Spherical gas container
Ball gas tanks are pressure tanks made of steel for storing natural gas , bio or liquid gas . They usually have a diameter of 20 m to 45 m, with a wall thickness of around 30 mm, and, thanks to an operating pressure of 5 bar to 10 bar, they have a storage capacity above that of the earlier gas containers (“gasometers”). With thicker walls, up to 20 bar are possible. An example of a spherical gas container is the spherical gas container in Wuppertal .
The spherical shape has several advantages. Compared to all other geometrical bodies, the sphere has the smallest surface with the same volume. The cost of materials is therefore lowest for spherical containers. In addition, stresses from the pressure difference between the interior and the environment are evenly distributed in the container wall , which allows relatively small wall thicknesses . Thermal influences from solar radiation are less dependent on the position of the sun due to the almost identical radiation area . The disadvantage is the complex production of the multi-curved container elements, for example compared to tube storage tanks .
The first spherical gas storage facility was built in Bielefeld-Gadderbaum in 1931/32 , the two largest in the world were built by MAN in 1953/54 for the then Ludwigshafen gas works, each with a capacity of 50,000 m³. However, larger numbers of spherical storage tanks were built in the 1960s , when the conversion from city gas to natural gas and high-pressure networks began.
While spherical gas containers are ideal for medium volumes - for example for the gas requirements of municipalities or in industry - high- pressure storage tanks with pressures of around 100 bar are used for storing very large amounts of gas ( tube storage tanks laid in the ground , deep caverns and underground storage tanks in extracted oil - or gas storage facilities).
literature
- Günter Cerbe, Benno Lendt: Basics of gas technology: gas procurement - gas distribution - gas use . 8th edition. Carl Hanser Verlag, 2016, ISBN 978-3-446-44966-4 .