From the ground up

摘要

A four-day workshop, Design & Maintenance Strategies for Bulk Liquid Storage Tanks, was hosted by IBC Asia in Singapore this past November. Conducted by Steve Scott of Bro Nant International, the event attracted delegates from Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand and as far away as Sudan. They were keen to discuss developments in tank design, in-service condition monitoring, effective tank maintenance strategies and the safety of tank cleaning personnel. At the end of the workshop, participants were presented with a certificate of attendance as well as a copy of the UK Institute of Petroleum (IP) Tank Cleaning Safety Code. Steve kicked off the workshop by outlining the three different types of storage tanks -cone or fixed roof tanks, floating roof tanks and internal floating roof tanks. In fixed roof tanks, air is displaced through a valve as the volume of product in the tank changes. An internal floating roof tank has a cone roof plus a floating roof within. Some companies also blanket product with nitrogen as an added precaution against vapour loss and to protect the product from the environment. Products with a low flash point are usually stored in such tanks.