Press Releases FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE American
Petroleum Institute's RP 1004 Promises Spill Prevention
Concord, Calif. - December 16, 2003 - SpillGuard Technologies, Inc. (SGT, Inc.) (http://www.sgtinc.com), the leading provider of innovative end-to-end spill prevention solutions for the fuel movement and petrochemical industry, announced today that its GuardDog spill prevention product line exceeds the American Petroleum Institute's (API) recommended practice (RP) 1004. Calling for an "Independent Secondary Shut-off Control System", the RP 1004 addresses the problem of spills caused by human error and primary valve failure that arise in the transfer of fuel and have plagued the industry for years. The GuardDog is the industry's first and only independent secondary shut-off control system and is available for immediate installation today. Today's bottom loading tanker facilities are designed for a much faster product delivery into the tanker truck creating a greater potential for spills when human error or valve failure occurs.. While current technology can detect an overfill, the existing technology cannot prevent a spill. When the primary control valve fails, the potential for disaster is imminent. In an effort to address these failures, the API revised RP 1004 to include the requirement of an independent secondary control system to prevent such an occurrence. The GuardDog is that independent secondary shutoff control system and acts as the interface to secondary control valves and pumps. The GuardDog achieves this through its predictive intelligence, which recognizes a primary valve failure within 750 milliseconds of a sensed wet probe, and immediately stops the delivery of all products on that loading lane. It does all this in a controlled fashion to ensure seamless restarts while preventing a spill. "We
are pleased to be able to offer a solution that fits right into
our industry's recommended practice," commented Peter A. Mantas,
president and CEO of SpillGuard Technologies. "The GuardDog is the
one piece of equipment that a loading facility cannot afford to
operate without. It does more than just identify an overfill condition
-- It leaps into action to eliminate dangerous spills which can
lead to catastrophic events such as a fire and environmental contamination." Under normal conditions The GuardDog is silent until it detects a catastrophic valve failure. Springing to action, the GuardDog automatically shuts down pumps; closes storage tank base valves and locks out the loading operation while alerting management personnel of the problem and providing an opportunity for investigation. The GuardDog empowers management with complete control -- not allowing loading to continue or resume until management determines it is safe to load again by initiating a keyed system reset switch. Impressively flexible, the GuardDog is easily integrated into the Terminal Management System at tank truck, rail car, commercial and military aviation refueling and marine ship and barge loading operation facilities. A Typical configuration requires only one "GuardDog" unit per load lane. The unit works in concert with SGT Inc's Pump & Valve Controller and other existing safety components and emergency shutdown circuits to provide a fail-safe mechanism for stopping flow when a valve failure is detected. Call 1-925-363-1585 for more information. |