For more than 60 years, STC has been a leader in innovative, nontraditional solutions to waste management and transportation. The company is known for its unique tank solids removal process, agitated slurry transportation, cement kiln thermal disposal and unique pricing approach.
Headquartered in Sumter, S.C., the company began providing transportation services in 1951 as Sumter Transport Co., becoming an industry leader in innovative approaches to waste management, transportation and resource recovery. Its emphasis shifted to mechanical methodologies that reduce the need for human effort and exposure while increasing the speed of removal. Last year, management decided to rebrand the company to STC because of a perception of Sumter Transport Co. as a transportation company only.
With STC’s network of disposal facility partnerships, it has become one of the largest suppliers of refinery waste to cement kilns throughout the United States. The company’s unique equipment enables it to put waste solids and slurries into a form accepted by RCRA-permitted cement kilns for thermal destruction.
STC’s proprietary methodologies are more advantageous than traditional methodologies of handling hazardous waste in that they simultaneously decrease the need for human exposure and increase the efficiency of removal, transport and delivery. This makes STC the safest, fastest, most reliable waste handling company around and enables the company to handle all aspects of a project — offering refineries a complete turnkey waste management solution.
“When a company presents a client with a rate sheet, the customer and the contractor are on two different teams beginning on day one of the relationship because they’re pulling in two different directions,” said STC CEO Robert Rumph. “Contractors want low efficiency for more billing hours while customers want more efficiency with less billing hours. At STC, we don’t have rate sheets because we price by the pound removed, transported and disposed of for every job we do. We place the burden of efficiency on ourselves. We only get paid for what goes across your scales.”
Roberoller™ agitated tankers
STC prides itself on innovation, and its agitated tankers with proprietary Roberoller™ technology represent a huge step forward in handling hazardous waste. The company’s patented Roberoller agitated waste tankers are an integral part of its fuel blending approach to tank cleaning and waste disposal.
STC is the first and only company in the United States with patented G3 Roberoller agitated tank trailers that can transport high percent solids in liquids. STC is also the only company in the United States to transport 100-percent solids in dry bulk tankers.
Jim Mather, tank turnaround supervisor for Marathon Petroleum at Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, Texas, said he had been looking for an opportunity to see STC’s technology in action before moving to his current assignment.
“When I came to Galveston Bay Refinery, STC was already in place here, so we’re using them on some of our more troublesome tanks,” Mather said. “They have the ability to convey products and transport products with mixers, get it offloaded and sold so, rather than disposing of something as a hazardous waste, you’re able to get rid of it as a saleable product, depending on how it tests.”
Waste removal
STC’s refinery services team believes hazardous waste should not pose any danger to individuals, organizations, communities or the environment. The company’s mission is to innovate new technologies and provide various methodologies that make waste removal, transportation and disposal safer, greener and more efficient.
“I first learned about STC and its services while working a tank cleaning project with a different contractor,” said Wil Buley, project manager at the Hess Port Reading Refinery in Port Reading, N.J. “STC was being utilized to transport the tank material for disposal. STC was able to offer other disposal facility options and worked closely with me to increase the number of trucks to transport. This was critical in helping to meet the out of service date by the state of New Jersey.”
When hazardous waste is used as alternative fuel, it isn’t disposed of in a landfill, which protects companies from any future environmental liability.
Sludge layer removal
Traditionally, when approaching a slurry oil or CSO tank, one of the most costly and time-consuming parts is the removal of the sludge layer. In most cases, contractors use a vacuum truck and a 6-inch hose to try to get the material to migrate to the access hole. When using this method, it is difficult to project an accurate cost ahead of time, and projects often get delayed because the material clogs the hose, which increases time and costs.
STC’s approach to the top layer sludge removal is totally different than anyone else in the industry. STC utilizes patented equipment, which includes large blending units. They come in many different configurations, which are precisely engineered and built in house for each specific project.
The mixer produces a 12-13 pounds per gallon solids slurry, which is loaded onto a Roberoller agitated tanker for transportation to the cement kiln. STC’s access point is also unique. If the tank contains more than 15 feet of solids and sludge, STC will access this material through a roof manhole it cuts prior to mobilization. The company then places a hydraulically driven, raised and lowered mixer on the roof, which extends down into the solid/sludge material. The mixer also has a custom built, hydraulically driven, 6-inch, high viscosity pump. Once the mixer introduces energy into the sludge layer, the pump is capable of transferring heavy, high solids slurry into the transport vessel.
Solids layer removal
Once all the self-leveling sludge material has been removed, a safe room is established. STC will then cut a lower door sheet, which allows mechanical removal equipment to access the solids layer.
STC places a custom solids conveying unit with both primary and secondary containment up to the lower door sheet for loading. This unit conveys the solids into a three compartment solids blending tanker. The solids are transported to the cement kiln for disposal. When the tanker arrives at the kiln, the solids are sampled and tested to ensure they meet profile. The material is then processed and placed into the kiln’s agitated fuels storage tanks where it becomes an energy source. The solids and liquids are blended into a homogeneous, pumpable slurry. The solids process at the kiln eliminates the cost, transportation and disposal of the diluents used to blend the solids.
“STC has been very proactive in overcoming various circumstances encountered during the tank cleaning process,” Buley said. “They have had to deal with an inconsistency of material and have been very proactive in analyzing and adjusting their overall plan to maintain their schedule. Their system is easily set up and the surroundings are able to be maintained in a very clean manner.
“The transposition and disposal capabilities go hand in hand with the overall cleaning process. The best part is STC controls all and does not have to use a third party when it comes to transportation. I have found this makes it more cost competitive and removes the competition when requiring kiln slots.”
Dry bulk tanker
STC is the first to develop and use a modified pneumatic trailer to transport solid refinery waste to a cement kiln. This method provides a significant competitive advantage, which ultimately saves customers time and money.
Direct loading these bulk units not only adds approximately 16,000 more pounds of payload compared to traditional roll off containers, but your material now also bypasses the 90-day storage area. This allows for direct shipment to the cement kiln. STC has the ability to transfer and load directly from the tank as well as out of roll off boxes.
Capacity
Since offering more capacity helps get your tank back on line faster, STC’s transportation systems payloads exceed competitor payloads by 30 to 40 percent. In fact, STC has the largest cement kiln capacity of any company in the waste management and transportation industry.
“One of the biggest items STC offers that others cannot is the fact they are a turnkey operation,” Buley explained. “Many of the cleaning contractors have to utilize outside resources for transportation and disposal when cleaning a tank. STC utilizes in-house resources to remove, transport and fuel blend hazardous waste tank bottoms for disposal via thermal destruction at cement kilns.”
STC has exclusive partnerships with an impressive number of cement kilns across the country, each of which is able to use hazardous waste as alternative fuel. Its turnkey project management includes managing the inbound waste for these facilities. The net result is STC can guarantee competitive disposal options through a large network of cement kilns that stretch across the country.
“STC was able to outbid several of their competitors through what I believe to be their turnkey operation,” Buley added. “STC was also very accommodating when negotiating final items in the overall contract. They even offered cost-saving solutions as clarifications in their bid that benefitted Hess and STC in the long run. The per pound pricing is easily accounted for via weigh stations at Hess and the final disposal facility, maintaining timely invoicing. Most importantly, there have been no change orders or discussions of added cost because all are included in the pricing.”
Environmental and cost benefits
When STC removes hazardous waste from a client’s tank, it never puts that waste in a landfill. STC’s unique equipment enables it to put waste solids and slurries into a form that can now be accepted into RCRA Part B permitted cement kilns for thermal destruction.
Ultimately, the hazardous waste solids become part of the cement making process and don’t cause any downstream environmental liability. In addition to being an efficient, cost-effective way to ensure clients aren’t exposed to any future environmental liability, cement kiln recycling is a preferred alternative to disposal in a landfill, and other disposal methods, for a variety of reasons:
- All hazardous waste disposal at a cement kiln is 100-percent recycled as an alternative fuel.
- Cement kilns achieve a thermal destruction removal efficiency of at least 99.99999 percent as required by EPA regulations for organic waste combustion.
- Cement kilns operate at temperatures significantly higher than commercial hazardous waste incinerators.
- EPA waste disposal hierarchy favors resource recovery of wastes over landfill, incinerations or thermal desorption methods of disposal.
As sales and marketing manager with Buzzi Unicem USA, Tony Bannon has seen firsthand the environmental and cost benefits of STC’s methods.
“STC’s technology allows us to process refinery solids in a closed vessel which minimizes fugitive emissions and without the significant capital investment found at other cement kilns,” Bannon said. “We have worked with STC on many refinery projects. STC has complete and total responsibility to manage the project at the refinery, and STC and Buzzi work together to process the material once it has been loaded into STC’s patented equipment.
“The professionalism from the top of the line staff that STC employs, and their patented technologies, makes STC one of the most competent and reliable companies in the tank cleanout industry.”
Pricing by the pound
Competitors sell services by the hour, but STC charges by the pound, quoting a single price at the beginning of a job that is the same price all the way through to completion. While many companies charge based on the amount time and materials used, STC’s pricing structure is unlike any of its competition’s because the company manages all aspects of a project from start to finish — cleaning, loading of tanker trailers, transportation and disposal.
“They come up with a per pound price and one of the beauties of dealing with them is you do not deal with a lot of extras, where they come back and say it’s going to cost me extra for this and extra for that,” Mather said. “Their per pound price is their per pound price.”
STC does not invoice based on the number of employees utilized, number of hours worked, equipment utilized or materials consumed during the project. In more than 60 years of operation, the company has never had a single change order.
“I would highly recommend STC to other companies requiring very difficult waste removal, transportation and disposal — done safely and at a very competitive price,” Buley added.
For more information, visit www.stcindustrial.com or call (713) 504-0414.
