TANK FARM MAINTAINANCE

The pipeline section of IOCL has eight crude oil storage tanks in the Haldia section. They are
HT (Haldia Tank)-01, HT-02, HT-03, HT-04, HT-05, HT-06, HT-07 and HT-08. These tanks have
equal diameter of 79M, height-13.4M and capacity 60,000 KL. During emergency purpose when
the Paradip is not able to pump crude oil but still the requirement is there in the refineries, these
storage tanks plays an important role for maintaining the continuous supply of crude oil.
The roofs of this tanks are Double Deck Floating Roof type. In this type of roofs there are two
decks available – Top Deck and Bottom Deck. The area between the top deck and bottom deck
is known as pontoon. The thickness of these tanks gets gradually increased from top to bottom
(from 10mm to 25mm), because the effect of gravitational force is maximum at the bottom.

 Types of Tanks:-
1. Fixed Roof Tank: - These kind of tanks have fixed roof on their top surface. These kind
of tanks are usable for those kind of fluids which don’t get vaporized in ambient
temperature. E.g. - Water Tank.
2. Floating Roof Tanks: - These kind of tanks have roofs which are movable as per the
level of the quantity inside. These roofs are the absolute solution for the storage fluids
which gets vaporized in ambient temperature. These kind of tanks eliminates the vapor
formation and also reduce the breathing losses. E.g. - Crude Oil Tank.
3. Fixed Cum Floating Roof Tanks: - A storage tank commonly used to store large
quantities of petroleum products such as crude oil or condensate. It consists of an open-
topped cylindrical steel shell equipped with a roof that floats on the surface of the stored
liquid.

A BRIEF VIEW OF DOUBLE DECK FLOATING ROOF TYPE TANKS

  WHY FIXED ROOF TANKS ARE NOT SUITABLE FOR CRUDE OIL
TANKS?
Crude oil is a mixture of petrol, naphtha kind of petroleum products which are highly
volatile in nature. Their vapor pressure is very much less than atmospheric
pressure. So, when the level of crude oil gets low and air is in taken, the products
present in the crude oil will start to vaporize and in the end a lot amount of vapor will
be present in the tank which are highly explosive in nature. At night, when the
temperature is low the pressure will go down(as the volume is fixed) and at day time
as per the temperature rises, the pressure will also rise inside the tank, which has a
very high tendency to get burst out at any time.

 Features Present in Floating Roof Tanks: -

1.Primary and Secondary Seal: - As the tanks contains double deck floating type roof, so the
areal areas of the roof are covered by two rubberized seals known as Primary Seal and
Secondary Seal respectively, which are altogether known as Rim Seal. It is used for the
prevention of the vapor leakage of crude oil.

2. Roof Leg: - Roof legs of a double deck floating roof type tank works as a supporting structure
for the vertical movement of the roof. The roof legs are nothing but some vertical stands on
which the roof gets supported which helps the roof not to come to the extreme bottom face.
3. Stirrer Motor: - Stirrer motors are used to mix up the whole crude present in the tank having
various density. It also helps to mix the sludge with the crude oil for further pumping, which is
known as Churning Action. There are total 3 stirrer motors in each tank.
4. Rim Seal Fire Protection System: - Rim Seal is the area which is the only opening area of
the crude and the atmosphere. That’s why some vapor gets evaporated throughout this area.
So this is the fire prone area in the whole tank. As for the solution of this problem each tank
contains 6 firefighting modules in the Rim Seal area. Which contains 3% AFFF solution
(Aqueous Film Forming Foam) and 97% Water and Nitrogen gas mixture. In practical it has 194
Liter Water and 6 Liter foam.
When there will be any fire, the temperature of the atmosphere will increase and it is sensed by
a highly sensitive wire, the nitrogen gas present inside the module will also get pressurized as
the volume is constant. When the pressure exceed a certain value then a solenoid valve opens
which contains a lot of nozzles along the Rim Seal area. As the solenoid valve operated, the
foam and water mixture is spread along the Rim Seal area with the help of nozzles. A Pressure
Release Valve is also given in the module to release the pressure of the module, of the
pressure exceeds from 17 kg/cm2.
5.Sprinkler System: - Sprinkler system is a system to through the water from the ground
towards the tank. It is useful when fire is there inside the tank, the temperature of the tank gets
so high and water can’t get reach to the fire (water gets vaporized due to high temperature
before meeting fire). It is also useful when there is fire in one tank, the sprinkler system of other
tanks helps to keep the tanks cool enough so that they don’t get affected by the heat of the
burning fire.
6. Annular Plate: - During construction of the tanks the tanks get welded with the bottom plate
and step by step it gradually goes upwards in cylindrical shape. At the welding point of the
bottom plate, another plate is situated which is known as Annular Plate. This plate help the
loaded tank as an additional support to get balance during minor earthquake. The thickness of
the plate is 14 mm.
7. Roof Drain: - During monsoon the roof of the tanks gets filled with water and gets heavy. So
to drain the roof water, some drains are made having outlets from the bottom of the tank known
as Roof Drain.
8. Emergency Roof Drain: - Due to any reason, if the roof drain fails to dislocate the roof
water, there are some emergency drains which directly send the water to the crude oil and due
to high density, water gets assembled to the bottom sump tank. After that sump pump is used to
suck the water from the sump tank.
9. Product Drain: - The maintenance of each tank takes 1 year time to get completed. So the
maintenance of each tank comes after every 7 years. At the time of maintenance the sludge
which gets assembled at the bottom of the tank, it gets unlocked with the pressure of water.
After the solid sludge gets liquid with the contact of water, the product is sucked and send to Oil
Water Separator Plant to differentiate water and sludge.
10. Manholes: - Manholes are provided in the tanks for the entry of any person for maintenance
purpose. Manholes present in the tanks are of different sizes like- 30”, 24” etc.
11. Primary Wind Girder and Secondary Wind Girder: - To protect the tanks from sudden
wind blast and to divert the flow of air so that it don’t get direct contact with the tank, girders are
used. These are known as primary wind girder and secondary wind girder respectively.
12. RGA: - The full form of RGA is Retractable Grounding Assembly. It is made of highly
conductive material providing the lowest resistance path. When lightning occurs on the roof of
the tanks, the distributed current always flows from this RGA. It is connected with the rop deck
of the roof and the tank shell, which can be retractable during the vertical movement of the roof.
The resistance of this RGA is very small in milliohms. There are total 9 RGAs in a tank.
13. CP System for Tanks: - To save the tank from corrosion Cathodic Protection system is
used. In the bottom plate of the tanks there are some anode beds in a hole which will work as
sacrificial anode to prevent the tank from corrosion from inside. For the outer surface of the
tanks Impressed Current Cathodic Protection system is used. In this process DC current is
provided to fulfill the scarcity of electrons and prevents to form Fe2+ ions and the tanks gets
saved.

 WHY IMPRESSED CURRENT CP SYSTEM IS NOT APPLICABLE FOR

THE INSIDE PROTECTION OF TANKS?
If we want to provide Impressed Current CP system for the inside of the tank, we must
weld a conductor with the inner surface of the tank to connect the negative terminal of
the DC supply to fulfill the scarcity of electrons. The positive end of the DC supply will be
connected with any anode. After a few time, if there is any fault in welding, during the
application of DC supply spark may occur and the whole crude oil may get burn out. So
for safety purpose, we use sacrificial anode CP system inside the tank as it doesn’t
require any power supply.
14. Level Switch: - A level switch is situated at the top of the tank in a specific height, and it is
hanging with a weight and a chain. If the top surface of the roof touches the weight, the tension
of the chain will decrease and it will blow an alarm in the control room.
During the construction of any tank, the sand is gets compressed for
40 times and it has been made harder to sustain the heavy weight of loaded tank. After that
stone pillars are made to as the foot of the tank and above it the tank is situated.