In an exclusive Forecourt Trader offer, Petroman is giving readers the chance to install and keep a Petroman vapour management recovery system, free of charge; an offer worth around £18,000.

The system, which has been proven to save petrol retailers tens of thousands of pounds per year, operates by preventing petrol vapour from being sucked back into fuel supplier tankers via the vapour recovery system.

So confident is Petroman that, rather than just make claims for the system, the company is offering to install a system on a Forecourt Trader reader’s site with all the figures on stock loss reduction being open to inspection by the magazine to be reported in future editions.

For retailers on Stage 1b vapour recovery, the modular Petroman system operates four ways, each of which reduces the amount of vapour that is returned to the tanker when a delivery is made. This, says the company, reduces stock losses from 0.30% down to below 0.15%. With petrol at around £1.40 per litre, depending on the retailer volume; this can represent a saving of more than £10,000 per year.

How it works

When a tank is ready to receive a delivery, it will be low on liquid and high on ullage, which will actually contain a significant amount of evaporated fuel in the form of vapour. When a petrol delivery is made, the fuel flows in at the rate of 1,000 litres per minute, churning up the fuel in the tank and creating even more vapour. As the liquid level rises and the ullage decreases, vapour pressure increases and is continually being released back into the tanker to be transported back to the depot and, therefore, permanently lost to the retailer.

The first module, Softfill, uses a perforated beam attached to the bottom of the fill-pipe to disperse the new fuel evenly along the bottom of the tank, reducing turbulence and, thus, vapour creation.

Secondly the Accumulus valve uses a vacuum created by the delivery flow to suck vapour out of the ullage and mix it back into that flow and, ultimately, the liquid fuel in the tank.

Thirdly, vapour management balancing valves, which are installed before the vapour recovery connection, link all petrol storage tanks on the site to balance the vapour pressure across all the spirit tanks, reducing the likelihood of the vapour recovery pressure valves opening and the duration of their being open if they are triggered.

If you would like the Petroman vapour management system fitted to all your site’s petrol tanks for free, and you are:

1) willing to be the subject of future Forecourt Trader editorial pieces, tracking the installation and performance of the system;

2) willing to publish your stock loss figures;

and you have:

a) a system that accurately records your stock losses

b) a minimum volume of 2.75mlpa,

e-mail Petroman at petroman@enterpress.co.uk, and the company will send you a brief entry form and full terms and conditions.

Entrants will be judged on their suitability and the reason given for wanting the system.

Remember, this opportunity is free and will save you thousands of pounds.