Seismic codes govern structural design to prevent damage to buildings and structures during an earthquake. It’s common knowledge that buildings must conform to specific seismic codes, but your chemical storage tanks also have seismic regulations. Any facility in a seismically active region, including everywhere along the Pacific Rim, must pay careful attention to the safety measures established in the International Building Code.

If your chemical tank is located outdoors, it’s exposed to the elements, such as sun, wind, and rain. Special considerations are recommended to protect the life of the storage tank, especially from damaging ultraviolet rays from the sun.

How do you know when it’s time to replace your polyethylene storage tank, instead of repairing it? No matter what chemical tank manufacturer you use, there are hidden costs to replacing a damaged tank. At some point, it’s less expensive to replace the tank — but that could be years later than you might think.

Many companies only calculate the tank purchase cost and shipping costs when deciding whether to repair or replace a chemical storage tank, but there are several additional factors to consider as well. Let’s look at these overlooked factors that contribute to your total cost.

The traditional choice for storing the materials in making beer and wine is stainless steel, or oak casks. But breweries and wineries are beginning to see the benefits of using polyethylene storage tanks.

What’s causing these industries to make the shift? Cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) tanks are an ideal solution for breweries and wineries that would rather invest in scaling their business than sinking money into unnecessarily expensive equipment.

Polymers are important chemicals used in the headworks of wastewater treatment plants. They facilitate the flocculation or coagulation of solids in the wastewater to produce large curds of solid materials. They also aid in dewatering of digester cake — reducing the water content to make it easier and less expensive to transport waste materials to the landfill.

Polymers are highly viscous environmental stress cracking agents, which means they present unique storage challenges that require the right storage solution for adequate safety and cost effectiveness. Let’s explore these challenges and solutions.

Sodium hypochlorite is a chemical used in thousands of applications. As an aggressive oxidizer, it’s critical to limit the opportunity for the chemical to escape the storage tank. If you’re using a polyethylene tank to store oxidizing chemicals, you can multiply the useful life of your chemical storage tank by using an engineered polyethylene antioxidant tank system.

Peracetic acid is a bactericide and fungicide that is used in the food industry and wastewater management. It’s a potent chemical that must be treated with care and stored properly. Improper handling could be costly and result in personal injury.

We've recorded a podcast with industry experts Phil Harvey, Vice President of Operations and Jane Smith, Director of Marketing from Enviro Tech. We had an in-depth discussion about using and storing peracetic acid.

You can listen to the full podcast and / or read the summary below. Click on the download arrow in the player below to download or the play button to listen.

You can also download and favorite the Poly Processing Tech Talk Podcast from your favorite podcast player including iTunes, Google Play, Pandora, Stitcher, Spotify, and YouTube. Just type in the search box in the player of choice "Poly Processing Company Tech Talk" and then favorite it or like it. That's all there is to it. 

When you design a chemical storage tank system, you have to consider the factors that impact the tank’s service life. Not only do you have to make sure that the tank material and fitting materials are compatible with the chemical you’re storing, it’s also important to consider the functionality of the tank — for example, how it responds to pressure.

You need to know exactly how much pressure your chemical storage tank can safely handle. This is an issue for every chemical tank, no matter what material it’s made of. Fortunately, cross-linked polyethylene storage tanks have remarkable durability compared to many other materials. That said, you need to know your tank’s pressure limits.

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.