This tank is green and so are the savings

The completed tank in London.

In 2002, the City of London decided to replace one of their welded steel tanks used for sludge storage. The existing tank had been repainted and patched numerous times but was beyond repair. The City hauls thickened waste activated sludge from five satellite pollution control plants to the Greenway Water Pollution Control Centre. At Greenway, the sludge is stored until it is dewatered and incinerated.

The City decided to build an Aquastore^® glass-fused-to-steel bolted tank which will never require re-painting. During tank construction, one of the main concerns that the operational staff had was how to keep the roadway accessible for the sludge tanker trucks to drive around the plant and deposit the sludge and yet still build this tank and its ancillary works. Material was shipped to the site with only two flat bed trucks. While the shell of the tank was stored adjacent to the site, the tank dome roof was moved into the centre of the tank and built on top of the tank.

The General Contractor was K & L Construction from London, Ontario, and the tank was manufactured by Engineered Storage Products Company (formerly A.O. Smith) from DeKalb, Illinois. The tank was sold and erected by Greatario Engineered Storage Systems who also designed the staircase and mixer platforms.

A spiral staircase, two mixer platforms and a roof walkway were installed. The operational staff require regular access to the top of the tank in order to inspect, maintain and rotate these mixers. The concrete foundation was also designed with a conical type floor in order to help the mixers move the sludge to the centre of the tank.

London, being called the “Forest City”, decided to choose green as the exterior colour of the tank, and a Canadian flag was added beneath the glass coating.

The new glass-fused-tosteel tank will hold 1,640 cubic metres of digested sludge. However, the tank is designed to be expandable at a later date by 638 cubic metres of storage capacity. The tank is also protected by a sacrificial cathodic protection system that is installed on the inside of the tank. The coating applied to this tank is the most technologically advanced coating and specifically designed for northern climates.

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