Storage tanks take up a lot of real estate in storage terminal facilities but are often less cared for in maintenance programs and operations due to difficulties in accessing tank roofs. Although they may not get the same level of attention as other parts of the facility, storage tanks have many inherent risks to personnel, the environment, and other assets if not properly maintained.

Tank protection maintenance covers a broad ecosystem of devices and equipment dedicated to the accurate measurement of pressure, temperature and liquid level changes, as well as the monitoring of equipment, which helps protect these assets (e.g. pressure vacuum vents, emergency vents, thief hatches, flame and blanketing, and vapor recovery regulators.) When driving continuous safety improvements, a well-informed facility manager needs to focus on tank integrity and the day-to-day challenges of tank farm personnel.

In this storage terminal safety podcast, we are joined by Emerson's Dave Macedonia to discuss today's most cost effective and innovative technologies to help prevent tank over pressure or under pressure events that jeopardize tank integrity and personnel safety.

Visit the Terminal Safety and Tank Pressure Control sections on Emerson.com for more on some of the technologies discussed. Also, links have been added in the transcript below for specific products and technologies discussed.

Transcript

Jim: Hi, everyone. This is Jim Cahill from the Emerson Automation Experts blog. As part of our continuing podcast series on enabling storage terminal safety, today I'm joined by David Macedonia and we're gonna talk about ways to achieve better tank protection. Welcome, Dave.

Dave: Hi, Jim. Thanks a lot for having me.

Jim: You bet. Well, why don't we get started could you give us a little bit of your background, your education, and your path to where you are today?

Dave: Sure. So, I am the industrial business development director for Emerson's pressure management business unit based in McKinney, Texas, just north of Dallas. So, I've been with Emerson for about five years mostly in marketing and business development roles, both in our natural gas side of the business and our industrial business within pressure management. And I have a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Northwestern University and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business. And in my old life, I was a submarine officer in the Navy for seven years operating nuclear propulsion plants.

Jim: Well, that sounds like a very diverse and interesting background! So, let's apply that into what you're doing right now. Can you tell us a little bit about, you know, today's tank protection and how its impact on our listeners' bottom lines and their operational performance?

Dave: Tank farms, both in refineries, chemical plants, and in terminals take up a lot of real estate in the plant, but don't get as much attention as other parts of the plant. And there's a lot going on inside of a tank, it's really its own ecosystem. It has to be carefully controlled both on the liquid and the vapor side. So, at least in our business unit with Emerson and the equipment that I'm responsible for, we maintain the vapor side of the tank. And really there's a lot of factors that go into this and a properly maintained tank can communicate that operational benefits and safety benefits for operators of these facilities.