Mandatory standard – After its issuance, liquefied hydrocarbon storage tanks with a capacity of over 3,000 m3 are no longer allowed to be used!

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This post was last edited by Freestyle-sky on 2024-5-7 at 18:24. Search for and follow the WeChat official account “ANSYS Analysis and Design Professionals” – a platform dedicated to discussions on the analysis and design of pressure vessels! In learning, it is important to have a teacher; even more so, it is important to have friends! Learn together*, progress together! Recently, due to a project I was working on, 4000m3 liquefied hydrocarbon spherical tanks were originally planned to be used; however, the client issued a request to change these tanks from 4000m3 capacity to 3000m3 capacity. This is because there is a draft standard titled \"Safety Management Specifications for Liquefied Hydrocarbon Storage Areas in Chemical Enterprises\", which is currently still in the draft stage and has not been officially released yet. The draft guidelines set clear requirements for the construction of new liquefied hydrocarbon tanks. When constructing new liquefied hydrocarbon storage tanks, the type of tank to be used in the storage area should be determined based on production requirements and risk assessments. Fully refrigerated tanks, buried tanks, and pressure tanks can all be employed, and they must meet the following requirements: a) The capacity of a single pressure tank should not exceed 3000 m3 ； The capacity of a single buried tank should not exceed 3500 m3 ； The capacity of each fully refrigerated storage tank within the plant area should not be greater than or equal to 50,000 m3. If it is indeed necessary for a single tank to have a capacity of 50,000 m3 or more, such tanks should employ a prestressed concrete outer shell structure ； b) For each type of C2 liquefied hydrocarbon, when its annual processing volume or turnover is less than or equal to 1 million tons per year, the total capacity of the pressure storage tanks shall not exceed 12,000 m3, and the total number of such pressure storage tanks used shall not be more than 6 ； c) For each type of C2 liquefied hydrocarbon, whenever the processing volume or turnover increases by 1 million tons per year (including amounts less than 1 million tons per year), the increase in the capacity of pressure storage tanks shall not exceed 12,000 m3, and the number of additional pressure storage tanks added shall not exceed 4 ； d) When pressure-type storage tanks are used for liquefied hydrocarbons such as liquefied petroleum gas, the designed storage duration for each type shall be taken at the lower limit specified in SH/T 3007. Source of the task: As the production and consumption of liquefied hydrocarbons in our country continue to increase, the storage of such hydrocarbons is becoming more large-scale and diversified in terms of types. Liquefied hydrocarbon storage areas have high energy concentration and significant safety risks; in the event of an accident, they can easily lead to severe casualties and property losses, directly affecting public safety and social stability. In recent years, there have been several fire and explosion incidents in liquefied hydrocarbon storage areas, which have served as a warning regarding the safety management of such areas. Examples include the \"1·7\" carbon tetrafluoride leakage, explosion, and fire incident at the storage area of CNPC Lanzhou Petrochemical Branch; the serious explosion and fire accident caused by a truck leakage at Jinyu Petrochemical Company on \"6·5\"; the fire and explosion incident resulting from a leakage in a spherical tank containing liquefied hydrocarbons at Shandong Shida Technology on \"7·16\"; and the ethylene leakage and fire incident at Sinopec Maoming Petrochemical Company on \"6·8\". To thoroughly learn from the lessons of these accidents, effectively strengthen the management of safety risks in liquefied hydrocarbon storage areas, and improve the level of intrinsic safety, in July 2022, the First Department for Hazardous Chemicals Supervision under the Ministry of Emergency Management organized relevant entities to draft safety management standards for liquefied hydrocarbon storage areas in chemical enterprises, with the aim of addressing the issues related to safety risk management in such areas at their root. The nature of the standard suggests that this standard should be a mandatory standard. The main reasons are as follows: First, liquefied hydrocarbon storage areas have concentrated energy levels and high safety risks. In the event of an accident, such incidents are characterized by severe explosion forces, widespread fire spread, difficulty in extinguishing the fire, and a strong domino effect, which can lead to significant casualties and property losses. This poses a direct threat to public safety and social stability, making it a top priority in preventing and mitigating major safety risks in the petrochemical industry. Secondly, some of the current relevant standards for liquefied hydrocarbon storage tanks are no longer suitable for the needs of larger-scale storage and transportation as well as safe development. These standards are scattered across different standard-setting committees such as GB, SH, and SY; their revision is lagging behind, and there are issues of lack of consistency and coherence in their specific provisions ； Certain standards regarding safety design and risk prevention concepts fall short of international levels, with issues such as a low level of intrinsically safe design. Thirdly, based on lessons learned from accidents and long-term technical expertise, this standard sets out basic requirements aimed at \"upholding minimum standards and ensuring safety\" in areas such as overall requirements for liquefied hydrocarbon storage areas, planning and layout, design requirements, procurement of key equipment and materials, construction quality management, commissioning, operation management, maintenance management, and emergency management. It is of great significance for improving the safety level of liquefied hydrocarbon storage areas. In accordance with the \"Administrative Measures for Mandatory **Standards\", mandatory standards should be established to regulate the systematic safety management of liquefied hydrocarbon storage areas, effectively control safety risks, and prevent accidents. The existing 4000m3 liquefied hydrocarbon spheres will be the last of their kind – make the most of them!