3 replies to this topic

[abinai]

why do we go for bullet type tanks for hydrocarbon storage?

Thanks in Advance,
With Regards,
Abinai.

[Art Montemayor]

Abinai:

Your statement, as written, is not true. However, if you qualify your statement with SPECIFIC INFORMATION OR DATA - such as explaining that the tanks under discussion are slated for COMPRESSED LIQUID HYDROCARBONS, then it is generally true.

What you fail to take into consideration is that there are many liquid hydrocarbons that are stored: such as gasoline, diesel, hexane, pentane, etc. These liquids are usually supercooled and stored in vertical, fixed roof, API storage tanks. There are also hydrocarbons that are gaseous at normal, ambient conditions – such as ethane, propane, butane, ethylene, propylene, etc. – and these are stored as compressed, saturated liquids. And it is these hydrocarbons that you may be alluding to. If so, then please so state it and don’t make us go through a litany of posts and questions in order just to find out what it is that you have in your mind.

The compressed, saturated hydrocarbon liquids are usually condensed at approximately 200 to 350 psig and thus are candidates for storing in a cylindrical, pressure vessel – especially if we are dealing with relatively small capacities. When this is the case, you will find that a horizontal, cylindrical vessel with ellipsoidal heads (often called a “bullet” type of tank) is probably the economically optimum type of storage vessel to use. That is why you see so many of these type of pressure vessels out in industry and often used as transport tanks.

[kkala]

Post by Art Montemayor is complete, I would only like to add some information adopted in a feasibility study on LPG storage (propane, butane, etc) and usage. We were informed at that time (1997, Greece) that bullets were economically attractive up to a capacity of about 220 m3. For higher capacities spheres were recommended. Though not proven, a lot of pertinent colleagues had that view.

[ankur2061]

Abinai,

Have a look at this link for a very informative article on LPG storage:

http://www.fwc.com/p...v3 approved.doc

This should give you some idea about bullets for LPG (hydrocarbon) storage.

Regards,
Ankur.