API Separators · Refineries and Terminals

API Separator Cleaning: Sludge, Vapor, and the Wash Water, in One Product.

An API separator is the hardest small job on the site: hydrocarbon sludge, high LEL and benzene, confined-space entry, and every gallon of wash water going straight back into the plant's treatment system. Hasten Cleanse was built for exactly that combination. It suspends the sludge, suppresses the vapor, and its fatty-acid base feeds the biology downstream instead of upsetting it.

The plant can take the wash water. Non-hazardous, no added bacteria, and the fatty acids are food for the treatment system.

Vapor down in the pit. Bonds to the hydrocarbon and lowers LEL, VOC, and benzene readings while crews work.

Call 832-655-7763

Get a Quote or a Demo

Bring your LEL meter to the demo. Same-day response.

Cleaning the Separator

Skim free oil. Gauge sludge in the bays.

Dilute Hasten Cleanse 1:10 for sludge, 1:20 for film. Warm water helps.

Spray the bays and walls; circulate where the separator allows.

Monitor LEL and benzene. Readings fall as the product bonds to the hydrocarbon.

Vac the suspension. The oil separates at recovery; the water is non-hazardous.

Rinse at 1:50. Wash water goes to the plant.

What Hasten Cleanse does not do

It is not a solvent and not a caustic. It will not dissolve, melt, or strip material that is physically bonded or baked onto a surface: scale, rust, hardened deposits, coatings. It lifts hydrocarbons, oil, grease, crude, sludge, and paraffin, by emulsifying them, and it needs agitation, circulation, pressure, or heat to do that work. If your problem is a stuck-on solid rather than a hydrocarbon film or residue, tell us and we will say so.

Why the Treatment Plant Does Not Object

No bugs

No added bacteria

Nothing in the pail is alive. The native population in your system is not competed with or displaced.

Food

Fatty acids feed the biology

The base chemistry is a food source for the microbes already in the plant.

Waste

Non-hazardous wash water

No hazardous manifest, and customers report about half the volume of a solvent clean.

Chemistry

Not a solvent

No flash point, no solvent slug hitting the plant.

No added bacteriaNothing in the pail is alive. Hasten Cleanse feeds the microbes you already have, in a treatment plant, a separator, or the soil, instead of competing with them.

Full concentrateSold as concentrate and diluted on site, 1:10 for heavy residue to 1:50 for light. Compare products by working gallons per drum, not by the drum.

No flash point, no placardsWater-based and non-flammable. Ships as standard freight in 5-gallon pails, 55-gallon drums, 275-gallon totes, and bulk. Gulf Coast delivery in one to two days.

Serving Refinery, Terminal, and Plant Separators

Gulf Coast delivery in one to two days, same-day pickup in Houston.

HoustonPasadenaDeer ParkLa PorteBaytownChannelviewTexas CityBeaumontPort ArthurCorpus ChristiFreeportLake CharlesMidlandOdessa

API Separator Questions, Answered Straight

Will the wash water upset our biological treatment?

It is designed not to. No added bacteria, and the fatty-acid base is food for the existing biology. Confirm with your environmental group as you would for any input.

Does it handle benzene vapor?

Customers report benzene, LEL, and VOC readings dropping during the wash. Bring your meter to a demo.

Does it dissolve the sludge?

It suspends it in water so it can be vacuumed. It does not dissolve it into oil.

What about grit and solids in the bays?

It lifts the hydrocarbon that binds them. Solids still get vacuumed. It is not a caustic.

Same product for the oil-water separator at the shop?

Yes. See our oil-water separator page.