Fuel Tank Owners Mitigate Lightning Risks With Fuel Tank Lightning Protection

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The construction of large oil depots has become increasingly important, and oil storage safety also has become a hot topic. It can be seen from multiple major safety accidents that have occurred in recent years that lightning is considered one of the main causes of oil tank fires.

A little carelessness may cause casualties and huge economic losses.

Lightning is a natural climatic phenomenon common in our lives. We can regard them as a natural disaster with strong destructive power. The economic losses caused by lightning can reach tens of billions worldwide every year.

In the past, lightning protection systems (LPS) involved sticking a metal rod into the ground. Nowadays, fuel tank lightning protection involves a three-step process:

1.       Protection of the structure

2.       Grounding/Bonding

3.       Surge Suppression

We are here to understand how a fuel tank catches fire and the best solution to prevent it.

Problem

When lightning makes contact with the tank shell or floating roof, the tank structure becomes electrically charged. If the floating roof is not electrically bonded to the tank shell, its electrical potential does not change as quickly. This can trigger a potential equalising arc above the seals, where there may be flammable vapours that can ignite and cause a rim fire.

Solution

Retractable Grounding Assemble – The introduction of a retractable grounding assembly (RGA) has allowed for a relatively easy and inexpensive way to bond floating roofs and tank shell on both old and new tanks while ensuring the shortest possible grounding route with very low resistance. The braided tape flexible wire is typically made of Aluminium Alloy instead of copper. As copper is prone to corrosion, especially in a hazardous environment where certain chemicals such as Hydrogen Sulphide is present. The Aluminium cable originally developed for marine use greatly improves corrosion resistance and is highly resistant to hydrogen Sulphide (H2S).

The RGA is not affected by the condition of the tank because the RGA and cable are bolted and sealed to optimal locations on the tank shell and floating roof. When properly applied, multiple RGAs on each tank provide low-impedance pathways to safely discharge lightning currents.

LEC’s recommendations for fuel tank lightning protection best practices are to first install RGAs on all tanks; second, a DAS lightning protection system should be installed on or above the tank, to prevent the termination of lightning strikes to the tank.

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