Third Coast Terminals yesterday outlined plans to triple capacity at its Pearland, Texas, facility through a major expansion scheduled for completion in 2013.
Groundbreaking took place in February at the petrochemicals and lube additives handling company, and the project will be completed in stages. The project will include a new tank farm with 7 million gallons (26,000 metric tons) of storage, six truck scales and segregated storage for hazardous materials.
The expansion is driven by the continued business Third Coast does with chemical and lubricant additive companies, said Grif Carnes, vice president and general manager. A lot of the majors and even the lubricant producers are all real good at making product, its just their distribution, Carnes told Lube Report. So what they try to do is farm it out, to get it out into the market for them and free up their tanks. Also theyre not having to spend a lot of capital for equipment like we can do, being a service provider.
Third Coast will add an automated, zero-emission, zero-exposure tote and drum filling system, which the company claims is the only one of its kind at a public terminal in Texas. Expected to be operational next month, the filling system will allow the company to efficiently package hazardous and flammable products with no risk to its personnel or environment. The system is made by Feige, of the Haver and Boecker Group in Germany.
Its a fully closed filler, and the operators actually on the outside of the room, Carnes explained. The doors open up as the drums come in, and it pulls the plug automatically, fills it, puts the plug back in, cap seals it, goes on and does four drums on a palette, or it can do a tote.
Its a pretty big expense, but it allows us to do a whole lot more products than we have been able to before, he continued. Theyre made for really dangerous chemicals, and this keeps the operators away, and protects them. It protects employees, the plant and everything else while youre filling.
The expansion will add 270 railcar spots for product storage, handling and transloading. It will also have an additional 65,000 square feet of warehouse storage with integrated separation of products by type, including U.S. pharmaceutical, food grade, nonhazardous and hazardous material.
Third Coast said it will enhance existing utilities to ensure uninterrupted power supply, tripled boiler capacity, increased fire protection systems as well as expanded air permits from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency.