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ATEX approval for pumps on Ethanol offloading

03 March 2009

Honeywell Enraf has developed a range of offloading/blending skids employing ATEX certified Blackmer sliding vane pumps from AxFlow. These skids enable users to offload Ethanol and, if required, add denaturant to the Ethanol at the point of tanker offloading.

ATEX approval for pumps on Ethanol offloading

Depending on the customers’ use of the skids, up to four Blackmer pumps are employed on each skid, with 2 inch pumps for blending in denaturant and two 4 inch for offloading Ethanol from trucks into storage. Blackmer pumps were selected because as Ethanol is an alcohol it cannot remain within the systems and when offloaded all the liquid has to be accounted for. This cannot be achieved with a centrifugal pump, whereas with the Blackmer positive displacement vane pump all the liquid is drawn from the truck and pushed into the terminal. Blackmer vane pumps are recognised internationally as the standard pump for tanker offloading duties. To achieve ATEX compliance, AxFlow provided its knowledge and took on the task of obtaining ATEX 01T3 internal certification for the Blackmer pumps.