Patent Application
20220002075
The invention relates to storage tanks with provision of storing different type of liquid in the same tank. In particular, the invention relates, but is not limited, to free standing fluid, preferably water, storage tanks that are erected at site without a concrete foundation. According to the invention, it is proposed to accommodate a storage tank with balloon partition acting as a movable wall in order to avoid the mixing of the two liquid materials.
Reference to background art herein is not to be construed as an admission that such art constitutes common general knowledge currently across the globe.
The current invention is a tank with two partitions with their own inlet and outlet system. One side of the partition will be of rubber material balloon, which will make act as the storing device and will also become the partition for the other half side of the tank. The balloon material partition is intended to be made from high pressure and temperature bearing material for storing two different types of fluids and have optimum dual purpose usage at the same.
Tanks of various shapes and sizes are known for storing fluids, in particular liquids, such as water. Such tanks vary in size tremendously from, for example, a personal water storage tank for drinking or irrigation purposes to industrial or commercial storage tanks. Small tanks are relatively easy to assemble and can often be molded as a single piece. However, as tank sizes increase it becomes increasingly more difficult to construct a sealed tank for storing fluid.
One of the issues with constructing large tanks is in transporting and building the tank, particularly for remote locations. For example, in mining, oil, and gas applications, water is a common by-product which may be processed and/or stored in tanks, or reservoirs, or the like. Furthermore, primary extraction fluids, such as oil or condensate, are also often stored in holding tanks. The storage of these liquids in the tanks may be long term or temporary. In any event, often the well or mine site is in a remote location with limited infrastructure and building a tank requires significant preparation.
Typically a site for a tank requires earth working, grading, and a concrete pad or footing. In one tank design, an annular concrete footing is provided which tracks the perimeter of the tank. The tank walls then extend off the pad or footing. Considerable time and expense is taken to prepare the site for tank construction. Furthermore, often tanks are, or have to be, decommissioned at the end of their use or life. This includes digging up and removing the concrete pad or footing which is again time consuming and costly. There may also be adverse environmental impacts from utilizing, and subsequently disposing of, the concrete pad or footing.
Large tanks also often suffer from hoop stress and, when empty, wind loading. In order to avoid these variables tanks may be designed of a limited size. This is clearly undesirable if a larger tank is required, usually necessitating multiple tanks where one larger tank may have been sufficient.
Furthermore, tanks having a partition membrane or membrane receptacles have a number of practical disadvantages. The material of the membrane is normally not strong enough to hold volatile liquid material. The Partition is not equal and the factor of mixing of two different types of liquids is very common. Further, if too much discharge force is applied the elastic material of the partition membrane, such as rubber coated cloth, is sucked into the intake/exhaust port and the membrane may ultimately be broken. This is also true in the case of gas exhausting from the outlet pipe of the balloon or membrane partition. In some cases, the space outside of the tank becomes unduly restricted whereby this arrangement of ports is impractical. From utility point of view, it is well known to separate ballast water and loaded oil in a compartment of a tanker by an elastic partition membrane or a membrane receptacle made of rubber coated cloth or the like in order to prevent the ballast water from being contaminated by the oil, However, such invention concepts are restricted for use in oil tankers only along with various disadvantages discussed above.
The current invention is designed to address the disadvantages in previous invention and art of the same description. The current design of tank has the provision for plurality of intake/exhaust ports for high volatile liquid material. The present invention holds its novelty as currently limited or no similar devices are available for storage of fluids, liquids and especially for volatile liquids with a balloon based storage device also acting as the partition. In the same context, the current invention is based on the usage of the tank with partition so that two different types of fluids can be stored and used under high pressure, high temperature and volatile atmosphere when required.
The current invention is a reusable, dual purposed and would have approval of market based standards. The invention holds its novelty when compared to the current market for utility and features fulfilling the requirement of having a fluid container capable of varied volumes, which may include a mechanism to improve the storage of multiple fluid containers.
With reference to previous inventions or utility of such products associated with storage and travel bottles, which are reusable, dual purposed and abide by travelling regulations holds its own uniqueness and usability in its domain. The previous inventions did not have or had limited utility. With all previous embodiments in the field did not provide such facilitation and hence the idea has its own novelty.
According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a storage tank for storing a fluid, the storage tank comprising a wall defined by a plurality of panels and a plurality of support members, wherein each of the support members has a base portion and a support portion, and each panel is retained, by opposed side edges, between respective support portions. The tank preferably further comprises a liner. The liner is preferably located on at least an inner side of the wall. The liner preferably lines an inner surface of the tank defined by the inner surface of the wall and a floor. The floor preferably includes a surface upon which the support members are placed. The surface may be earthen, preferably graded. Preferably the tank, and in particular the support members, do not require, or even include, a concrete surface or concrete foundations for support.
The invented storage tank is preferably free standing on the base portion on a surface, however the provision to fit in some specific industry need especially aviation and Mari-time industry is provided. Necessary support portions would be present to support the tank structure and any number of partitions. The present invention relates to a construction of a storage tank or tanker for utility of transportation or storage of a liquid such as crude oil, chemicals or the like, and more particularly to a ship hold construction wherein a partition membrane or a membrane receptacle is employed to prevent the mutual contamination of two kinds of oils loaded in the tanker or the mutual contamination of loaded oil and ballast water, especially for preventing the ballast water from being contaminated by the oil. The invention is designed to server multiple industries and even house-hold where applicable. The balloon partition of the tank is designed to be manufactured of specific material which can bear high pressure and temperature.
In another embodiment the invention provides the provision of strength of walls and boundaries is based on construction of alternating support members and panels, and is preferably free standing and supported vertically by the base portion of the support members. The support portion is preferably substantially perpendicular to the base portion. The base portion is preferably planar and/or rectangular.
The stressing support member preferably has at least one aperture that is vertically offset from a corresponding aperture on the standard support members. Preferably the vertically offset aperture is higher than the corresponding aperture on the standard support members. Preferably the stressing support member has a vertically offset aperture corresponding to each of the apertures on the standard support member. The stressing support member may also have one or more apertures corresponding directly to the apertures on the standard support member (i.e. not offset). One or more of the apertures of the stressing support member may be reinforced.
The tank may further comprise a leak detection system. The leak detection system may comprise a leak detection liner. The leak detection liner is preferably adjacent, and external to, a primary liner (described previously). The leak detection liner preferably has an outlet in fluid communication with a conduit. The leak detection liner and/or outlet preferably comprise a sump. The conduit preferably extends from the fluid detection liner outlet to a leak detection location outside of the tank wall.
The main feature of the storage tank design is to divide the tank by a rubber membrane based balloon from one side of the tank. The rubber material based balloon will also act as one part of the storage along with creating an equal and half storage partition. Each half is treated as a full tank with their own dual inlets and outlets for intake and emptying the liquid respectively. The movement of balloon rubber membrane into the empty half direction, which makes half of the tank can use all its capacity, in case storage of only type liquid material is desirable. In addition the full tank can be used to store two kind of fluid materials, even being volatile or two entirely opposite liquid materials within one tank.
This Summary is provided merely for purposes of summarizing some example embodiments, so as to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the subject matter described herein. Accordingly, it will be appreciated that the above-described features are merely examples and should not be construed to narrow the scope or spirit of the subject matter described herein in any way. Other features, aspects, and advantages of the subject matter described herein will become apparent from the following Detailed Description, Figures, and Claims. In light of the disadvantages of the prior art, the following summary is provided to facilitate an understanding of some of the innovative features unique to the present invention and is not intended to be a full description.
The invention will be described with respect to the following drawings, in which like reference numerals represent like features throughout the figures, and in which:
Detailed descriptions of the preferred embodiment are provided herein. It is to be understood, however, that the present invention may be embodied in various forms. Therefore, specific details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but rather as a basis for the claims and as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to employ the present invention in virtually any appropriately detailed system, structure or manner.
The current storage tank is designed to withstand internal pressures which will minimize the vapor losses. The choice of these design pressures is based upon the type of liquid to be stored, the vapor pressure of the liquid at the anticipated maximum and minimum surface temperatures, and the maximum and minimum temperatures of the vapor space above the liquid. The design pressures may vary from a few ounces per square inch to as much as 30 or 40 pounds per square inch. The volume of such tanks may vary from five or ten thousand barrels to one or more hundred thousand barrels.
It is the primary object of the present invention to construct a storage tank for all types of liquids including volatile liquids that will satisfy all loading conditions. It is another object of the invention to provide a storage vessel having a substantially flat bottom and to provide weighted means at the juncture of the side walls with the bottom to restrain upward movement of the lower portions of the side walls as the liquid within the vessel is withdrawn.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a storage tank with partition to store and transport two different type of liquid materials. The present disclosure also relates to a partition for storing and transporting oil and fuel tank system. Disclosed embodiments of the storage tank partition may inhibit the need for venting the fuel tank during refilling, may allow for more precise control of pressure within the storage tank during refilling, may allow the oil tank to receive and store both saturated and unsaturated and/or cold and hot oil and other industry related volatile liquids without losing storage tank pressure, and may reduce the incidence of sloshing events.
The storage tank has linear side walls with curved edges as means to restrain inward movement of the side walls upon decrease of the hydrostatic pressures against said side walls, thus preventing excessive compressive stresses within the wall plates and possible buckling thereof. The tank is proposed to be constructed from the material normally used for constructing storage tanks are polyethylene, thermoplastic, or glass-reinforced plastic (fiberglass) including material meant for storing high volatile liquid with high pressure at high temperature. Selection of the material will be custom based and will depend on the utility of the tank. The material shall be used according to the requirement of usage and will be designed to gauge high temperature, pressure and other related environmental factors.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a roof structure designed not only fully to support the roof loading but also to counteract compressive stresses in the sidewall plates. Another object of the invention is to utilize the advantages of the spheroid type of storage vessel and so to reinforce the walls of the vessel that liquids may be stored safely and economically therein.
The main embodiment of the invention is based on a design where the storage tank is divided by a rubber membrane balloon from one side of the tank. The rubber balloon membrane will act as storage device for half of the tank. This will divide the single tank to act as two separate tanks with the ability to operate independently in terms of storage, water/liquid intake and water/liquid output through an outlet. The concept is to provide each half of the tank as a full tank from input and output separated and operated by a rubber membrane balloon.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a split storage tank through a rubber balloon having a durable flexible partition and storage property that can move or displace according to storage capacity of the liquid, laterally adjacent to one or the other side of the tank when one or the other section of the tank is filled with liquid.
It should be apparent that the present invention has the ability to transport two or more high volatile liquids in one tank compartment through rubber balloon partition. Storage and transportation of, bulk lubricating oil and related high volatile material to different locations; and utilizing the same tank, when empty, to transport, other liquid material in the other compartment, for example, drained or used vehicle crankcase oil to a processing plant for reprocessing the crankcase oil back into merchandisable lubricating oil.
The flexibility and strength of the rubber balloon partition, the volume of each of the compartments may be varied to approximately the full volume of the tank. Thus, approximately a full load of oil and related material can be transported to various locations and approximately a full volume of used oil or related material can be returned for processing without necessitating the cleaning of the interior of the tank, since the liquid in one section does not come in contact with the liquid in the other partitioned section of the tank. It is another object of the present invention to virtually eliminate the dumping of used crankcase oil, with the ecological hazards attendant thereto, and provide for the re-use of hitherto randomly disposed used crankcase oil.
The balloon rubber membrane used for partition and storage would have the ability of flexible movement. In case the tank is used as a single unit, the movement of balloon rubber membrane into the empty half direction, will transform the tank into single unit, hence, using all its capacity. In the same context, the invention has an embodiment where the full tank can be used to store two kind of fluid materials. Just for elaboration purpose a single tank can be used to store fresh water and sewage water at the same time. Further, amount of fresh water utilized or used will be overtaken through principle of injection by sewerage water stored in the second half. This will be enabled by the flexible movement of the rubber membrane separating the tank into two partitions. The utility of such tanks is perfect in an Airline or Starship. The tank is designed in a manner where the efficiency of the entire tank is used by fresh water when going up to space or in the initial half of the flight and the same efficiency of the entire tank is reused by sewage water when returning to the ground, when the all the waste is to be disposed off.
In the current invention the most important factor is based on the material of the balloon rubber membrane used for partition of the tank. Ideally the rubber membrane would be of Perfluoroelastomers which are fluoroelastomers with higher fluorine content. Perfluoroelastomers contain an even higher amount of fluorine. The material has improved resistance to high temperatures and chemicals and even withstands environments where Oxygen-Plasma are present for many hours. The material can be available in certain grades that have a maximum continuous service temperature of 327° C. (621° F.). They are commonly used to make O-rings that are used in applications that involve contact with hydrocarbons or highly corrosive fluids, or when a wide range of temperatures is encountered.
The design of the tank is planned for future use in planes, starships and other high-tech and military industry. The separating material is proposed to be of highly specialized material and Perfluoroelastomers are proposed to be used as the raw material for the production of O-rings and rubber memberane. Due to high temperatures, high pressures and highly volatile environment, there is basically no choice other than these materials to seal valves used in those facilities.
The second choice for the rubber membrane and partition material is suggested as fluoroelastomers. Due to lower fluorine content they are more susceptible to environmental attacks. They however are significantly cheaper than perfluoroelastomers and can be used in environments where the temperature is lower. These best suit for applications, industries and places where the temperature is around 200° C. The main feature of the water tank design is to divide the tank by a ballon rubber membrane, which will act as storage device within the tank as well. Each half is treated as a full tank from input and output. The movement of balloon rubber membrane into the empty half direction, which makes the tank, uses all its capacity. In addition the full tank can be used to store two kind of fluid materials, even being volatile or two entirely opposite liquid materials within one tank.
One of the best utility of the newly designed water tank is in the maritime industry especially oil tanker. Once the oil is transported for import or export to countries the oil tankers travel a long distance. On return the vessels and oil tankers are filled with water in the tanks. The exporting company/country needs to clean the tank in order to fill water, which is a very costly process. The current invention would save huge cost for companies as the tank does not require cleaning the tank each time oil is emptied and supplied off. The tank is designed in a manner where the rubber barrier/partition, which is made of high pressure and temperature resistance material divides the tank in two equal part with same capacity and weight load. On the way to export half tank allocated for oil storage can be filled with oil and on the way back the other half of the tank can be filled with water. This will allow companies to save efforts and revenues to clean oil tank each time.
The design of the tank and dual utility is one of the basic features with the main part is the pressure and temperature bearing barrier/partition/second storage/half storage made of pressure and temperature resistant rubber material. The concept is applicable for use of aircrafts, space crafts and other maritime industry. The concept, design and product is not limited for use in such industries but also holds it validity for usage in other industries including housing and leisure industry.
As stated above, while the present application has been illustrated by the description of embodiments thereof, and while the embodiments have been described in considerable detail, it is not the intention of the applicants to restrict or in any way limit the scope of the appended claims to such detail. Additional advantages and modifications will readily appear to those skilled in the art, having the benefit of the present application. Therefore, the application, in its broader aspects, is not limited to the specific details, illustrative examples shown, or any apparatus referred to. Departures may be made from such details, examples, and apparatuses without departing from the spirit or scope of the general inventive concept.
Having described the invention in detail, those skilled in the art will appreciate that modifications may be made to the invention without departing from its spirit. Therefore, it is not intended that the scope of the invention be limited to the specific embodiment illustrated and described. Rather, it is intended that the scope of this invention be determined by the appended claims and their equivalents.
