Tank Insulation (Verticle) With Pittsburgh Corning FOAMGLAS® Insulation

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The type of tank has a decisive influence on the method of insulating them; it is therefore necessary to quickly review the most common tank concepts.

 

A first distinction concerns tanks with operating temperature not lower than about - 50°C (-58°F) often called low temperature storage tanks (butane, propane, ammonia, propylene, ..) and those with operating temperatures lower than - 50°C (-58°F) (ethane, ethylene, LNG,  oxygen,  nitrogen, ...) often called cryogenic storage tanks.

 

Regarding the walls, the tanks operating at temperatures not lower than -50°C (-58°F) are generally insulated with a single or multi-layer adhered system.

 

For tanks operating at temperature lower than -50°C (-58°F), it would be very difficult and very expensive to find an adhesive performing satisfactorily at these temperatures and the total system would be very expensive. The generally adopted solution consists in building a tank with two walls between which expanded perlite is poured. The insulation can easily be one meter thick and even more.

 

For the low temperature storage tanks,  the usual designs are:

  • the single wall tank without further protection. The wall insulation is directly installed on the outside face of the tank.
  • the single wall tank with a bund wall built at a distance of 1 to 2 meters from the tank. The bund wall has generally a height that will enable it to store the liquid contained in the tank, should a tank failure occur. It also protects the tank against outside aggression (fire, flying objects, etc.). The wall insulation is installed on the outer face of the tank.
  • the double containment (also called double integrity tank) in which the inner steel tank is completely  surrounded - base, wall and roof - by an exterior concrete tank having several functions among which the two main are to contain the liquid in case of a failure of the inside tank and to protect it from outside aggression.

 

Since a concrete tank is not necessarily absolutely tight, a liner is applied on the inner face of the outside concrete tank. This liner is usually made of steel sheets welded together. Sometimes it is made of another coating chosen to be gas tight.

 

Tanks operating at high temperatures typically may hold hazardous or flammable liquids.  The chemical and fire resistance of FOAMGLAS becomes critical in these areas.  In the case of leakage or spillage of these materials, the inherent closed cell properties of FOAMGLAS will not allow these materials to "wick" into the insulation, which hides fire potential and over time will accelerate the fire hazards in a plant.  

 

Click here to get more information on verticle tank insulation with FOAMGLAS® insulation, including guide specifications.