Safe Fuel Storage

Basics

• This page will go over the basics of Best Practices in fuel storage, and link to more detailed pages

Liquid Fuels

In General

• Secondary Containment
  • This can be as simple as a Walled Enclosure or even a "Kiddie Pool" (Assuming the plastic is compatible with whatever it is designed to contain)
  • Existing Palletized Units for Drums / IBC Totes Exist
  • Potentially due to Tooling Costs, or potentially price gouging, these are VERY costly options
  • A Square Meter 3D Printer making these would be a neat application
• For smaller containers, such as a Safety Can , Flammable Storage Cabinets are used and work pretty well
  • Main thing is insulated walls, auto-closing doors, crushproofness, Grounding+Bonding, and often vapor extraction
    • The floor can also act as a sump, but using them alone for secondary containment isn't perfect
  • As with fall protection, what to do AFTER the safety device is engaged is important too, how easy is it to get the fuel out of the secondary containment? Design for Cleaning and all that
  • An ideal solution would have a Cam-Lock Fitting or equivalent to allow for easy extraction with a Vac-Truck or (Properly Rated) Drum Vac etc
  • Having the containment raised above ground level, and using a gravity drain COULD work/be lower cost to run, but adds construction/operation complexity

Gaseous Fuels

Special Precautions / Exceptions For:

LPG / Autogas / Propane / Butane etc

• Propane Safety

Hydrogen

• Look into Hydrogen Embrittlement / Hot Hydrogen Embrittlement
• Also inspection/maintenance of COPVs / Composite Hydrogen Tanks

Solid Fuel Storage

Wood

• Is there even regulation on this?
• If not best practices can go here

Pelletized Wood

• Is there even regulation on this?
• If not best practices can go here

Sawdust

• Explosive Dust Hazard stuff

Charcoal

• Is there even regulation on this?
• If not best practices can go here

Petcoke / Pyrolysis Oil Rich Charcoal / Torrefied Biomass

• Is there even regulation on this?
• If not best practices can go here

Internal Links

• Fuel Inerting System
• Bunding / Berms
• Gas Detector
• Secondary Containment
• Safety Can
• Chemical Storage Cabinet / Flammable Liquid Storage Cabinet / Gas Canister Storage Cabinet or Gas Canister Storage Cage

External Links

• The OSHA Construction Standards for Flammable Liquids
• The OSHA General Industry Standards for Flammable Liquids
• The OSHA General Industry Standards for Storage and Handling of Liquified Petroleum Gases
• The OSHA General Industry Standards for Storage, Handling, and Usage of Hydrogen
• The OSHA General Industry Standards for Storage, Handling, and Usage of Acetylene
• The OSHA Page on Standard Interpretations pertaining to DOT Approved Gas Cans (Essentially Standard " Gas Cans " are not Best Practices (ie a Safety Can ), but are not an OSHA violation per se)
• This is most likely way high up on the Orders of Liquid Fuel Storage scale, but may be of use, so i'll post them here too:
  • The OSHA Standard Intepritation Pertaining to Spill Containment of flammable or combustible liquids when a curb or Earth Dike is used.
• A Purdue University Agricultural Extention Paper Titled "Aboveground Petroleum Tanks - A Pictorial Guide
• A Video by the YouTube Channel "ConTech Construction LLC" Titled "Construction Safety Flammable Liquids: Safety Cans, Refueling, Storage" ( ~6 Minute Watch )
• The OSHA Standard Interpretations Page Titled "Clarification of requirements for 1000 Gallon Diesel Storage Tank."
• A Video by the YouTube Channel "Federal Safety Solutions" Titled "Flammable and Combustible Liquids Training" ( ~11 Minute Watch ) (Granted some of the general information in the first minutes may be skipped by most people i think)
• A Video by the YouTube Channel " USCSB " Titled "Filling Blind" ( ~11 Minute Watch )