Production Engineering - Cathodic Protection of Steel Tank Bottoms by the Use of Magnesium Anodes (TP 2202, Petr. Tech., May 1947)

The replacement or reconditioning of oil storage tank bottoms due to external corrosion is an expensive maintenance item to the oil industry. Cathodic protection as a means of mitigating this problem has proved very successful in the past few years. One pipe-line company recently used magnesium anodes to cathodically protect two 55,000 bbl and two 20,000 bbl tanks. The tank bottoms were protected as individual units with considerable factual data being taken on one of the 20,000 bbl tanks. Twelve 60-lb anodes were installed about 2½ ft from the tank on approximately 17-½ft centers around the tank. Previous installations and tests have shown that sufficient protection is provided when the tank-to-soil potential using a copper-copper sulphate half-cell as a reference electrode is — 0.90 volts at the edge of tank. Potential measurements taken a few months after completing the installation indicated that the potentials were higher than were needed for protection. Resistors were then inserted in the individual anode circuits which increased the life of the anode installation and still provided adequate protection for the structure. All connecting pipe lines were then insulated from the tank. This limited the anode current strictly to the tank resulting in a greater degree of protection with a still longer anticipated anode installation life. The total installation cost for this tank was less than $300 which amounts to $20 per year The corrosion of metallic structures in contact with soil or water has been a very serious and costly problem for centuries. The annual loss to our nation's pipelines alone is estimated at $200,000,000. Mitigation of this problem by various methods has been carried on quite successfully for a number of years. An electrical method called cathodic protection has been used with considerable success to control corrosive influences on pipelines, tank bottoms, cable sheathing and other buried metal structures. Corrosion of oil storage tank bottoms has been a serious problem among the oil industries for years. In addition to damage costs and loss of oil, the replacement of one tank alone represents several thousand dollars. A reconditioning program at periodic intervals was instituted by several organizations and found to be a very expensive process. A few years ago two of the pipeline companies installed cathodic protection units at their tank farms.3'4 The average current required for protection of the tank bottoms varied from 0.7 to 1.0 milliampere per square foot. The results indicated that adequate protection was obtained at a cost of approximately 10 pct of the previous reconditioning program. The Republic Pipe Line Company experienced severe corrosion on their oil storage tanks. One of their 55,000-bbl tanks