum products, and which minimizes the volume needed of the material liner to provide the protection desired.

D~SCRIPTIO~ OF TH~ DRAWINGS
These and other objects of this invention will become more obvious from the following description of the - . . ' "': .,: - .
, . .

specification and accompanying drawings in which:
Fig. 1 is a cross section of a con'ainment integrity system for vessels used in the transportation of petroleum type products showing the preferred embodiment of the invention;
Fig. 2 is an enlarged cross sectional view of details of Fig. 1;
Fig. 3 is a side view of a liner showing the pliers coupled together by epoxy adhesive and stitching;
Figs. 4 and 5 axe side views of the liner of Fig. 3;
and Fig. 6 shows a typical ply configuration of a liner showing several pliers and stitching of the liner.

DESCRIPTION_OF THE PRE~ERRED EMBODIMENT
Referring now to Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings, there is illustrated the preferred embodiment of the containment integrity system for a vessel V used in the transportation of petroleum products, such as oil. The vessel V consists of a arcuate hull 28, enclosed by an upper section 30O
If a vessel V were double hulled, a layer of steel plate 30 would be welded over the top of the vessel V of the steel ribs of the vessel V causing the loss of volume between the rib inner surface and the steel plate 30, the primary hull. Only a few inches of the space between the ribs would be filled with petroleum and the liner 12 would project a few inches on top of the ribs.

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A flexible liner 12 is positioned on the inner surface of the hull 28 and in juxtaposition thereto. The liner 12 is of sufficient thickness and composition to provide the necessary protection against leakage of petroleum products in the event of a puncture of the hull 28 of the vessel 30, or other condition leading to the loss of containment integrity of the vessel V. This liner 12 consists of material that has been specifically engineered to provide the attributes necessary to absorb force of impact in such fashion necessary to prevent penetration of foreign objects through said material. The material of the liner 12 is pliable and capable of conforming itself to the topography of the hull 28 of the vessel in which it is installed to a limit necessary to maintain low stress levels in the material.
Two materials, or a combination thereof, can be used as the liner 12 of the hull 28 of the vessel V. A first polymer type material can be used as a liner 12, A KEVLAR
material manufactured by DuPont is one polymeric material that can be used as the liner 12. This material is currently in use as a major component of body armor and other hard armor applications. It is most well known as the major component in body armor used by the military and law enforcement agencies.

,r3 ,r~ ~7 KEVLAR is a trademark of Du Pont Company for a pl~neric material which is made up of the Eollowing materials per Du Pont's Material Safety Data Sheet. All information regarding the specific combination or application of the materials is proprietary of Du Pont Company and as such are unavailable to author and not subject to the scope of this invention.
Poly(terephthaloylchloride/
p-phenylenediamine) CAS #26125-61-1 ~ 89%
Water, absorbed CAS #7732-18-5 or = 7%
Sodium Sulfate CAS ~7757-82-6 2%
Finish none 2%
Wax Overlay CAS #6474-43-4 10%
A second type material that can be used as a liner 12 is a material called "SPECTRA", manufactured by Allied Signal, Fiber Division.
Spectra is a trademark oE Allied Fiber, a subsidiary company to Allied Signal Company, for a polymeric material made up of the following materials per Allied Fiber's Material Safety Data Sheet. A11 information regarding the specific combination or application of said materials is proprietary to Allied Fiber Company and as such are unavailable to author and not subject to the scope of this patent.
Polyethylene, homopolymer CAS #09002884 = 100%

If desired, the liner 12 can be made of a number of KEVLAR or SPECTR~ fabric sheets of appropriate configuration layered ~n a continuous fashion to create a solution tight barrier between the solution and the hull 28 of the vessel V. Should the hull 28 of the vessel 30 be breached or punctured, the liner 12 would absorb. The force associated with the loss of integrity and by virtue of its physical properties not lose its own integrity in the process.
The fastener system 10 for the liner 12 is of materials 10 that are necessary to insure adhesion of the liner 12 to the hull 28 of the vessel V in the most appropriate manner for the specific application.
The upper edge of the liner 12 is provided with a laterally extending cut out shoulder 24 along its substantially vertical edge. The shoulder 24 is provided with a plurality of circular recesses to receive interlocking circular members 18 to two laterally extending sealing members 14 and 16 for sealing the upper end of the liner 12 and holding it adjacent the hull 28 when the bolts are tightened. In addition, interlocking members 18 are utilized to hold the sealing members 14 and 16 in proper position. A series of bolts 20, each having a nut 22 for tightening thereof, are utilized to hold the sealing members 14 and 16 to the upper end of the hull 28 when the nuts 22 are tightened on the bolts 20.
Using the liner system described above, it is possible to provide the necessary containment integrity of the hull `~ J ~

of the vessel without siynificant reduction in volume of the vessel V. The material of construction aford by their nature containment integrity while not requiring large bulk volume.
S This liner system also provides an ease of installation not readily available in other a]ternative methods. This system would require a minimum amount of specialized equipment, skills and time to implement when compared to alternative methods.
Referring now to Figs. 3, 4, 5 and 6, the liner 32 disclosed for said invention is constructed from fabric of either or both of the materials stated above. The liner 32 will be constructed of multiple plys 34 and 36 etc. of said material(s) with the exact number of plys dependent on specific application.
Each ply 34 or 36 is constructed of separate sheets of fabric and configured to act as a continuous sheet of the material. This configuration will be accomplished through ; the joining together of fabric sheets of appropriate or available size by seaming 40.
Seaming 40 will be accomplished by overlapping of fabric sheets a minimum of 1 foot (12 inches) and joining this overlap together by the use of epo~y adhesive 38 and stitching with yearn of said material(s).
The liner 32 will then be assembled by building up of plys 32, 34 36 etc. to appropriate number for specific application. The liner 32 will be built up in such a way as to insure ply seams are a minimum of 24 inches apart. All plys will then be joined into a single liner 32 by stitching with yarn of said materials(s). All stitch lines 40 will be sealed with epoxy 38 sealant to insure fluid tight barrier where applicable. (Other sealants may be utilized if dictated by the specific application.) See Fig. 6 Fluid tightness in the bulk of the liner will be obtained through the selection of appropriate material fabric weave~
configuration and/or surface treatments. Should any application require additional measures to insure fluid tightness, appropriate sealants can be applied to the liner or an additional layer(s) of appropriate material(s) can be incorporated into the liner.
The liner 32 will be applied to the containmen-t vessel and secured as shown in earlier drawings.
Obviously, many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings. It is, therefore, to be understood that within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced otherwise than a specifically described.

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Claims (4)

1. A liner for sealing the hull of a vessel, comprising, a plurality of layers of hard, tough polymeric material of appropriate configuration layered in a continuous fashion to create a fluid tight barrier between the fluid and hull of the vessel.

2. A liner for sealing the hull of a vessel, comprising, a plurality of layers of KEVLAR and/or SPECTRA
fabric sheets or combination thereof of appropriate configuration layered in a continuous fashion to create a fluid tight barrier between the fluid and hull of the vessel.

3. In combination, a liner formed of a plurality of layers of fabric sheets of hard, tough polymeric material of appropriate configuration layered in a continuous fashion to create a fluid tight barrier between the fluid and hull of the vessel, and means for fastening the liner to the hull of said vessel.

4. The combination as recited in claim 3, wherein said fabric sheets are formed of KEVLAR and/or SPECTRA or combination thereof.