The present paper applies Scale Analysis, numerical simulations and experimental tests to enhance the thermal design of a commercial mobile bitumen emulsion tank for road pavement. The objective is the reduction of diesel oil consumption with the lowest increment in heating time. The complexity of heat transfer in the system lies on the highly three dimensional behaviour of the fluid flow and the large disparity between characteristic length scales to be considered. Besides, the main heat transfer mechanism depends on the location. In spite of these difficulties, the proposed design achieves a reduction of 40% in diesel oil consumption with only a 28% increase in heating time. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.