Storage tanks are widely used in the process industries to store liquids that are below their boiling point at atmospheric temperature (some tanks may be insulated and they may have heating or cooling coils to maintain the temperature of the liquid that they are storing). Typically, tanks are either open to the atmosphere or to a system such as a flare or vent header that is at atmospheric pressure (this does not apply to floating roof tanks). Unlike pressure vessels, storage tanks cannot handle either high pressure or vacuum conditions.
September 2022
OSHA has opened the Process Safety standard for comment and revision. One of the items on their list is to do with storage tanks. Item II.1 reads,
Clarifying the exemption for atmospheric storage tanks
The words ‘siting’ and ‘layout’ are often used interchangeably, but, strictly speaking, they have different meanings. Siting is concerned with the location of a facility.
Safety Moment #57: Equipment Spacing (Pumps/Fireproofed Pipe Racks) described the layout of pumps in a process or energy facility. Continuing the discussion, this Safety Moment describes some of the issues to be considered with regard to the layout of storage tanks, sometimes referred to as “API Tanks”.