Storage tanks are structures made of various materials, generally cylindrical in shape, that are used to store and/or preserve liquids or gases at a certain pressure. Storage tanks are usually used to store liquids, and are widely used in the gas, petroleum, and chemical industries, and mainly their most notable use is in refineries due to their requirements for storage, whether temporary or prolonged; of the products and by-products obtained from its activities.[1]​.

These containers or tanks are intended to store and preserve liquids (water, oil, food, beverages or fuels), solids (raw materials from the food industry) and gases under pressure, among others, which is why in certain technical media they are also known as pressurized storage tanks.[2]​.

Production standards

Due to their size, they are usually designed to contain the liquid at a pressure slightly higher than atmospheric. The standards used by the oil industry originate from the API standard, with API code 650[3]​ mainly used for new tanks and covering aspects such as materials, design, process and manufacturing steps, and testing, while API code 653[4]​ is used for the reconstruction or modification of previously used tanks.

Characteristics

The diversity of stored products that is contemplated in the application of the construction code, API[3]​ and related codes describes construction aspects such as:

The volume characteristics, finishing specifications, internal corrosion protection and others are made according to the needs of the end user.

The sizes of the tanks are specified according to the autonomy of the plurinational state and according to the standards and/or codes established by the API[3]​ The volumes, diameters and heights commonly used in atmospheric storage tanks are tabulated below. The BLS unit stands for standard barrels of oil, which is equivalent to 42 gallons (158.98 liters).

The sizes shown and units of measurement are widely used in the petroleum refining industry, where they refer to tanks with capacities of BLS or barrels; and likewise, refineries are cataloged by their production capacity in BLS.

The products that are stored range from unprocessed crude oil, semi-heavy oil, gasoline, naphthalene, diesel, heavy oils, semi-heavy oils), and in some cases they can be used to store other types of liquids required in their operating processes such as water for the fire extinguishing system, acidic compounds, dietary fats, milk, grains, food flours, among others.

There are various types of storage tanks, among them we can find the following: