Once your food production facility outgrows your 300-gallon totes, it’s time to look into larger storage tanks for food storage and clean-in-place chemicals.

There are several options on the market to choose from, but you’ll need to consider which storage tank can meet your greatest challenges: FDA requirements, full-drain capabilities, and cost-effectiveness.

Properly treating wastewater is an important, but often misunderstood process. If wastewater isn’t treated correctly, it can be extremely harmful to our environment, including the people and animals that live in it.

If your company needs transportable chemical storage containers larger than 55-gallon drums, but nothing as large as a storage tank, an intermediate bulk container (IBC) is the best solution. An IBC, or tote, is an industrial-grade container for storing and transporting bulk chemicals and liquids. IBCs are stackable, easy to transport, and reliable options for storing chemicals of all sorts.

On the surface, polyethylene storage tanks can look pretty similar. It isn’t easy to tell a well-designed and constructed tank from a cheap, inferior tank. Many customers don’t realize that there’s a standard for tank construction based on resin properties and testing. Others simply assume all tank manufacturers follow the ASTM D 1998 standards.

ASTM standards require that all polyethylene tanks and tank materials go through three tests to determine the strength and structural integrity of the chemical storage tank. There is also an additional test for cross-linked polyethylene tanks to measure the chemical makeup of the tank materials. Together, these standardized tests help ensure that you have the strongest, most durable chemical storage tank available.

For many industries and facilities, oxygen is bad news for some chemicals stored in tank systems. Often, when the storage material comes in contact with oxygen, the substance oxidizes and degrades, or it can dry out. In any scenario, coming into contact with oxygen means you’ve lost product — which translates to less revenue and costs of replacement.

Tank blanketing helps prevent contact with oxygen, and Poly Processing is your partner for protecting your stored materials.

Poly Processing is a leader in building innovative solutions to complex chemical storage challenges. Far beyond simple plastic tanks, we have developed a fleet of products that address specific needs of chemical storage. The result for your business is ensured safety, easy tank maintenance, and extended tank longevity.

Bulk stored chemicals can become contaminated from two major sources: debris and moisture. As the product is emptied from the chemical storage tank, dirty air and moisture can be drawn into the tank. Temperature fluctuations can also cause the tank to expand and contract, so that it “breathes” contaminants in and out.

Maintaining chemical purity is essential in many industrial chemical applications, such as computer chip manufacturing, food processing, clean in place, and pharmaceutical manufacturing. Contaminated chemicals can become less effective, and more hazardous to your storage equipment. 

To prevent contamination, Poly Processing often recommends installing special accessories. Tank vent dryers and desiccant filters may be your best choice for keeping moisture out of the chemical storage tank.

Tank vent dryers can be especially valuable if you’re storing sulfuric acid. Because concentrated sulfuric acid is hygroscopic, any moisture entering the tank will be quickly absorbed into the chemical. If your supply of sulfuric acid isn’t frequently replenished, the top layer of acid will become more diluted, and more corrosive. As the contents continue to sit in the tank, the top layer of weak acid will corrode a ring around the inner tank wall.

Maintaining the proper temperature of a chemical is often critical to safe storage. For example, sodium hydroxide at a 50 percent concentration will start to crystallize at or below temperatures of 60 degrees. For polyethylene chemical storage tanks, heating pads and insulation can maintain the specific temperature of the chemical you’re storing—even when your chemical tank is exposed to low air temperatures.

We get a lot of questions about the standard testing on chemical storage tanks that we do at our facility. Vertical tanks larger than 500 gallons are extensively tested to ensure that they meet ASTM standards. Depending on customers’ needs, we also offer additional testing on our chemical storage tank systems.

Environmental stress cracking occurs when microscopic cracks form in polyethylene tanks as a result of storing aggressive chemicals. Over time, these imperceptible cracks combine to form larger cracks, which can lead to leaks or even tank failure. If cracks occur, it’s recommended that you replace the polyethylene tank.