Designed to support the bottling and distribution of Yara Air1 AdBlue throughout the UK, the tank farm was installed by KM Tools, a provider of specialised machines, tooling and services to the industrial sector.
Emissco is the premium UK partner of Yara, the world largest manufacturer of AdBlue. The business bottles and distributes Yara Air1 AdBlue to retailers, garage forecourts, motor factors and repair shops. Filling operations are carried out at a dedicated bottling plant, utilising a bespoke filling machine to bottle AdBlue into 10 litre containers. Additionally, Emissco offers a range of sanitising products as well as fluids and aerosols for automotive professionals, which are also formulated and produced at the site.
Mark Brickhill, CEO of Emissco, explained the need for the new AdBlue tank farm: “We provide packaged Yara Air1 AdBlue nationwide throughout the UK. To provide this high volume requires large storage capacity, so we invested to further improve our capabilities in this regard, with the target to process and package 16-20 million litres of fluid every year.”
The new AdBlue tank farm consists of four 30,000 litre tanks, which together can hold the capacity of four full tanker lorries. A custom pumping system delivers AdBlue to the bottle filling machine inside the plant. Each tank has dedicated pipework, which prevents cross-contamination between batches. The AdBlue tank farm also features electronic controls to manage flow. The entire bespoke system was designed, installed and tested by KM Tools.
Adrian Degg, group engineering director at KM Tools, added: “From the initial design stage to completion, the project was finalised within 11 weeks. We designed the electronic controls and pumping systems ourselves, as well as producing the pipework to withstand the crystalline AdBlue fluid. Furthermore, we designed and installed the high-capacity filling machine at Emissco, so we have synergy across all equipment at the plant.”
The tank farm has been operational since August, and has been designed to be able to accommodate extra filling machines and further expansion.