Thursday, January 19, 2012

Hot Tapping the Costa Concordia

A representative from Smit Salvage announced to authorities that the company would be hot tapping the ship to get the estimated 500,000 gallons of diesel out of its bunkers. Hot tapping is a process that allows a pressurized containment system to be accessed without the need for additional venting or the shutting down of ongoing operations. Simply stated, a valve body is attached to a bulkhead or pipe by welding or other means. After the valve is in place, a special drilling tool is attached to the valve and a bit is used to penetrate the valve seal and the wall of the pipe or bulkhead. The valve is closed and the tool removed and then the valve is plumbed. Some hot tapping procedures are multi-functional, designed for venting, injection and material transfer, and some are designed for just material transfer, like in the excellent demo below:

1 comment:

pipeline boring said...

It is great that hot tapping will be conducted in order to get the diesel out of this ship's bunkers. This will ensure that oil spill incidents can be prevented because of the process. Thanks for sharing this informative article.