According to the Beijing News, at 10 am on May 21, a tanker slowly drove into a grain and oil company in Yanjiao, Hebei. An hour later, the tanker was loaded with more than 30 tons of soybean oil and drove out of the factory.
Little known is that this tanker full of edible soybean oil just transported a load of coal-to-liquid oil from Ningxia to Qinhuangdao, Hebei three days ago. After unloading, it did not clean the storage tank, so it was directly loaded with edible soybean oil to continue transportation.
Coal-to-oil is a chemical liquid processed from coal, such as liquid wax and white oil. A tanker driver told the Beijing News reporter that it is an open secret in the tanker transportation industry that food liquids and chemical liquids are mixed and not cleaned.
In May this year, the Beijing News reporter conducted a long-term follow-up investigation, and found that the liquids transported by many domestic general cargo tankers are not fixed, not only taking edible liquids such as syrup and soybean oil, but also transporting chemical liquids such as coal-to-liquid oil. In order to save money, many tankers do not clean their tanks during the exchange and transportation, and some edible oil manufacturers do not strictly check whether the tanks are clean according to the regulations, resulting in the pollution of edible oil by residual chemical liquid.
In fact, at present, there is no mandatory national standard for edible oil transportation in China, only a recommended Code for Bulk Transportation of Edible Vegetable Oil, which mentions that special vehicles should be used to transport bulk edible vegetable oil. Because it is a recommended national standard, it means that it has limited binding force on manufacturers.
Professor Wang Xingguo from the College of Food Science of Jiangnan University told the reporter that although the current transport standards are recommended national standards, they are also mandatory. He pointed out, "it is also a national standard, and relevant enterprises should take this as the basis when formulating enterprise standards. Enterprise standards can be stricter than this standard, but generally they cannot be lower than this standard."
"If you mix it and don’t clean it, the residue will inevitably cause some pollution to the edible oil. The transportation of edible oil should be dedicated to the car." Yi Zhu, an associate professor at the College of Food Science, China Agricultural University, told the Beijing News that coal-to-liquids are mainly hydrocarbons, which contain unsaturated hydrocarbons, aromatic hydrocarbons, sulfides and other components that affect human health and may lead to poisoning.
Tank car mixing: edible oil mixed with chemical liquid.
Many tankers are piled up in the parking lot of Ningdong Energy and Chemical Industry Base, waiting to be loaded and shipped.
Located in lingwu city, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, the base has the largest coal-to-oil project in China. In the coal-to-oil plant area covering thousands of acres, black coal can be transformed into oil through many complicated processes such as high temperature and high pressure, and products such as liquid wax and white oil can be produced.
According to public information, this "coal-to-oil" project belonging to Ningxia Coal Industry currently has an annual production capacity of 4 million tons, ranking first in the country. Most of the coal-to-oil produced here is transported to economically developed areas such as the eastern coast, which can be used as raw materials for chemical products and as fuel.
A tanker driver told reporters that tankers are generally divided into hazardous chemicals tankers and general cargo tankers. Hazardous chemicals tankers generally transport flammable and explosive liquids such as gasoline and diesel, while general cargo tankers, as the name implies, transport ordinary liquids other than hazardous chemicals. "Coal-to-oil products, such as liquid wax and white oil, can’t be ignited with an open flame (they can be burned after being gasified with a special cooker). If they are not hazardous, general cargo tankers can transport them."
In mid-May this year, the reporter saw around the coal-to-liquid plant of Ningxia Coal Industry that various types of tankers were parked on both sides of the road, including many general cargo tankers carrying coal-to-liquid oil. The outside of the tanks of these tankers were painted with information such as volume and medium. A tanker driver explained that the medium usually refers to the substances transported by tankers, and the medium is generally marked as "ordinary liquid" when transporting coal-to-liquid oil.
In the logistics center of Ningmei Coal-to-Liquid Branch, an endless stream of tankers enter here every day, ready to load coal-to-liquid oil. Tuyuan Beijing News
"Now it is the off-season, and there are still few tankers. In the peak season, this parking lot can park more than 100 vehicles." A tanker driver who is resting in the parking lot told reporters that most of these tankers are parked nearby. Once they receive the transportation order, they will enter the factory to queue up for oil loading, and then transport the coal-to-liquids to their destinations according to the needs of buyers. "Many tankers here rely on this coal-to-liquids factory to make money all the year round."
On May 16th, a tanker with the license plate number Ji E**65Z set off from Ningdong Coal-to-Oil Plant and arrived in Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province more than one thousand kilometers away two days later. The tanker drove into a small courtyard in the suburbs and drove out more than an hour later. The Beijing News reporter noticed that the tanker did not leave immediately, but stopped at the nearby road, and the driver also opened the door to rest in the car.
The Beijing News reporter talked with the driver under the guise of consulting the market. The driver revealed that he had just unloaded the goods from Ningxia to Qinhuangdao. "The coal-to-liquids here are used for burning fires and used as kitchen fuel." The driver told the reporter that this tanker belongs to a team. He is a full-time driver. There are more than a dozen tankers in the team. After unloading coal-to-oil this time, he has not received a new transportation task, so he stopped at the roadside to rest. "Generally, goods should be distributed near the unloading place, and you can’t run back empty."
After that, the Beijing News reporter has been observing the movement of this tanker nearby. On the afternoon of May 20th, the tanker was restarted. In the evening, it drove to Yanjiao Town, sanhe city City, Hebei Province, and entered the parking lot belonging to a grain and oil company. According to the doorman, the parking lot belongs to Huifu Grain and Oil Group, and the tankers parked here are all ready to transport edible oil into the factory.
At ten o’clock the next morning, the tanker successfully entered the production plant of Huifu Grain and Oil Group. Until now, this tanker has not been washed since the unloading of coal-to-liquid oil. An hour later, the tanker was loaded with goods and drove out of the factory. The transport documents retained by the factory doorman show that the goods loaded by this tanker into the factory are first-class soybean oil, with a net weight of 31.86 tons.
On May 24th, in a parking lot in Tianjin Binhai New Area, a tanker with the license plate number Ji E**76W was also waiting to transport edible oil. Waiting for the gap, the reporter learned from the driver of the tanker that the tanker had just delivered coal-to-liquids from Ningxia to Hebei. After unloading the coal-to-liquids in Shijiazhuang the day before, it rushed to Tianjin from Shijiazhuang overnight. The driver revealed that since the unloading of coal to oil, the tanker has not washed the cans. The driver doesn’t care if he is worried about being rejected by the edible oil manufacturers. "You can install it, but you can’t install it."
In the afternoon, the Beijing News reporter saw the tanker drive into a factory called China Grain Storage Grease (Tianjin) Co., Ltd.. According to the factory security guard, including this tanker, soybean oil is loaded into the factory. Because the distance is not far, the reporter can clearly see the whole process of loading oil in the tanker outside the factory. From beginning to end, the tanker has not encountered any obstacles, and no one has checked whether the tank body is clean or not. About forty minutes later, the tanker was full of oil, and the weighbridge in the factory area showed that the tanker was filled with 35 tons of soybean oil.
This means that this tanker, which has just been unloaded from coal to oil, has been successfully loaded with edible oil without washing the tank.
On May 21st, a tanker with coal-to-liquids unloaded entered a grain and oil company to load soybean oil without washing the tanker. Tuyuan Beijing News
Cost saving: mixing without cleaning is becoming the norm.
The reason why tankers transporting coal-to-liquid oil to coastal areas mostly distribute edible oil on their return journey is that there are many manufacturers producing edible oil here.
The reporter learned in the interview that at present, the manufacturers of edible oil in China are mainly concentrated in coastal areas. Taking soybean oil as an example, it is generally necessary to rely on ocean-going freighters to import soybeans from abroad. The factories that produce soybean oil are usually located around the port, and there are many edible oil manufacturers in Tianjin Binhai New Area.
An edible oil industry insider told the Beijing News that not all edible oils are common small packages when they leave the factory, and many of them are sold in the form of bulk oil. "Some edible oil manufacturers located near the port do not do terminal retail, they will sell edible oils to other manufacturers, which will pack them into small packages for external sales, and some food enterprises will purchase bulk edible oils as raw materials."
Edible oil manufacturers sell bulk oil to the outside world, and also rely on tankers to transport it. Many transport vehicles come from Xingtai.
Many people in the industry said that Nanhe District, Xingtai City, Hebei Province is a well-known "hometown of tankers" in the industry. "Nanhe does this more, with at least 3,000 tankers." This is consistent with the phenomenon observed by reporters in interviews in many places. No matter around the coal-to-liquids plant in Ningxia or near some edible oil manufacturers, the number of tankers with the license plate number "Ji E (Xingtai, Hebei)" is the largest.
On May 14th, many tankers were parked in a parking lot in Nanhe District, Xingtai City, Hebei Province. Many local people are engaged in the tanker transportation industry. Tuyuan Beijing News
Many local tanker drivers in Nanhe said that at first, local tankers only transported edible oil, and later began to transport other liquid goods. In recent years, many tankers began to go to Ningxia to pull coal to make oil.
"In the past, tankers carrying edible oil generally returned empty. Taking Tianjin to Xi’ an as an example, the earliest one-way freight quotation was above 400 yuan per ton, and now it has dropped to around 200 yuan." A tanker driver told reporters that due to the increase of tankers in the past two years, the competition has intensified, and the transportation price of tankers has also dropped a lot, which forced many tankers to find ways to distribute goods when returning. Under such circumstances, many tankers set their sights on coal-to-liquid transportation. "It is difficult to distribute goods around the unloading site, and what is generally loaded. In recent years, there is also a great demand for coal-to-liquid transportation in Ningxia."
At the same time, under the background of gradually decreasing freight rates, tankers transporting edible oil can not only be used for special vehicles, but many tankers don’t even clean their tanks in order to save costs. "The cost of a single can washing is as low as three or five hundred, and as high as eight or nine hundred." A tanker driver revealed that because ordinary tankers often exchange goods and transport, washing cans every time is also a big expense, so many tankers choose to save money when exchanging goods and transport.
In the survey, the Beijing News reporter learned that the vast majority of tankers belong to the fleet. There are hundreds of tankers in the large-scale fleet, and only a few tankers in the small-scale fleet. The proportion of individual tankers is very small. For tankers belonging to the fleet, some drivers told reporters that although their drivers sometimes want to wash cans, they should also listen to the arrangement of the fleet boss. "The boss will make it clear, and the boss will not make it clear."
The control is not strict: the edible oil manufacturer has gone through the motions of inspecting cans.
In the eyes of many tanker drivers, the reason why the team boss doesn’t arrange to wash the cans is more because some edible oil manufacturers are not strict, and they usually don’t check whether the cans are clean. "If you check the cans, you have to wash them. If you don’t check the cans, you don’t have to wash them."
In Xingtai, Hebei Province, a tanker driver said that because he often deals with various edible oil manufacturers, the team owner has long been well aware of the inspection of each manufacturer’s cans. "Generally, we don’t go down to the cans for inspection, just look at the two mouths. We will just wipe these two mouths."
At the beginning of June this year, the Beijing News reporter called Huifu Grain and Oil Group in the name of transporting edible oil. A staff member said that they did not require a special tanker for edible oil, but only required that the goods transported by the tanker for the first three times were also edible oil. "The tank needs to be kept clean and tidy, and workers will inspect the tank before loading oil." However, many tanker drivers revealed that this grain and oil company is not strict in tank inspection. "They usually look at the oil drain first and wipe it clean. It would be easier if acquaintances often come to transport oil." The driver can also make up the information of the goods that need to be filled in the manifest before.
On May 24, at the entrance of an edible oil factory in Tianjin, the tanker driver was wiping the oil unloading port to cope with the inspection of the factory. Tuyuan Beijing News
The reporter also called China Grain Oil (Tianjin) Co., Ltd., and a sales manager said that in principle, a special tanker is needed to transport edible oil, but then he added that as long as the tank has the words "special for edible oil", "In fact, we don’t check the tank, and we can’t tell whether it is a special tanker for edible oil." He stressed that the contract for selling edible oil is agreed by the buyer, and the tanker is also hired by the buyer. After the edible oil is loaded on the car, they are not responsible for its quality.
Another company that produces edible oil, which is also located in Tianjin Binhai New Area, is not strict in the inspection of cans.
On May 24th, a tanker driver waiting to enter the factory to load oil told reporters that this company’s tank inspection is just a formality, and only the driver needs to upload a few photos, "photos of the oil drain and tank mouth taken by himself, and the tank has the words’ edible oil’." He revealed that he can cope with the past by using the earlier photos stored in his mobile phone. "You can just find a few clean photos and give him a glance, whether it’s today’s photos or not."
As for some edible oil manufacturers’ request to spray the words "edible oil" on the outside of the tank, the driver said that it was very easy to deal with it. Just erase the words "ordinary liquid" marked on the tank before and spray the words "edible oil" again. "Now there is varnish, and it is very convenient to alter it."
In late May, the reporter observed at the gate of this company that many tanker cars that came into the factory to transport edible oil had obvious signs of alteration. Some tankers just covered the words "ordinary liquid" with stickers, and then re-posted a sticker with the words "edible oil".
Even if there are such obvious alteration marks, it will not affect those tankers to transport edible oil.
A tanker waiting to be loaded with cooking oil in the factory, the medium information of the tank was covered by white paper, and a note with the words "cooking oil" was re-posted next to it. Tuyuan Beijing News
Transportation specification: Bulk edible oil transportation should be dedicated to special vehicles.
In fact, the GB/T30354-2013 Code for Bulk Transportation of Edible Vegetable Oils (hereinafter referred to as the Code for Transportation), which was implemented in China in 2014, mentioned that special vehicles should be used to transport bulk edible vegetable oils, and non-edible plant tankers or containers should not be used for transportation. It is also mentioned in the Transport Specification that before loading grease, it is necessary to carefully check whether the transport container is a special container and whether the container is clean and dry.
However, the Transport Code is only a recommended national standard, not a mandatory national standard, and has limited binding force on edible oil manufacturers.
Professor Wang Xingguo from the Food College of Jiangnan University told the reporter that although the Transport Code is a recommended national standard, it is also mandatory. He pointed out, "it is also a national standard, and relevant enterprises should take this as the basis when formulating enterprise standards. Enterprise standards can be stricter than this standard, but generally not lower than this standard."
As far as the transportation of bulk vegetable oil is concerned, Professor Wang Xingguo thinks that relevant enterprises should refer to the Transport Standard and use special transport vehicles, otherwise there is a risk of contamination of edible oil during transportation.
On May 24, a tanker that had just unloaded coal-to-liquids drove into China Grain Storage Oil (Tianjin) Co., Ltd., and the driver climbed onto the top of the tanker to prepare for the shipment of edible oil. Tuyuan Beijing News
Qiu Jian (pseudonym) is a tanker driver who has been in business for more than ten years. He told reporters that if the tank is not washed after unloading coal-to-liquid oil, there will usually be a few kilograms to more than ten kilograms of coal-to-liquid oil left in the tank. "If you wash the tank, you usually need to use alkaline water, and then steam the tank at high temperature after washing, so that it can be relatively clean. If it is just ordinary water washing, there will be some residue." Qiu Jian said that in most cases, the residual coal-to-liquid oil will be mixed with edible oil. "Like the white oil liquid wax in coal-to-liquid oil, it is colorless, transparent in color and not easy to see."
He said that non-hazardous chemicals liquids such as industrial wastewater, plasticizer, waste engine oil and water reducer can be transported by ordinary tankers, and coal-to-liquids only belong to the category with relatively large traffic at present. "There are several coal-to-liquids manufacturers besides Ningmei, and other manufacturers that produce chemical liquids may share tanker transportation with edible oil manufacturers."
Qiu Jian told reporters that although the receiving party of edible oil will take samples for inspection when unloading, due to the limited inspection items, even if other impurities are mixed in edible oil, ordinary inspection can’t detect it. "There are more items for testing moisture and acid value."
Qiu Jian believes that bulk edible oil is actually in a semi-detached state during long-distance transportation. "The manufacturers who sell oil don’t care much, and the companies that buy oil don’t know, which makes the transportation companies take advantage of it." Qiu Jian revealed that many transportation orders are generally subcontracted at different levels, and both buyers and sellers have no idea about the tanker that will eventually be transported.
As a tanker driver, Qiu Jian was very helpless. He called for attention to such industry chaos, because edible oil is related to thousands of households. He said: "Coal-to-oil may be clean, and other unusual chemical liquids may be more harmful if they pollute edible oil."
In Qiu Jian’s view, transportation companies are guided by the standards of edible oil manufacturers, and the chaos in this industry can be avoided only by strict control of edible oil manufacturers. "Careful inspection of cans by edible oil manufacturers should be the most effective and can solve 99% of the problems."
Yi Zhu, an associate professor at the College of Food Science of China Agricultural University, told the reporter that coal-to-liquids are mainly hydrocarbons, and the unsaturated hydrocarbons, aromatic hydrocarbons, sulfides and other components contained in them pose health risks to the human body. Long-term consumption may lead to poisoning. "The more you eat, the greater the toxicity. When there are more benzene or aminobenzene components, it may also affect hematopoietic function."
Yi Zhu believes that if the tanker transporting edible oil also transports other chemical liquids, the risk is even more unpredictable. "If you don’t know what kind of pollutants are in this oil, it is even more difficult to prevent. If the toxic chemical liquid remains inside, direct contact or inhalation may cause harm to the human body, such as organic solvents, acids, alkalis, heavy metals, etc., which may cause damage to the respiratory system and digestive system."
Original title: Investigation of chaos in tanker transportation: Direct shipment of edible soybean oil after unloading coal-to-liquids
