Rotork intelligent electric valve actuators and two-wire digital control systems are at the centre of a vital modernisation project on the aircraft refuelling infrastructure at London’s Gatwick Airport. The underground system that distributes jet fuel has been recently extended to a new area of the airport and now serves 260 refuelling points on 110 parking stands in three separate areas on the Gatwick site. The aircraft fuel distribution system is operated by Gatwick Airport Storage and Hydrant Company (GASHCO), a consortium of major oil companies. GASHCO also owns and operates the airport tank farm facility and is managed by Shell UK Ltd. With a total length of 14km, the underground system comprises pipework ranging in diameter from 600mm to 150mm, itself holding 1.8 million litres of fuel, supplied from three storage tanks each with a capacity of 12,000 cubic metres. Following on from the extension project, the control system for the entire network is now being upgraded to introduce fully automatic, centralised monitoring and operation. Rotork Retofit engineers have installed new actuators and upgraded the control circuits in those already installed. New IQ intelligent actuators, with Rotork Pakscan two-wire connectivity, have been installed on valves in the tank farm and apron areas to control the flow of fuel throughout the network. The actuators also have the function of isolating specific pipeline sections in the event of any localised emergency, enabling the rest of the network to operate normally.
