TankTerminalTraining

Using *VanCampen’s general law of functionality, we can analyze whether marine oil, gas, and chemical storage terminals can operate optimally if critical guidelines like **ISGOTT 6* (International Safety Guide for Oil Tankers and Terminals) or *SIGTTO* (Society of International Gas Tanker and Terminal Operators) are not followed. Here’s the breakdown: ### *Variable Definitions in Context*   - *Mass (m):* The physical infrastructure (storage tanks, pipelines, valves) and volume of hazardous materials (oil, gas, chemicals).   - *Information (i):* The knowledge and application of safety protocols, operational guidelines (ISGOTT/SIGTTO), maintenance procedures, and risk assessments.   - *Reality (r):* The actual operational environment, including risks (leaks, explosions, corrosion), regulatory requirements, and environmental/economic consequences of failure.   ### *Analysis Using the Law*   #### *1. Probability Dysfunctional (ΔS > 0):*...

  Let’s face it earlier rather than too late. After more than 50 years of supplying   petroleum products such as diesel, gasoline or jet fuel, a colonial, profitable   business model will come to an end. In 2009 I wrote the thriller  Probo Koala  – published in English under the title  Toxic Tanker . I wrote this story because I was working as a loss control marine superintendent in West Africa responsible for the supervision of the delivery and discharge of these products, which I knew to be of a disputable quality. In the book the protagonist was asked to hide or replace the original loading port documents, such as the measurement and quality testing report, which were manipulated. The only reason this business model, on which an entire logistics chain – supply, storage, and shipping – depended, could last this long, was because of intertwined interests between local buyers and international trading firms. Low grade quality petroleum products were ...

  Perhaps you will agree that doing business in a society which is being disturbed by geopolitical conflict is not easy. When circumstances, rules, regulations can change overnight or geographical shifts are probable, long term commitment to or investments in alternative energy sources may be unwise. When you are following my columns, you will understand that I always ask Aristotle’s question: ‘seek knowledge of cause’. Uncertainty in information theory is also understood as the ‘information we don’t have’. Basing investments on information we don’t have causes uncertainty. At this moment I am observing that long term commitment into development of the Hydrogen bubble (I believe that would be the correct nomenclature) are gradually decreasing. An hydrogen hub connecting Rotterdam with the German Ruhr Industrial Area has been postponed.   Automakers don’t invest fully in cars running on hydrogen and already are rethinking investing in electrical vehicles, because of uncertainty...

  A recent book by Peter Oborne titled The Assault on Truth (2021) describes the cognitive failures of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump, who believe that lying gets them ahead: “Johnson was 23 when he was first sacked for lying”. This book features a listing of events, talks, political turmoil and societal effects caused by information deficit, which demonstrates that Fritjof Capra’s observation of a crisis of perception is correct. This insight is therefore of crucial importance as it offers an unusual view on the certainty by information and the uncertainty by disinformation which can be achieved by man if he or she is open to learn.   The Performance Probability Pattern of disinformation (lying, deceit) is negative because the performance of any system that seeks less information rather than ‘optimal’ can’t function fully. Entropy (disorder) can also be observed as the information we don’t like to have. This is called negative interdependence, which means that a goal can...

  The question is no longer; is it sustainable? But; how can we ensure non harmful functionality? StocExpo is back in 2023 with two separate conference streams, one exploring big picture tank storage, and the other on health & safety and the practicalities of terminal operations. On day two of the Terminal Operations and Safety conference stream, Arend Van Campen, founder of the Tank Storage Sustainability Initiative and Tank Terminal Training, will talk on how tank terminals can realistically minimise their social and environmental impact using information theory. Here’s a taster… It’s incredibly hard for the tank storage sector to minimise its impact on the environment in a significant and wholesale way. There are different levels of regulation, infrastructure, and desire to tackle the environmental impact of tank terminals country to country.  But even on an individual level, sustainability represents a huge challenge to terminal operators. This is partly be...

Information is a word that has never been easy to pin down. In its most familiar sense, information today is news, intelligence, facts and ideas that are needed and passed on as knowledge. But a more active and constructive meaning as something that gives a certain shape or character to matter, or to mind; a force that shapes behaviour, trains, instructs, inspires and guides. Information gives form to the formless, DNA codes are information and form human thought patterns. In this way, information spans the disparate fields of space computing, classical physics, molecular biology and human communication, the evolution of language and the evolution of man. Nature can no longer be seen as matter and energy, but must be interpreted as matter, energy and information. (Campbell, Jeremy, 1982) The universe is a physical system that contains bits of information. Every elementary particle carries bits of information. Electrons carrying information interact in a systematic way to perform a quan...