WITH liquid and dry bulk foodgrade shipments going strong, PSC Container Services LLC is expanding its tank cleaning capabilities to better serve that market. Foodgrade cleaning has been added at several of the company's current wash racks, and more facilities will be upgraded over the next year.
With 22 tank wash racks in the United States and Canada, PSC advertises that it is the largest independent provider of tank cleaning services. Foodgrade cleaning currently is available at four locations, and a fifth wash rack with foodgrade cleaning will be online before the end of this year.
“Foodgrade cleaning has become increasingly attractive to us,” says Greg Winters, PSC vice-president of sales. “We're getting more requests for foodgrade cleaning, and we want to be more of a value-added provider to our customers. We'll continue adding foodgrade cleaning at existing service centers, and we expect to increase our food cleaning capabilities through acquisitions.”
Expanded service
Over the years, PSC has focused primarily on cleaning tanks used to transport chemicals, petro-chemicals, and paints and coatings. Wash racks typically handle tank trailers, ISO tank containers, and intermediate bulk containers. A PSC wash rack in Miles City, Montana, also cleans rail tankcars. Three of the wash racks process non-hazardous wastewater.
Three PSC wash racks had been offering foodgrade cleaning prior to the company's decision to expand that capability. Those facilities are in Chicago, Illinois; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Charlotte, North Carolina.
“Each of those locations had a single foodgrade wash bay,” Winters says. “We just added two more foodgrade bays at Charlotte, and we converted two chemical bays at our Atlanta (Georgia) service center to foodgrade. We're converting two bays to foodgrade cleaning at our new West Memphis (Arkansas) wash rack. We'll add two to three more foodgrade bays at other locations over the next year.”
All foodgrade cleaning offered by PSC is kosher certified. Foodgrade wash operations also have been approved by various customers and associations — including Cargill Inc, Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM), Grain Processors Inc, Dairy Farmers Association, and Juice Processors Association.
PSC is installing state-of-the-art foodgrade cleaning systems, consisting of 500-gallon stainless steel vats and stainless steel pumps and piping. Spinners, an essential part of the cleaning process, are purchased from Sellers Inc. System design was a joint effort between PSC and Derby City Pump and Valve, which also handled fabrication and installation.