Mobile degassing – how it works and why it is important

Degassing is an important application for the reduction of harmful emissions that are produced and emitted in industrial plants. First made possible by one of our predecessing companies in 2008, mobile degassing is now a common standard and helps the industrial sector to increase sustainability in operations and maintenance. But how does mobile degassing exactly work? And why is degassing indispensable in many industries for protecting health and the environment?
Why degassing is necessary
In many industrial processes, gaseous substances are created that are not only hazardous to the environment but can also be harmful to human health. When storing chemicals, fuels or other products, these substances often settle and remain in tanks and pipes. In order to safely clean, maintain or decommission these components, it is necessary to remove the residues of volatile organic compounds (VOC) or other harmful substances.
The degassing of components like tanks ensures that the hazardous (residual) gases are not released into the environment in an uncontrolled manner. Instead, they are treated and effectively destroyed. This prevents the release of harmful emissions and reduces the amount of pollutants in the air. Mobile degassing units perform this task flexibly and directly where emissions develop – on-site in industrial plants.

How mobile degassing works
Mobile degassing systems can be transported directly to the customer’s plant. With piping networks, degassing units are connected to the tanks, ships or other components that are to be degassed. The main task is to separate and destroy the pollutants by combusting. Our mobile vapor combustion units produce neither open flame, odor nor noise during the degassing. This makes the degassing process environmentally-friendly, sustainable and extremely efficient with a combustion rate of over 99.99 %.
The thermal treatment and combustion of the captured gases inside the mobile combustion unit minimizes the emission of pollutants and reduces emissions to an environmentally-friendly level. Let’s take an LNG fuel tank with a volume of 1,280 m3 as an example. Without emission treatment, the greenhouse warming potential (GWP) factor of the LNG is 60.87 tons. Applying ETS Degassing’s mobile combustion units for degassing, the GWP of the LNG is only 6.64 tons. This means that emissions can be reduced by 89 %. In addition to degassing, our mobile vapor combustion units can also be applied as a temporary replacement for vapor recovery units (VRU) to treat the resulting gases, gas mixtures and vapors in refineries, for example.
Areas of application for mobile degassing
There are many possible applications for mobile degassing. It is required in almost all industries in which volatile or toxic substances are stored and processed. Typical areas of application for degassing include:
- Tank terminals
- Refineries
- Chemical and petrochemical plants
- Industrial services
- Marine and shipping
- Other industries such as food and agriculture
Advantages of mobile degassing
Mobile degassing offers major advantages, including
- Flexiblity: The systems can be moved quickly to different locations. With rapid deployment times, our mobile degassing and replacement services are particularly suitable for emergencies where every second counts.
- Efficiency: The mobile degassing units can be put into operation quickly and destroy gases, gas mixtures and vapors with a combustion rate of over 99.99 %.
- Safety: The controlled treatment of gases and vapors reduces the hazards for environment and health that residual gases and emissions such as VOCs and HAPs pose to employees and residential communities of industrial plants.
- Decarbonization: The safe and efficient decomposition of residual gases reduces the release of pollutants. This way, degassing contributes to improving the air quality and reducing the global carbon footprint.
- Compliance: By using technologies for degassing, industrial plants comply with regulatory requirements and reduce their emissions – this also helps to reduce the carbon footprint of industry as a whole, which is still too high.


The products used in the various industries are subject to constant change. Products such as LNG or ammonia have recently become increasingly important, particularly with regard to environmental protection. In order to be able to continue to offer efficient degassing, existing technologies must be developed further continuously.
Mobile degassing will remain a key component for reducing industrial emissions in the future. Due to advancing technologies and an increasing awareness of environmental protection, the importance of mobile degassing will continue to grow in the coming years.
Learn more about the ETS Degassing technologies for mobile degassing.