Carbon Steel Tank Preservation (other than nitrogen purge)

[ReliaEng2008]

Hello,

We just finished erecting a few carbon steel tanks at my site. We are not going to put these tanks in service for 12 months or more. We are located in a coastal/humid environment. Regarding tank preservation, I am looking for alternatives to nitrogen purging, since these tanks would require a lot of nitrogen.

One engineer mentioned the use of a corrosion inhibitor powder (VpCI). I don't know if that technology is well known and common practice across the chemical/petrochemical industries.

Any suggestions would be very appreciated.

 

[JStephen]

Can you come up with a dehumidifier for the tanks? Only required air movement is due to thermal movement into and out of the tanks, so a relatively small amount of moisture coming in.
There are companies that furnish large dehumidification units for coating operations, but that equipment would be major overkill here- but might be worthwhile checking with them.

 

[LittleInch]

How well can you seal the tanks or force air to go through a dessicant dryer?

Then de humidify the air inside for a few days, chuck in a load of bags of dessicant and seal it up allowing thermal venting to go back in via a dessicant dryer or similar.

The difficulty with any powder or oil spray is cleaning it off when you want tot put the tank into service.

But there are many vegetable based oil sprays or similar which may not impact what ever it is you're storing.



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