Bulk chemical & liquid storage
Bulk storage tanks and tank farms for hazardous and non-hazardous liquids, from design to commissioning.
Request a quotationBulk chemical storage tanks and tank farms, designed around your process
Ai Process designs and builds bulk chemical and liquid storage facilities for manufacturers across the UK. Whether you need a few large storage tanks for a food or drink plant or a complete tank farm for hazardous chemicals, we take the project from the first feasibility study through to commissioning and handover.
Every bulk storage facility we deliver is engineered for the liquids it will hold, the volumes you need today and the growth you expect in future. We look at the whole system, not just the tanks: deliveries and tanker offloading, bunding and secondary containment, pumps, pipework and pipe bridges into the factory, instrumentation and control.
Our bulk liquid storage services include:
- Feasibility studies, cost estimates and time projections for new or extended bulk storage
- Front end engineering design (FEED), 3D modelling, P&IDs and general arrangement layouts
- Tank sizing and materials of construction matched to the liquids stored and the throughput required
- Bund design, secondary containment, civil works and foundations
- Tanker offloading and loading bays, pumps, transfer systems and pipe bridges
- Level instrumentation, overfill protection and process control, from local controls to PLC and SCADA
- Storage tank venting calculations and vapour control
- Documentation for DSEAR, HAZOP, SIL & LOPA
- Procurement, construction management, installation, testing and commissioning
- Extensions and upgrades to existing bulk storage facilities
Storage for hazardous and non-hazardous liquids
We design bulk storage for a wide range of liquids, including solvents, oils, resins, chemicals, alcohols and food and drink ingredients. Each brings different demands: materials of construction, venting, temperature, cleaning, segregation of incompatible chemicals and the level of containment needed. Getting these right at the design stage avoids costly changes later and keeps the facility safe and compliant for its whole life.
Where flammable liquids are involved, our designs follow HSE guidance HSG176 and the DSEAR regulations, with ATEX hazardous area zoning built in. Find out more about flammable liquid and solvent storage.
From a few storage tanks to a complete tank farm
Recent projects include thirteen 60,000 litre oils storage tanks and a transfer pipe bridge for VIL Resins in Bolton, six 30,000 litre solvent storage vessels for Tor Coatings with space for four more, and the bulk solvent tank farm at Alcohols Ltd’s new manufacturing facility in Rugby.
Many of our bulk storage projects are delivered within live manufacturing sites. We plan demolition, tie-ins and commissioning around your production, so existing operations can keep running while the new storage is built. Acting as principal contractor or EPCM contractor, we give you one engineering partner from design to handover, backed by almost 40 years of process engineering experience.
Related services: Tank farm design and construction | Flammable liquid and solvent storage | Storage regulations | DSEAR & ATEX compliance
Bulk storage case studies
VIL Resins – Oils Tank Farm
Ai Process Design, Construct & Commission New Oils Tank Farm and Transfer System for VIL Resins Ltd in Bolton
Tor Coatings – Tank Farm
Design, Construct & Commission a New Solvent Tank Farm & Distribution System
Alcohols – Solvent Manufacturing Facility
Ai Process Design & Construct State of the Art Solvent Manufacturing Facility for Alcohols Ltd.
Bostik – New Solvent Tank Farm
Ai Process Design, Construct & Commission New Solvent Tank Farm and Transfer System for Bostik in Stafford, UK
Bulk storage questions
Tank sizes and numbers are set by your throughput, delivery sizes and the space available on site. Recent projects have used vessels of 30,000 to 60,000 litres each, in tank farms of up to thirteen tanks, and we design each facility to suit the client’s process.
In most cases, yes. Bulk liquid storage normally needs secondary containment, such as a bund, to hold any leak or spill. A common benchmark is a bund that holds at least 110% of the largest tank, or 25% of the total volume stored, whichever is greater. The right design depends on the liquids, the site and the regulations that apply, so we design the bund as part of the tank farm.
Yes. We assess existing tank farms, add new tanks and transfer systems, and bring older installations up to current standards, often while the site stays in production.
A short description of the liquids, the volumes you want to store, how they are delivered and used, and the site location is enough to start. We can then provide a cost and time estimate, or a feasibility or FEED study for larger projects.