Was watching an old TV show today where some kids rode a fuel storage tank up a stucture then climbed out onto the stucture. After the tank returned to the lower level and the kids were stuck.

I have seen tanks like this in my travels and can't figure out why they exist. The only thing I can figure is for gravity feed distribution. Maybe for uninterrupted distribution? Or safety during distribution?

I don't think it would be for cost savings as the energy required to get the fuel to that level would exceed cost of pumping,

So whay do they elevate the tanks?

I could not find a photo online. This is close to what I am talking about except the tanks I have seen are much taller stucture and the tanks elevated to a much higher level.

 

I'm at a loss as to understand what it means to ride a fuel storage tank up a structure.

 

"some kids rode a fuel storage tank up a stucture then climbed out onto the stucture. After the tank returned to the lower level and the kids were stuck."

What does that mean?

Tanks are built above ground....because when they are empty.....the water in the ground will float the tank up.

 

I think they are gas tanks which compress when the gas is drawn out and expand when they get filled. But I wouldn't expect one to shrink so fast that kids would get trapped on the structure.

 

I think I'm getting the idea of what you are talking about -- it's not something I've ever seen, so I couldn't make sense of your first post.

My guess would be to eliminate the air space above the fuel so as to minimize the explosion hazard.

 

I could not find a photo online. This is close to what I am talking about except the tanks I have seen are much taller stucture and the tanks elevated to a much higher level.

That picture looks like what I would call a gasometer. They are used to store gas. As they pump gas in the top rises up to accommodate the extra gas and the converse as gas is used.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_holder

 

They have secondary floating lids for vapor control too. Been to many tank farms. You would not believe the sophistication of such installations. Very high tech.

And there are plenty of old farms too. The control system and safety system of a fuel farm is very impressive.

The maintenance is highly documented and regulated.

 

I used to work very near buncefield. The factory was destroyed. I lived not too far away, but far enough to avoid damage.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buncefield_fire

 

hi,
The bottom tank has a larger diameter than the top tank and is filled with water.
The top tank is full of gas, as the pressure of the gas falls and rises due to gas being pumped in and drawn off.
The top tank floats higher or lower on the water in the lower tank.
The idea is to keep the out feed gas at a constant pressure.
E

 

I'm at a loss as to understand what it means to ride a fuel storage tank up a structure.

The tank moves up the stucture exactly as I stated. It is suspended above ground for a period then returns to ground level.

 

They have secondary floating lids for vapor control too. Been to many tank farms. You would not believe the sophistication of such installations. Very high tech.

And there are plenty of old farms too. The control system and safety system of a fuel farm is very impressive.

The maintenance is highly documented and regulated.

No more than just the lid or even walls rises up. That is what I thought at first until I have seen these things suspended. In the photo I posted, I would suspect it is the type you mentioned.

But some of these tanks have very tall frames. Two or three times the height of the tank. The whole tank rises up.

 

This is closer but I have seen them taller. But hard to believe the tank expands that much. I think this is one of the one that raises the whole tank.

 

hi,
The bottom tank has a larger diameter than the top tank and is filled with water.
The top tank is full of gas, as the pressure of the gas falls and rises due to gas being pumped in and drawn off.
The top tank floats higher or lower on the water in the lower tank.
The idea is to keep the out feed gas at a constant pressure.
E

Ah... I was thinking liquid fuels.

For gaseous fuels this makes complete sense. The pressure varies only slightly with volume (it varies some since the tank walls increase the pressure as the volume increases, but the fractional increase can be controlled by designing the tank lid (which is going to have to be quite heavy set the target pressure) to be several times heavier than the walls at full elevation.

 

I don't think it would be for cost savings as the energy required to get the fuel to that level would exceed cost of pumping,

Perhaps not.
Pumps are not necessarily that efficient, and they just may want to use gravity to drain the tank for safety considerations.

 

I remember fields of them along the New Jersey turnpike when I was a kid. This goes back to the mid 50s and early 60s. Mostly in Northern NJ leading to the George Washington Bridge. They may have had compressed natural gas in them, I don't recall. Anyway I do remember they were gas storage tanks and yes, they went up and down.

Ron

 

As a kid, there was a tank farm alongside the highway as we drove into Boston. I always anticipated coming on them, to see how high they were that day.

The one’s in Boston were constructed of three sections. The bottom level was stationary. It had an inverted U channel along it’s interior upper rim.

Each succeeding section had a U channel along its exterior lower rim and an inverted U channel on its upper rim. As @ericgibbs stated, the lower section was filled with water or some other liquid. As each section rose, it would trap this liquid in their U channel, which would catch the inverted U channel of the next section.

Thus, a seal was created between sections as the internal gas pressure rose. In a sense, these style tanks were an immense natural gas capacitor.

Sometime during my lifetime, the Boston tanks were replaced by what we call a conventional gas tank. However, the tank has one distinction. It is now a Boston landmark because the gas company commissioned an artist, Corita who was a Catholic nun, to paint an abstract design on the sides of the tank. It gained some controversy, as it was thought the blue paint depicted a communist revolutionary, Ho Chi Min.

 

 

Gasholders in the UK date from the days when you could kill yourself by sticking your head in a gas oven with the gas turned on but not lit. This was because there was a high content of carbon monoxide in the gas. The gas company partially oxidized a solid carbon source (e.g. coal), stored it in the holder, then sent it off to the end user to finish the oxidation process.

===
A couple of decades ago I was asked to go to a natural gas compressor site where a piece of electronics of my design was installed and not working properly. I can't remember why i didn't go. At the site there was an underground gas storage tank intended, as I understood it, as a place to put natural gas in the event of a high-pressure emergency event. By the end of the day, the top of the tank was no longer underground, and not because it was designed to lift. Fortunately, it didn't ignite. Apparently everyone got together to be sure the lies they would tell the investigators were consistent. Just one more reason I refer to it as the oil and gas idiotsry.

 

No not what I am referring.

 

I remember fields of them along the New Jersey turnpike when I was a kid. This goes back to the mid 50s and early 60s. Mostly in Northern NJ leading to the George Washington Bridge. They may have had compressed natural gas in them, I don't recall. Anyway I do remember they were gas storage tanks and yes, they went up and down.

Ron

Might be were I saw them since I spent a lot of time in NJ. The whole tank did lift off of the ground and not just expand correct?