Secondary Containment Liner Installer

Prefabricated drop-in system or full field install: which fits your site?

Choose a prefabricated drop-in system when the containment geometry is regular and access allows a shop-built liner to be placed and attached quickly; choose a full field install when the area is large, the geometry is complex, or the design calls for a composite or double-lined system. EC Applications offers both.

Prefabricated tank liners and drop-in containment liners are fabricated in the shop to the dimensions of the berm or vault, with corners, boots, and specialized parts built in under controlled conditions. That shifts most of the welding off the site, shortens the on-site schedule, and is often the practical choice for retrofits at operating facilities where downtime and hot work must be minimized.

Full field installation is the right approach for larger tank farms and engineered containment structures. Crews prepare the subgrade or concrete surface, deploy geotextile cushion where specified, weld the geomembrane panels in place, and terminate the liner with mechanical or embedment attachment systems. Field-installed work covers single-lined systems, composite-lined systems with drainage or leak detection layers, concrete vaults and channels, and liner tie-ins to tank foundations.

Which liner materials are compatible with fuels and chemicals?

Material selection starts with the stored liquid: geomembranes that perform well in water service can fail quickly in hydrocarbon contact, so the liner must be matched to the chemical exposure, the exposure duration, and the site conditions. For fuel and hydrocarbon service, XR-type ethylene interpolymer alloy geomembranes are the common specification for long-term contact, while HDPE offers broad chemical resistance at low cost for many containment chemistries. Reinforced polypropylene and PVC suit water-based and many wastewater applications, and spray-applied membranes bond directly to concrete vaults and channels where a sheet liner is impractical.

EC Applications installs smooth and textured HDPE and LLDPE, drain liners, reinforced and unreinforced polypropylene, XR geomembranes, PVC, polyethylene products, geotextiles and geocomposites, and liquid boot systems. Because secondary containment liners are often exposed to sunlight and foot traffic rather than buried, UV resistance and puncture performance matter alongside chemical compatibility, and the final selection should be confirmed against the manufacturer's chemical resistance data for the specific stored product.

How are tanks, pipes, and penetrations sealed into the liner?

Every pipe, support leg, and structure that passes through a containment liner is sealed with a custom-fabricated boot: a shaped geomembrane fitting welded to the field liner and clamped to the penetration with stainless steel bands over a compatible sealant. EC Applications fabricates custom boots and specialized parts in the shop or in the field to fit each penetration, which is where most containment systems succeed or fail.

At walls, foundations, and concrete structures, the liner is terminated with mechanical attachment (batten bars anchored through the geomembrane into the concrete with a gasket seal) or with embedment attachment (polyethylene embed strip cast into the concrete so the liner can be welded directly to the structure). Open-top floating roof systems can be added over containment sumps and tanks to control evaporation and rainwater. Field seams are tested as they are made, using trial welds and nondestructive testing such as air pressure testing of dual-track fusion seams and vacuum box testing of extrusion seams, so the finished system is verified tight before the containment goes back into service.

Can containment be installed or retrofitted around in-service tanks?

Yes. Most secondary containment work is retrofit work at operating facilities, and the installation plan is built around keeping the facility running. Prefabricated drop-in liners minimize on-site welding and schedule, work can be sequenced one containment cell at a time so tanks stay in service, and hot work, access, and spill controls are coordinated with the facility's EHS requirements. EC Applications also provides ongoing repair and maintenance for existing containment liners: patching damage, rebooting penetrations, resealing terminations, and retesting seams, so an aging system can be brought back to spec without full replacement.

Applications

• Fuel storage and tank farm containment
• Prefabricated tank liners and drop-in systems
• Concrete vaults, channels, and sumps
• Single-lined and composite-lined containment systems
• Custom boots and penetration seals
• Open-top floating roof systems
• Spray-applied membrane containment
• Oil and gas well site and tank battery containment
• Wastewater and chemical storage areas
• Mining and water reservoir containment