The chemical method for degassing industrial oil tanks, step by step · Call 832-655-7763
Method · Oil Tanks

Degassing Oil Tanks Before Entry, The Chemical Method.

Ventilation alone gets an oil tank to entry limits eventually. Adding a chemistry that suppresses the vapor at the source gets there sooner and cleans the tank on the way. This is the step-by-step for industrial crude and product tanks using Hasten Cleanse, a water-based concentrate with no flash point.

Vapor down while you wash. Bound hydrocarbon generates less vapor. Readings fall during the work.
Non-hazardous wash water. About half the volume of a solvent job, and it goes to treatment without a manifest.
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Get a Quote or a Demo

Bring your LEL meter to the demo. Response within one business day.

The Steps

Drain and vac free product. Gauge what is left on walls and floor.
Dilute Hasten Cleanse 1:20 for typical residue, 1:10 if sludge is present, 1:50 for light film. Warm water helps.
Spray or circulate. Cover walls, floor, and any sludge.
Ventilate per your procedure and monitor LEL, VOC, and H2S. Readings fall as the product bonds to the hydrocarbon.
Vac the wash water and suspended residue; it is non-hazardous.
Test, permit, and enter under your confined-space procedure.

What Hasten Cleanse does not do

It is not a solvent and not a caustic. It will not dissolve, melt, or strip material that is physically bonded or baked onto a surface, scale, rust, hardened deposits, coatings. It lifts hydrocarbons, oil, grease, crude, sludge, and paraffin, by emulsifying them, and it needs agitation, circulation, pressure, or heat to do that work. If your problem is a stuck-on solid rather than a hydrocarbon film or residue, tell us and we will say so.

Why the Readings Fall

Flammable vapor comes off the liquid hydrocarbon left in a tank. Ventilation dilutes the vapor. Hasten Cleanse goes after the source.

1

Bonds to the hydrocarbon

Surfactants and fatty acids attach to the residue and the free product on walls, floor, and in sludge.

2

Raises the flash point

Bound hydrocarbon vaporizes more slowly. Less vapor is generated in the first place, so LEL and VOC readings fall rather than being blown out.

3

Lifts the residue

The same wash that suppresses vapor lifts the residue into a water suspension for the vac truck. Cleaning and degassing happen together.

4

Adds nothing flammable

Water-based, no flash point. Nothing in the tank got more dangerous because of the product.

Concentrate and Packaging

No added bacteriaNothing in the pail is alive. Hasten Cleanse feeds the microbes you already have, in a treatment plant, a separator, or the soil, instead of competing with them.
Full concentrateSold as concentrate and diluted on site, 1:10 for heavy residue to 1:50 for light. Compare products by working gallons per drum, not by the drum.
No flash point, no placardsWater-based and non-flammable. Ships as standard freight in 5-gallon pails, 55-gallon drums, 275-gallon totes, and bulk. Gulf Coast delivery in one to two days.

Who Uses It, and How It Gets to the Job

Most searches for degassing oil tanks are looking for a crew, not a chemical. Hasten Cleanse is the chemical that crew uses. We supply tank cleaning contractors, refinery turnaround crews, vapor control vendors, and plant maintenance departments across the Gulf Coast, and we ship the same concentrate to operators who run their own entry program.

Pipeline and vessel cleanouts

Pigging, flushing, and vessel entry all end with the same question, what are the readings. Hasten Cleanse goes in with the flush water and leaves a non-hazardous rinse that can go to the wastewater system.

Tank cleaning and degassing contractors

Crews that clean crude, product, slop, and produced water tanks add Hasten Cleanse to their circulation or spray water so the vapor space comes down while the residue lifts. One product covers the degassing step and the cleaning step, which is why contractors carry it in totes rather than two separate chemicals.

Refinery and terminal turnarounds

Entry permits wait on LEL, benzene, and H2S readings. A water-based vapor suppressant that bonds to the hydrocarbon lets the readings fall without steaming the vessel for days. Turnaround planners order by the tote and stage it at the unit before the outage.

Tanker trucks, railcars, and frac tanks

Transport tanks that switch products or go in for repair need the vapor knocked down before hot work. A 1 to 20 solution sprayed or circulated through the tank does it without a flammable solvent in the truck bay.

If you need a crew rather than a chemical

Call us anyway. We work with degassing and tank cleaning contractors throughout the Gulf Coast and can point you to one that already runs Hasten Cleanse, which means the readings on your permit come down the way they do on every job that uses it. If you already have a contractor, send them to this page. The product is sold as a full concentrate so their price per working gallon stays low.

What the readings mean

LEL, lower explosive limit. The percent of the way to a flammable mix. Entry programs commonly want under 10 percent LEL. Hasten Cleanse brings it down by binding the hydrocarbon and raising the flash point of what is left, so the vapor stops coming off the surface.
Benzene and VOCs. The compounds that set respirator and permit rules. Suppressing the vapor at the liquid and on the wetted walls is what lowers the number at the meter.
H2S. Sour tanks carry it in the sludge. Field crews report that circulation with Hasten Cleanse lowers H2S readings along with the hydrocarbon vapor. Treat that as a field report, not a specification, and meter every tank.
Time to entry. Customers report entry times cut by as much as 80 percent against steaming. Your tank, your sludge, and your circulation rate set the real number, which is why we offer a demo on your tank.

Serving Tank Owners and Contractors Across Texas and Louisiana

Standard freight from Houston, same-day pickup available.

HoustonPasadenaDeer ParkLa PorteBaytownChannelviewTexas CityBeaumontPort ArthurCorpus ChristiFreeportLake CharlesMidlandOdessa

Degassing Oil Tank Questions, Answered Straight

Is this for home heating oil tanks?

No. Industrial storage and production tanks only.

Do I still need to ventilate?

Yes. The product reduces vapor generation; ventilation and testing still follow your procedure.

What if there is sludge?

Go to 1:10 and circulate hot. The same wash suspends the sludge for the vac truck.

How fast?

Customers report a fraction of the conventional wait. Measure it on your tank at a free demo.

Is the product flammable?

No. Water-based, no flash point.

Degassing an Oil Tank?

Tank, product, and date. A quote and demo with your meter, back within one business day.

Call 832-655-7763