can anyone point me in the direction of any 'Best Available Techniques (BAT)' for the UK

I'm looking at designing a small (~40 m?) storage tank to recieve road tanker deliveries of 25% Aqeous Ammonia in the UK

Currently the design is for an atmospheric tank with an assoicated scrubber - where the spent scrubber water is re-used in the process.


I am aware that a low pressure (30 psig) storage tank is an alternative, but the preference is to stick with an atmospheric tank.
I need to ensure the design meets with any UK design guides etc. If anyone can point me in the right direction??

This is my personal, professional opinion.  The partial pressure of NH3 over the aqueous solution is too high and the odor threshold of NH3 is too low to use an atmospheric or API tank that has no cooling capability.  The partial pressure of NH3 at 100 F from a 25 wt. % solution is 15 psia by itself.  This means at atmospheric pressure the solution will be boiling off the NH3!  I think the odor threshold of NH3 is 5 ppm.  The high partial pressure/low odor threshold combination coupled with an API tank will plague the plant with odor issues the entire life of the facility!  Do yourself and others a favor and build a robust tank and system.

we used to make the 29.6% stuff and the original tank was installed in the 50's.  we combined the vapor spaces, added a conservation vent valve(ball valve) and a scrubber.

you can greatly minimize the vapors if the truck has a pump and a vapor return line when unloading.  then the vapor space in your tank is vented back to the truck.

but to do this, you need a tank that can take some pressure.  even if you wanted to avoid a ASME tank, something with a 14 psig MAWP might give you enough driving force to return the fumes to the truck.

when we loaded trucks, we vented them back to our tank.  most of our emissions came during the reaction/blending step to make the solution.

MORE NEWS