A floating roof is required in some storage tanks in addition of the fixed roof and structure
. This floating roof rises and falls with the liquid level inside the tank and are considered a safety requirement as well as a pollution controlling step for many industries including petroleum refining.
There are two categories of roof tanks, fixed roof tanks and floating roof tanks. Lets discuss both of them in brief:
Fixed roof tanks are meant for liquids with very high flash points like fuel oil, water, bitumen etc. These tanks are similar to dome roofs, cone roofs and umbrella roofs tanks. These are insulated to prevent the blockage of certain materials, wherein the heat is provided by steam coils within the tanks.
Floating roof tanks are broadly divided into external floating roof tanks also known as floating roof tanks and internal floating roof tanks. These tanks are nothing but cone roof tanks with a floating roof inside which travels up and down along with the liquid level and they are used for liquids with low flash-points
Other Types of tank
Milk tank or Bulk tank: These storage tanks are used for cooling and holding milk at a cold temperature until it can be picked up by a milk hauler. Usually made of stainless steel, these tanks are considered as one of the important milk farm equipments.
Mobile storage tanks- These tanks are not similar to storage tanks, however they share many of the same features of storage tanks. A number of such tanks include LNG carriers; railroad tank cars; and the road and highway traveling tankers and ocean-going oil tankers. Holding tanks can also be considered as mobile storage tanks. These tanks are used to store waste on RVs and boats.