Why Hydrogen Peroxide Tank Safety is Important
You need to take care when operating hydrogen peroxide tank in your plant site. Especially, you need to put your attention closely to hydrogen peroxide tank safety. It is because commonly hydrogen peroxide tank stores at least 10 MT of hydrogen peroxide.
Please imagine what will happen when something wrong happens with that tank. Huge hydrogen peroxide decomposition reaction will occur. It generate huge amount of oxygen and release heat at the same time.
If the storage tank is poorly designed, it may collapse because it can not stand to hold inside pressurization due to rapid oxygen generation.
Tips on Hydrogen Peroxide Tank Safety
There are some aspects you need to consider when managing hydrogen peroxide tank. Proper management is a must in order to achieve safety operation.
Please follow the tips below on how to have a better hydrogen peroxide tank safety management:
Tank has to be designed properly:
- Use only compatible material for hydrogen peroxide tank. This will reduce greatly the potential of hydrogen peroxide decomposition.
- Install two level indicators for the tank. If one indicator fails you still have another one.
- Temperature indicator is very important. The tank should have at least one.
- Provide sampling point with double valves.
- Emergency drain valve is strongly recommended.
- A vent nozzle installed at the top of the tank should be provided. Make sure it is equipped with strainer at the end of vent nozzle to avoid foreign material entering the tank.
- Manhole should be installed on the lower shell and on the top of the tank. It is mainly used for cleaning purposes.
- Water spray facility should be provided for cooling the tank when temperature inside of it increases over the limit value.
- If the tank is installed outdoor, tank shading needs to be installed. If not, tank shading is not necessary.
- Use suitable gasket material for flanges and man holes.
Tank maintenance is very important:
- Make a schedule for inside tank cleaning. The period will depend on various factors. Based on my experiences, once per two or three years is enough.
- Use only purified water or de-mineralized water for cleaning hydrogen peroxide tank.
- Clean up work also include strainer at the vent nozzle.
- Don’t forget to calibrate temperature and pressure gauges installed on the tank. It is to ensure that those instrumentation work well.
- If you have operated the tank for long times, suppose more than 10 years, check tank bottom and shell thickness. It is to make sure that hydrogen peroxide does not attack the tank and you will confident enough to continue operating the tank.
Tank should be monitored everyday:
- Record level, temperature and pressure indications at least every two hours to monitor hydrogen peroxide condition in the tank.
- Before loading hydrogen peroxide into the tank, always make sure that it has good quality (stability) and free from foreign material. In addition, hose, pump and piping used for loading/unloading process are already clean.
- Keep at least one bottle of hydrogen peroxide sample taken from container every time you receive hydrogen peroxide from your supplier. Keep it away from direct sun shine and keep it at least for several days. It is used to ensure when you have problem with the hydrogen peroxide in the tank.
This guide is slightly long, but please follows those tips for having a better hydrogen peroxide tank safety. Do not forget to read hydrogen peroxide MSDS since you will find many safety information inside it.
