Comprehensive maintenance of fuel tanks

Types of oil storage tanks

The evolution of storage for crude oil and petroleum products has come a long way from earthen pits to soft tanks. The choice of storage containers is based on the location, purpose and volume of the warehouse. For example, above-ground vertical containers are used for crude oil in production areas, and horizontal underground metal storage tanks are used at gas stations within the city limits. Reinforced concrete buildings are used for fuel oil.

In addition to the typical ones, there are special oil storage systems. These include industrial and feeder lines of hydrocarbons, tanks with an internal pontoon for oil products with high pressure of saturated gases, soft oil tanks for deploying field and stationary warehouses.

Features of fuel tanks

Modern storages of oil products are divided into transshipment, distribution and combined. They are a group of tanks and a logistics platform – access roads, transport, oil pumping equipment.

The types of containers used are classified according to various characteristics:

• by place of installation/placement;
• according to the volume of the tank – the characteristic is important, in particular, the definition of the class of the container according to the danger;
• from the constructive solution of the main and additional elements;
  according to the material of the main container.

These are the key classification features, according to which the distribution of containers by type is carried out. In each case, the tanks are selected taking into account the place of installation, the presence of an intermediate stage of pumping, the need to process oil products, their composition, the hazard class of the facility where they are used, and so on.

Тypes of fuel tanks by volume and location

According to the method of placing the containers, the following types of oil storage tanks are distinguished:

• above-ground – vertical or horizontal, as well as oil tanks located entirely on the surface of the earth;
• with semi-underground placement – with a deepening from one third to the entire volume of the container as a whole, while its neck is located above the zero mark;
• underground – single- or double-walled horizontal tanks for oil products with reinforced stiffening ribs, which can go deeper into the soil for a distance of more than a meter (from the upper point of the tank to the zero mark);

The second type of distribution of containers by useful volume:

• Tanks up to 50 m3 are classified as small tanks. They can be manufactured directly at oil refining complexes, adding the necessary components during subsequent installation.
• The large ones include containers up to 100,000 cubic meters, which are produced at specialized enterprises and transported to collection sites in sets.