INDUSTRIAL STORAGE TANK

on

 

INDUSTRIAL STORAGE TANKS

BASIC

·         Industrial storage tanks are containers used for storage of gas, oil, water, and petrochemical products, employed for industrial uses.

·         Industrial storage tanks come in different sizes and shapes.

·         They can be underground, horizontal, and vertical, and be made from concrete, stone, fiberglass, steel or plastic.

·         Industrial storage tanks can be categorized into several types based on the substance they hold and some other factors.

·         There are basically two types categorized as per operating pressure of storage tanks, Atmospheric storage tank and low pressure storage tank.

·         Maximum pressure for vapor or gas space of an atmosphere storage tank is 2.5 psi, and for low pressure storage tank is 15 psi.

·         If the pressure is more than 15 psi the fluid cannot be stored in the storage tank it should be stored in pressure vessel.

APPLICATIONS

·         Atmospheric storage tanks are used to store crude oil, heavy oil, gas oil, furnace oil, naphtha, gasoline, non-volatile chemicals, etc.

·         Low pressure storage tank are used to store light crude oil, some gasoline blending stock, light naphtha, pentane, some volatile chemicals, liquid oxygen, liquid nitrogen etc.

·         Physical shape and size of both the above tanks may be same but design code of construction and inspection parameters are different.

CODE OF CONSTRUCTION

·         The construction codes for atmospheric storage tank is API std. 650 and for a low pressure storage tank is API std. 620.

·         These cover the minimum requirement for design, materials, fabrication, inspection and testing.

·         With the above explanation, Inspection and test plan for storage tank construction needs to meet the requirements of API 650 or API 620.

TYPES

Basically there are eight types of tanks used to store liquids

  1. Fixed-roof tanks
  2. External floating roof tanks
  3. Internal floating roof tanks
  4. Domed external floating roof tanks
  5. Horizontal tanks
  6. Pressure tanks
  7. Variable vapour space tanks
  8. LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) tank

·         The first four tank types are in cylindrical shape with the axis oriented perpendicular to the sub grade.

·         These tanks are almost exclusively above the ground.

·         Horizontal tanks can be used above and below ground.

·         Pressure tanks often are horizontally oriented and spherically shaped to maintain structural integrity at high pressures. They are located above the ground.

·         Variable vapour space tanks can be cylindrical or spherical in shape.

CONTAINMENT BASIN

·         A containment basin of a product should be built around the tanks are made up of brick or concrete and the lining should be impervious to liquid stored to prevent spills that can cause fire, property damage or contaminate the environment.

·         The minimum capacity of the basin volume should be equal to the capacity of the largest tank plus 10% of the sum of the capacities of others.

·         To prevent a spill or other emergency the walls of the containment basin must be resistant to the product and must be able to withstand considerable pressure.

·         The drain Valve, which should be incorporated into the outer side of the containment basin, must be closed to prevent possible contamination to the environment.



Comments

Post a Comment