IITG incubated startup develops robotic solutions to clean petroleum tanks

Two robotic solutions that can safely and efficiently maintain and clean petroleum tanks, eliminating the need for human entry for this hazardous task have been developed by a startup incubated by the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati (IITG).

The new mechanisms are also more cost-effective and environmentally responsible, Chairperson of IITG-Technology Incubation Centre Prof Senthil Murugan said on Wednesday.

In one solution developed by Beta Tank Robotics, a robot cleans the crude oil tank bottom sludge, and pumps it to a receptacle outside the tank, Murugan said.

The other robot water-washes and strips retail outlet petrol pump tanks from inside, making the tanks free of gas quickly, he said. Robots have a huge application in the oil and natural gas industry, particularly in situations where human entry poses significant risks.

Major oil corporations encounter potential liabilities and reputational hazards when engaging human entry into petroleum tanks while the robots developed by the startup help mitigate such risks, Murugan added.

BetaTank founder Captain D Chandrasekhar said he was confident of the technological superiority of this robot as these are compact with a low height that enables them to pass under the heating coils found in many tanks.

The robot has a pump to discharge the pressure and move the thick sludge through long distances and this cannot be sucked out by a vacuum truck from outside, he said.

"I had planned to make this robot in 1995, when as a ship's officer, I myself was inside the ship's oil tanks, overseeing tank operations. I believed a robotic solution was the way to work in such an environment and it was only after three decades that it could be realised in 2019, when we were offered incubation and financial support to make this robot,'' Chandrasekhar said.

BetaTank mentor and IITG's Mechanical Engineering department's Prof Uday Shankar Dixit said this was a great initiative in developing robot-based solutions for cleaning oil tanks.

Tank oil cleaning falls under the category of dull, dirty and dangerous jobs, which now can be handed over to robots with the human operator only monitoring the cleaning operation from outside, he said.

''The products have been developed for the oil industry, but with slight modifications, the same technology can be adopted for cleaning chemical tanks, sewage treatment plants, food processing tanks and others,'' Dixit added.

Currently, the robots are undergoing stringent safety inspections to work in the petroleum industry.

Beta Tank Robotics (BetaTANK) has been incubated at IITG-Technology Incubation Centre (IITG-TIC) in the year 2019. It has been funded under the Flagship Programme–Start-up India Fund 'Startup Nurturing, Enabling and Handholding (SNEH)' of OIL India Limited.

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