Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in 2015 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
Do you have an oil removal problem? You’re not alone, and there is a steadfast solution. Read on to see how one mining and tunneling company solved its oil issues— within five hours of installing a new solution.
A North American company that constructs sanitary and storm sewers was in the process of completing a large-scale sewer nearly 10 feet in diameter and two miles long.
To create the sewer shaft, the mining company used a variety of drilling equipment and machinery. At the start of the sewer construction process, equipment-related oil and fuel were leaking into the tunnel (as is typical with heavy equipment/machinery use). To manage the leaks, company representatives used water to clear the oil and fuel from the tunnel, funneling the oily wastewater into a 16 by 16 foot collection pit.
Faced with the need to meet federal and local regulations for contaminant-free wastewater, the question then became: How do we continuously remove the oil from the pit?
The answer? The tube-type oil skimmer.
Designed to run continuously, 24/7, with little-to-no maintenance needed, tube-type oil skimmers from Oil Skimmers, Inc. are fully automatic and can be installed on open or closed tanks.
How Does a Tube-Type Skimmer Work?
Tube-type skimmers feature a floating, closed-loop tube that skims the wastewater’s surface. Oil adheres to the outside of the tube and is drawn into the oil skimmer through ceramic scrapers that remove the oil. The tube then returns to the water’s surface to collect more oil, while the recovered oil flows to a collection container.
With tube-type oil skimmers, the tube is designed to move easily around any debris floating in the water, eliminating clogs and continuously skimming waste oil, for an efficient and effective oil removal solution.
Proven Results with the Tube
Oil Skimmers customized the Model 5H tube skimmer specifically to meet the mining company’s application need, allowing for an easy, seamless installation of the new skimmer. Within five hours of installing the skimmer, all of the oil and hydraulic fluid had been completely removed from the collection pit and was ready to be recycled.
Since the skimmer has been installed, the mining company has maintained environmental compliance standards and increased operational efficiencies due to the skimmer’s continual operation.
To learn more about the results the mining company achieved from installing a tube-type oil skimmer, view the full case study.
