Abstract

This paper is dedicated to material selection and Life Cycle Cost (LCC) of storage tanks. There are many materials options for the construction of storage tanks among which are coated carbon steels, austenitic stainless steels and duplex stainless steels. Material choice requires the designer to consider several features: material performance, material cost and availability, weight and strength aspects, fabrication and maintenance costs. All are important factors in determining the lowest project and life cycle cost. Duplex stainless steels are more often considered for storage tanks projects today due to their good corrosion resistance in many environments and their higher mechanical properties.

This paper will provide recent corrosion data for stored chemicals. Duplex stainless steel corrosion curves obtained in nitric, sulfuric, phosphoric acids as well as several kinds of waters will be provided. In addition, atmospheric corrosion data obtained after 15+ years of sample exposures in several geographic areas will be shown. These results will be compared to those obtained with other materials commonly used for the construction of storage tanks.

The second part of the paper will be focused on duplex fabrication considerations related to welding, forming and cutting. Fabrication guidelines will be outlined, including welding parameters, filler materials and dissimilar alloy welding.

Finally, several case studies of material selection for storage tank projects will be provided. Special attention will be paid to their LCC analyses. Simulations performed by means of a software program based upon API 650 calculation code will be shown considering several tank dimensions. Several cost components will be considered to compare the LCC of the different materials options: initial costs of metallic materials and coatings, fabrication costs and maintenance costs.

Introduction

There are many materials options for the construction of storage tanks. The most commonly used materials are coated carbon steels, austenitic stainless steels and duplex stainless steels.

Keywords:
flowline corrosion, metals & mining, production chemistry, corrosion inhibition, h2s management, oilfield chemistry, well integrity, materials and corrosion, riser corrosion, pipeline corrosion
Subjects:
Production Chemistry, Metallurgy and Biology, Pipelines, Flowlines and Risers, Materials and corrosion, Well Integrity, Subsurface corrosion (tubing, casing, completion equipment, conductor), Corrosion inhibition and management (including H2S and CO2)
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