Railcar Cleaning
With the upcoming DOT regulations for repairing freight-rail tank cars, it is imperative that businesses that clean heavy oil tank cars become more efficient and not compromise safety.

Historically, railroad tank cars have been cleaned using complex and expensive equipment, an assortment of chemicals and personnel entry.  Entering this confined space is very hazardous and requires supplied air.  The duration for cleaning railcars containing heavy oil, crude, asphalt, etc. is a several day process.   These cleaning procedures also produce significant amounts of effluent, which add costs related to disposal.

BioChem Systems offers two innovative railcar cleaning alternatives that dramatically decrease cleaning time and do not require personnel entry.  Both cleaning applications use readily available equipment along with BioChem’s proprietary formulated tank cleaning chemistry, VPRX and RailX. Utilizing BioChem’s tank car cleaning process will dramatically increase throughput and enable tank car cleaning to become a revenue stream for companies versus a cost center, in addition to creating a much safer working environment.

Vapor X® is a patented cleaning process where BioChem’s proprietary VPRX™ chemistry is injected into the tank car with steam. The patented Vapor X® cleaning process benefits include:

  • Safety: Personnel entry not necessary

  • Dissolves crude, asphalt, heavy oils, gas oils and other contaminated petroleum product tank cars in 2-5 hours

  • Substantially higher solvency strength than conventional rail car cleaning solvents

  • VPRX rinses with water/steam

  • Low impact in disposal; VPRX stays with the oil

  • Dramatically reduces the amount of effluent

  • Fully Organic; Biodegradable

RailX provides superior solvency for circulation cleaning of tank cars.  RailX is injected with a 3-D directional nozzle.  RailX benefits include:

  • Safety: Personnel Entry not necessary

  • Easily filtered; Long bath life; high solvency strength; cleans considerably more tank cars with less volume than conventional railcar cleaning solvents

  • Quickly dissolves crude, asphalt, heavy oils, gas oils and other petroleum products

  • Dries Residue free

  • Effective at Ambient Temperatures; No need for water or steam

  • Replaces hazardous solvents

  • Fully Organic

  • High BTU value

VaporX® Railcar Cleaning Animation

These two processes / products have the potential to significantly increase margins and safety standards.  Please contact us today to learn more.