Koole Terminals is a leading independent storage company in North-West Europe headquartered in Zaandam, Netherlands. The company operates eight tank storage terminals and an own fleet of 12 barges and three coasters.

Koole Terminals has a total storage capacity of over two million cubic metres handling a wide range of liquid bulk products including vegetable oils, mineral oil products, waxes, (oleo) chemicals, and other liquid products, which are being stored and handled in Rotterdam, Zaandam, Amsterdam, Nijmegen, United Kingdom and Poland.

Their port location in Rotterdam (Pernis) is the perfect base for clients from around the world. The terminal is in operation 24/7 and has a storage capacity of 625,000m³. Additional storage capacity will be added in the coming years to respond to the growing demand for storage.

Koole Terminals started with the construction of new 30m-high oil storage tanks with an individual capacity of 30,000m³. This will raise the terminal’s total capacity to 1.3 million cubic metres after completion in 2017. Each storage tank will be installed on 1,100m² of FOAMGLAS® insulation.

FOAMGLAS® insulation

FOAMGLAS® High Load Bearing insulation offers superior insulation properties with a stable and a non-deteriorating insulation efficiency which ensures a constant thermal performance that remains unchanged over time. This was an important requirement as energy control was the most important criterion for this project. The engineering departments did the economic calculations and calculated an average payback period of 12 to 18 months.

The steel weight of 8t/m³, combined with the weight of the tank roof and its pressure that is transferred onto the tank wall, resulted in a significant pressure load. Once the tanks are filled, the total pressure load will climb up to 30t/m² per tank. This is off course no problem for FOAMGLAS® HLB 1600 blocks as they can easily withstand five times this amount of pressure.

FOAMGLAS® insulation is completely impermeable because it consists of 100% closed glass cells. This means that water capillarity through water vapour or moisture ingress is completely eliminated. This prevents any formation of Corrosion Under Insulation which could have a negative effects on thermal efficiency and overall safety.

Execution

Each tank’s global structure consists of a concrete foundation on top of 250 piles with a raised concrete outer ring. The FOAMGLAS® insulation is directly installed on top of this concrete foundation and covered with a pressure distribution layer directly which will be in direct contact with the steel tank.

Functional and economical calculations were made to determine the necessary insulation thickness to reach maximum efficiency. A single layer system consisting of 100mm FOAMGLAS® HLB 1600 insulation blocks was the system that would be installed. FOAMGLAS® insulation’s HLB 1600 grade has a compressive strength of 1.6MPa (232lb/in²), which is five times more than what was required.

All blocks were glued with Pittsburgh Corning’s in-house PC® 500 one-component adhesive and were all fully adhered to the concrete substrate and afterwards covered with an oil-sand mix as levelling and pressure distribution layer.