Factors Affecting the Design of High-Pressure Liquefied-Gas Storage Tanks

Abstract

Liquefied-gas storage tanks fall into two main categories, namely, those required to operate at about atmospheric pressure and those required to operate at from 200 to 300 psig. The latter type of tank is frequently employed on users’ sites to supply liquid oxygen for vaporization into pipeline systems. They serve to maintain a predetermined minimum pressure of about 100 to 200 psig in the users’ gas supply line and to provide pressurizable storage to accommodate gas that would otherwise be lost due to evaporation during shutdown periods over weekends. With such systems, arrangements are usually made to meet demands by gas withdrawal until the minimum pressure required to keep the pipeline adequately supplied is reached. Consequently, after a relatively short period of use, the maximum permissible storage capacity (equivalent to a pressure rise from perhaps 100 to 300 psig) is usually available to cover shutdown periods. A typical high-pressure supply system with a minimum operating pressure of 210 psig is shown in Fig. 1.