FRP tanks and vessels
Encyclopedia
FRP
Fibre-reinforced plastic
Fibre-reinforced plastic is a composite material made of a polymer matrix reinforced with fibres. The fibres are usually fibreglass, carbon, or aramid, while the polymer is usually an epoxy, vinylester or polyester thermosetting plastic...

 (Fibreglass Reinforced Plastics
Glass-reinforced plastic
Fiberglass , is a fiber reinforced polymer made of a plastic matrix reinforced by fine fibers of glass. It is also known as GFK ....

, also known as GRP, or Glass Reinforced Plastics) is a modern composite material
Composite material
Composite materials, often shortened to composites or called composition materials, are engineered or naturally occurring materials made from two or more constituent materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties which remain separate and distinct at the macroscopic or...

 of construction for chemical plant equipment like tanks and vessels. Chemical equipment that range in size from less than a metre to 20 metres are fabricated using FRP as material of construction.

FRP Chemical Equipments are manufactured mainly by Hand Lay-up and filament winding
Filament winding
Filament winding is a fabrication technique for manufacturing composite material, usually in the form of cylindrical structures. The process involves winding filaments under varying amounts of tension over a male mould or mandrel. The mandrel rotates while a carriage moves horizontally, laying...

 processes. BS4994
BS4994
BS4994 is the "specification for the design and construction of vessels and storage tanks in reinforced plastics"...

 still remains a key standard for this class of items.

Dual Laminate

Due to the corrosion
Corrosion
Corrosion is the disintegration of an engineered material into its constituent atoms due to chemical reactions with its surroundings. In the most common use of the word, this means electrochemical oxidation of metals in reaction with an oxidant such as oxygen...

 resistant nature of FRP, the tank can be made entirely from the composite, or a second liner can be used. In either case, the inner liner is made using different material properties than the structural portion (Hence the name dual (meaning two) and laminate (a word commonly used for a layer of a composite material))

The liner, if made of FRP is usually resin rich and utilizes a different type of glass, called "C-Glass", while the structural portion uses "E-Glass". The thermoplastic liner is usually 2.3 mm thick (100 mils). This thermoplastic liner is not considered to contribute mechanical strength. The FRP liner is usually cured before winding or lay-up continues, by using either a BPO
Benzoyl peroxide
Benzoyl peroxide is an organic compound in the peroxide family. It consists of two benzoyl groups bridged by a peroxide link. Its structural formula is [C6H5C]2O2. It is one of the most important organic peroxides in terms of applications and the scale of its production...

/DMA
Dimethylaniline
N,N-Dimethylaniline is an organic chemical compound, a substituted derivative of aniline. It consists of a tertiary amine, featuring dimethylamino group attached to a phenyl group. This oily liquid is colourless when pure, but commercial samples are often yellow...

 system, or using an MEKP catalyst with cobalt
Cobalt
Cobalt is a chemical element with symbol Co and atomic number 27. It is found naturally only in chemically combined form. The free element, produced by reductive smelting, is a hard, lustrous, silver-gray metal....

 in the resin
Resin
Resin in the most specific use of the term is a hydrocarbon secretion of many plants, particularly coniferous trees. Resins are valued for their chemical properties and associated uses, such as the production of varnishes, adhesives, and food glazing agents; as an important source of raw materials...

.

If the liner is not made of FRP, there are multiple choices for a thermoplastic liner. The engineer
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...

 will need to design the tank based on the chemical corrosion requirement of the equipment. PP
Polypropylene
Polypropylene , also known as polypropene, is a thermoplastic polymer used in a wide variety of applications including packaging, textiles , stationery, plastic parts and reusable containers of various types, laboratory equipment, loudspeakers, automotive components, and polymer banknotes...

, PVC
PVC
Polyvinyl chloride is a plastic.PVC may also refer to:*Param Vir Chakra, India's highest military honor*Peripheral venous catheter, a small, flexible tube placed into a peripheral vein in order to administer medication or fluids...

, PTFE, ECTFE
ECTFE
ECTFE is a fluorocarbon-based polymer , a kind of plastic. It is marketed under the brand name Halar ECTFE by Solvay Solexis...

, ETFE
ETFE
Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene, ETFE, a fluorine based plastic, was designed to have high corrosion resistance and strength over a wide temperature range. ETFE is a polymer, and its systematic name is poly. ETFE has a very high melting temperature, excellent chemical, electrical and high energy...

, FEP
Fluorinated ethylene propylene
Fluorinated ethylene propylene or FEP is a copolymer of hexafluoropropylene and tetrafluoroethylene. It differs from the PTFE resins in that it is melt-processible using conventional injection molding and screw extrusion techniques. Fluorinated ethylene propylene was invented by DuPont and is sold...

, CPVC, PVDF are used as common thermoplastic liners.

Due to FRP's weakness to buckling
Buckling
In science, buckling is a mathematical instability, leading to a failure mode.Theoretically, buckling is caused by a bifurcation in the solution to the equations of static equilibrium...

, but immense strength against tensile forces and its resistance to corrosion, a hydrostatic tank
Storage tank
A storage tank is a container, usually for holding liquids, sometimes for compressed gases . The term can be used for reservoirs , and for manufactured containers. The usage of the word tank for reservoirs is common or universal in Indian English, American English and moderately common in British...

 is a logical application for the composite. The tank is designed to withstand the hydrostatic forces required by orienting the fibres in the tangential direction. This increases the hoop strength
Hoop stress
Circumferential stress is a type of mechanical stress of a cylindrically shaped part as a result of internal or external pressure.The classic example of circumferential stress is the tension applied to the iron bands, or hoops, of a wooden barrel...

, making the tanks anisotropically stronger than steel (pound per pound).

FRP which is constructed over the liner provides the structural strength requirements to withstand design conditions such as internal pressure
Pressure
Pressure is the force per unit area applied in a direction perpendicular to the surface of an object. Gauge pressure is the pressure relative to the local atmospheric or ambient pressure.- Definition :...

 or vacuum
Vacuum
In everyday usage, vacuum is a volume of space that is essentially empty of matter, such that its gaseous pressure is much less than atmospheric pressure. The word comes from the Latin term for "empty". A perfect vacuum would be one with no particles in it at all, which is impossible to achieve in...

, hydrostatic loads, seismic loads (including fluid sloshing), wind
Wind
Wind is the flow of gases on a large scale. On Earth, wind consists of the bulk movement of air. In outer space, solar wind is the movement of gases or charged particles from the sun through space, while planetary wind is the outgassing of light chemical elements from a planet's atmosphere into space...

 loads, regeneration hydrostatic loads, and even snow
Snow
Snow is a form of precipitation within the Earth's atmosphere in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by...

 loads.

Applications

FRP tanks and vessels designed as per BS 4994 are widely used in the chemical industry in the following sectors: chlor-alkali manufacturers, fertilizer, wood pulp and paper, metal extraction, refining
Refining
Refining is the process of purification of a substance or a form. The term is usually used of a natural resource that is almost in a usable form, but which is more useful in its pure form. For instance, most types of natural petroleum will burn straight from the ground, but it will burn poorly...

, electroplating
Electroplating
Electroplating is a plating process in which metal ions in a solution are moved by an electric field to coat an electrode. The process uses electrical current to reduce cations of a desired material from a solution and coat a conductive object with a thin layer of the material, such as a metal...

, brine
Brine
Brine is water, saturated or nearly saturated with salt .Brine is used to preserve vegetables, fruit, fish, and meat, in a process known as brining . Brine is also commonly used to age Halloumi and Feta cheeses, or for pickling foodstuffs, as a means of preserving them...

, vinegar
Vinegar
Vinegar is a liquid substance consisting mainly of acetic acid and water, the acetic acid being produced through the fermentation of ethanol by acetic acid bacteria. Commercial vinegar is produced either by fast or slow fermentation processes. Slow methods generally are used with traditional...

, food processing
Food processing
Food processing is the set of methods and techniques used to transform raw ingredients into food or to transform food into other forms for consumption by humans or animals either in the home or by the food processing industry...

, and in air pollution control equipment, especially at municipal waste water treatment plants and water treatment plants
Water treatment
Water treatment describes those processes used to make water more acceptable for a desired end-use. These can include use as drinking water, industrial processes, medical and many other uses. The goal of all water treatment process is to remove existing contaminants in the water, or reduce the...

.

Types

FRP Vessels and Tanks are used in multiple applications, requiring a strong, corrosion resistant environment.

Scrubbers

FRP Scrubber
Scrubber
Scrubber systems are a diverse group of air pollution control devices that can be used to remove some particulates and/or gases from industrial exhaust streams. Traditionally, the term "scrubber" has referred to pollution control devices that use liquid to wash unwanted pollutants from a gas stream...

s are used for scrubbing fluids. In air pollution control technology, scrubbers come in three varieties, Dry Media, Wet Media, and Biological.

Dry Media

Dry media typically involved a dry, solid media (such as activated carbon
Activated carbon
Activated carbon, also called activated charcoal, activated coal or carbo activatus, is a form of carbon that has been processed to make it extremely porous and thus to have a very large surface area available for adsorption or chemical reactions.The word activated in the name is sometimes replaced...

) suspended in the middle of the vessel on a system of beam
Beam (structure)
A beam is a horizontal structural element that is capable of withstanding load primarily by resisting bending. The bending force induced into the material of the beam as a result of the external loads, own weight, span and external reactions to these loads is called a bending moment.- Overview...

 supports and grating. The media controls the concentration
Concentration
In chemistry, concentration is defined as the abundance of a constituent divided by the total volume of a mixture. Four types can be distinguished: mass concentration, molar concentration, number concentration, and volume concentration...

 of a pollutant
Pollutant
A pollutant is a waste material that pollutes air, water or soil, and is the cause of pollution.Three factors determine the severity of a pollutant: its chemical nature, its concentration and its persistence. Some pollutants are biodegradable and therefore will not persist in the environment in the...

 in the incoming gas via adsorption
Adsorption
Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms, ions, biomolecules or molecules of gas, liquid, or dissolved solids to a surface. This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the surface of the adsorbent. It differs from absorption, in which a fluid permeates or is dissolved by a liquid or solid...

 and absorption.

These vessels have several design constraints. They must be designed for
  • Unloading and Reloading the media
  • Corrosive effects of the fluid to be treated
  • Internal and External Pressure
  • Environmental Loads
  • Support Loads for the grating and support system
  • Lifting and Installing the Vessel
  • Regenerating the media inside the vessel
  • Internal Stack supports for a dual bed construction
  • Redundancy for preventative maintenance
  • Demisting to remove liquids that degrade the dry media
  • Condensate removal, to remove any liquid that condenses inside the vessel

Wet media

Wet media scrubbers typically douse the polluted fluid in a scrubbing solution. These vessels must be designed to more stringent criteria. The design constraints for wet media scrubbers typically include:
  • The corrosive effects of the polluted fluid and the scrubbing solution.
  • The high pressures and loading of a spray system
  • Aerodynamics of the internal media to ensure that there is no bypass
  • Internal Support systems
  • Reservoir of scrubbing fluid for recirculation.
  • Internal and External Pressure
  • Environmental Loads
  • Lifting and Installing the vessel
  • Plumbing of the scrubbing fluid to the vessel
  • Draining to remove vessel sump fluids


In the case of a decarbonator, used in reverse osmosis
Reverse osmosis
Reverse osmosis is a membrane technical filtration method that removes many types of large molecules and ions from solutions by applying pressure to the solution when it is on one side of a selective membrane. The result is that the solute is retained on the pressurized side of the membrane and...

 systems to limit the concentration of gases in the water, the air is the scrubbing fluid and the sprayed liquid is the polluted stream. As the water is sprayed out of the scrubber, the air strips the aqueous gasses out of the water, to be treated in another vessel.

Biological

Biological scrubbers are structurally identical to the wet media scrubbers, but vary in their design. The vessel is designed to be larger, so the air moves slower through the vessel. The media is designed to encourage biological growth, and the water that sprays through the vessel is filled with nutrients to encourage bacteria
Bacteria
Bacteria are a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...

 to grow. In such scrubbers, the bacteria scrub the pollutant. Also, instead of a single, large support system (typically 10 feet depth of media for chemical scrubbers), there are multiple stages of media support, that can change the design requirements of the vessel. (See biofilter
Biofilter
Biofiltration is a pollution control technique using living material to capture and biologically degrade process pollutants. Common uses include processing waste water, capturing harmful chemicals or silt from surface runoff, and microbiotic oxidation of contaminants in air...

 for similar technology that is usually performed outside of an FRP vessel.)

Tanks

A typical storage tank made of FRP has an inlet, an outlet, a vent, an access port, a drain, and an overflow nozzle. However, there are other features that can be included in the tank. Ladders on the outside allow for easy access to the roof for loading. The vessel must be designed to withstand the load of someone standing on these ladders, and even withstand a person standing on the roof. Sloped bottoms allow for easier draining. Level gauges
Level measurement
Level measurement refers to instrumentation techniques designed to measure the height of a fluid or solid within a containing vessel.- Liquid/fluid measurement techniques :*Radar*Guided radar*Electromechanical*Ultrasonic*Capacitance*Hydrostatic pressure...

 allow someone to accurately read the liquid level in the tank. The vessel must be resistant to the corrosive nature of the fluid it contains. Typically, these vessels have a secondary containment structure, in case the vessel bursts.

Size

The size of FRP Vessels is rarely limited by manufacturing
Manufacturing
Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...

 technology, but rather by economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

. Tanks smaller than 7,500 liter
Litér
- External links :*...

s (2,000 gallons) are easily manufactured out of cheaper materials, such as HDPE or PVC. Tanks larger than four meters are generally limited by shipping
Shipping
Shipping has multiple meanings. It can be a physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo, by land, air, and sea. It also can describe the movement of objects by ship.Land or "ground" shipping can be by train or by truck...

 constraints, and the economics suggest a concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...

 or steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...

 tank fabricated at the tank's location.

For chemical storage and air pollution control, the choice is to make multiple tanks of smaller diameters. For example, one of the largest odor control projects in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, the Orange County Sanitation District will utilize 24 vessels total to treat 188,300 cfm
CFM
CFM is an abbreviation for cubic feet per minute which is a measure of flow for liquids and gases, like air or water. CFM may also refer to:*Calea Ferată din Moldova, the Moldovan State Railway...

 (86,200 L/s) of odorous air, with a design of up to 50 ppm of hydrogen sulfide
Hydrogen sulfide
Hydrogen sulfide is the chemical compound with the formula . It is a colorless, very poisonous, flammable gas with the characteristic foul odor of expired eggs perceptible at concentrations as low as 0.00047 parts per million...

. For an equivalent single vessel to perform as well as the 13 headworks trickling filter
Trickling filter
A trickling filter consists of a fixed bed of rocks, lava, coke, gravel, slag, polyurethane foam, sphagnum peat moss, ceramic, or plastic media over which sewage or other wastewater flows downward and causes a layer of microbial slime to grow, covering the bed of media...

s, the single vessel would have to be over 36 feet in diameter. This would be impractical due to the high shipping requirements, internal supports, spray nozzle
Spray nozzle
A spray nozzle is a precision device that facilitates dispersion of liquid into a spray. Nozzles are used for three purposes: to distribute a liquid over an area, to increase liquid surface area, and create impact force on a solid surface...

s and other internals. Plus this single vessel would not incorporate redundancy
Redundancy (engineering)
In engineering, redundancy is the duplication of critical components or functions of a system with the intention of increasing reliability of the system, usually in the case of a backup or fail-safe....

 for preventive maintenance
Preventive maintenance
Preventive maintenance has the following meanings:#The care and servicing by personnel for the purpose of maintaining equipment and facilities in satisfactory operating condition by providing for systematic inspection, detection, and correction of incipient failures either before they occur or...

.

Limitations

Typical FRP temperature
Temperature
Temperature is a physical property of matter that quantitatively expresses the common notions of hot and cold. Objects of low temperature are cold, while various degrees of higher temperatures are referred to as warm or hot...

 limits are almost entirely based on the resin. The thermoplastic resin will suffer from creep
Creep (deformation)
In materials science, creep is the tendency of a solid material to slowly move or deform permanently under the influence of stresses. It occurs as a result of long term exposure to high levels of stress that are below the yield strength of the material....

 at elevated temperatures and ultimately fail. However, new chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

 has produced resins that claim to be able to achieve even higher temperatures, which expand this field immensely. The typical maximum is 110 degrees celsius.

Design standards

GRP Tanks fall under regulation of several groups.
  • Bs4994
    BS4994
    BS4994 is the "specification for the design and construction of vessels and storage tanks in reinforced plastics"...

    -87 is the British Standards
    British Standards
    British Standards are the standards produced by BSI Group which is incorporated under a Royal Charter...

     Standard for FRP Tanks and Vessels
  • ASME RTP-1 (Reinforced Thermoset Plastic Corrosion Resistant Equipment) is the standard for FRP tanks and vessels held within the United States
    United States
    The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

     under 15 psig and located partially or fully above ground
    Soil
    Soil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics...

    . Typical design
    Design
    Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...

     parameters and specifications will require either compliance with ASME RTP-1 or accreditation from ASME.
  • ASTM 3299 which is only a product specification, governs the filament winding process for tanks. It is not a design standard

Bs4994

It is to avoid the uncertainty associated with specifying the thickness alone, that BS4994 introduced the concept of "unit properties". It is property per unit width, per unit mass of reinforcement. For example, UNIT STRENGTH is defined as load in Newton per millimeter (of laminate width) for a layer consisting of 1 kg of glass per square meter. i.e. the unit is N/mm per Kg/m2 glass

ASME RTP-1

In RTP-1 specifications, the primary concerns relate stress and strain
Deformation (mechanics)
Deformation in continuum mechanics is the transformation of a body from a reference configuration to a current configuration. A configuration is a set containing the positions of all particles of the body...

, such as hoop stress, axial stress, and breaking stress to the physical properties of the material, such as Young's modulus
Young's modulus
Young's modulus is a measure of the stiffness of an elastic material and is a quantity used to characterize materials. It is defined as the ratio of the uniaxial stress over the uniaxial strain in the range of stress in which Hooke's Law holds. In solid mechanics, the slope of the stress-strain...

 (which may require an anisotropic analysis due to the filament winding process). These are related to the loads of the design, such as the internal pressure
Pressure
Pressure is the force per unit area applied in a direction perpendicular to the surface of an object. Gauge pressure is the pressure relative to the local atmospheric or ambient pressure.- Definition :...

and strain.

BS EN 13121

All are afraid of this new standard emerged as a new version of BS4994. This standard is famous for complications and now all from the industry is trying to get BS4994 restored. This standard was reviewed by industry worldwide and all feel that it is very complicated, unintelligible, incomprehensible, not understandable, giving rise to uncertainties, source of formulae unknown, many errors and inconsistencies. This damaged the credibility of code.

A number of talented engineers have set out to investigate this standard and their conclusion: Errors; no idea where some formulae originated; very complicated. One such analysis produced a list of forty two (42) errors or inconsistencies.

GRP tank making industry lobbied BSI to have EN13121 withdrawn and BS4994 reinstated. BS4994 is now again reinstated to "current" status and is now live.

Further reading

— a case study of the design process of a cylindrical vessel, using the BS 4994 methodology
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