Manufacturing and integrity of ammonia storage tanks

Abstract

Manufacturing ammonia storage tanks represents a very demanding and responsible task. The paper presents the methodology for manufacturing two ammonia storage tanks in Russia, along with all the necessary steps. The base material used for tank manufacture is steel P355NL2. Instructions and requirements in EN 14620 standard need to be followed. This standard dictates all previously mentioned steps, hence the standard itself is shown here. The welding technology of two steel tank shells is also shown. Integrity assessment of the tanks is necessary to carry out immediately before the tanks are put into service. NDT results for welded joints and results of adequate tests performed on the tanks themselves provided insight into the quality of the performed work, and have shown that the selected welding technologies have met all requirements in terms of strength, thus confirming that the tank integrity is satisfactory.