By now, railcar manufacturers are well aware of U.S. Department of Transportation’s new rules regarding the nation’s fleet of crude-carrying cars.
The final rule for the safe transportation of flammable liquids by rail, which was finalized in conjunction with Canadian regulators this past May, will set in motion years of replacing and retrofitting of cars manufactured on or before Oct. 1, 2015. These new standards will eventually lead to the complete phase-out of the DOT-111 fleet currently in service.
While there’s still some debate about the number of cars that can be cost-effectively retrofitted and the number that will need to be totally replaced, it’s generally agreed that railcar manufacturers will face steepening demand in the coming years. According to a presentation by the Railway Supply Institute Committee on Tank Cars, there was a 50,400 tank car backlog as of March of last year. These orders are not expected to be completed until the end of 2015.
As Jack Gerard, President and Chief Executive of the American Petroleum Institute told the Wall Street Journal, the “railcar manufacturing industry’s own calculations show it does not have the shop capacity to meet the retrofit timeline.” He predicts this will “lead to shortages that will impact consumers and the broader economy.”
If U.S. refineries are to continue to max out capacity, railcar manufacturers can expect demand to remain high for some time as they scramble to complete an aggressive fleet phase-out.
Crude and capacity
These new regulations coincided with unprecedented amounts of crude oil traveling domestically by rail. But beyond sheer volume, today’s crude presents another issue for railcar manufacturers. The process of hydraulic fracturing introduces water and other chemicals not previously present in other methods of extraction. Crude extracted from shale-rock contains drastically more water, of varying pH levels, that is now accompanying crude on its journey.
The crude, which traditionally got along pretty well with steel when extracted using older methods, now contains enough water to cause serious damage from interior corrosion. Combine this increased likelihood of interior corrosion with the fact that these new materials are accompanied by a lower flash point, and it’s easy to see why extra care needs to be taken when lining tank cars. Corrosion is, or should be, a core concern of railcar manufacturers and leasing companies looking to protect their investments. With all the capital that will undoubtedly be invested upgrading railroad tank cars, linings to protect against pitting corrosion should certainly make up a portion of that investment.
But protecting tank cars from corrosion introduces another problem rail shops will be familiar with. Coatings and linings emit byproducts known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOC emissions are regulated at the federal, state and local levels and these regulations must be accounted for. While other components such as pneumatic braking systems may also cause bottlenecks, VOC regulations are another consideration for manufacturers trying to catch up to demand.
But thankfully, with advances in coatings technology, they don’t have to be.
A solution to VOC woes
Coatings shouldn’t be the limiting factor in a railcar manufacturing facility’s output. But the fact is, that can be the case. Some manufacturers are forced to limit output because the coatings used on their cars emit more VOCs than regulations will allow. Or, in other cases, shops shell out huge amounts of cash for outside engineers to monitor their compliance with local VOC regulations. Whether from deliberately lowering output, or from paying money to ensure compliance, VOCs can cost shop owners big.
Luckily, VOC regulations can also be addressed by the right coating or lining product. High solids—so called because of their relatively low levels of evaporating solvents—low-VOC linings can help those leasing tank cars to know that they are safe both from pitting corrosion and penalties from excess VOC emissions. High solids coatings are designed to cure with little or no help from chemical solvents, thereby eliminating VOC emission caps as a limit on output.
If VOC emissions haven’t typically been a problem for a shop in the past, then maybe there’s no reason to make a product switch. But if demand is expected to increase heartily, and there’s a chance VOC regulations could become an obstacle to churning out new cars full-bore, then these products can absolutely make a difference. Otherwise, manufacturers may run the risk of running right up to their max VOC outputs at a time when it’s critical that output remains high.
And lowering VOC emissions isn’t the only benefit of high solids coatings. These products also tend to cure faster than many others on the market. This means a coating could be helping to lower overall throughput times. With less times set aside for drying, manufacturers can keep the line moving and speed up production. <p? Railcar manufacturers have their work cut out for them. It will take a herculean effort to eliminate the backlog of cars available to transport crude oil and ethanol from shale and natural gas fields. What doesn’t have to stand in their way are VOC regulations. With the high solids, low VOC linings now available on the market, there’s simply no reason for production to be limited by VOC emission caps.
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