Frost protection for the LNG tank foundation

LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) is natural gas that has been liquefied by cooling it to approximately -160 °C. In its liquid state, it occupies only around 1/600th of the volume of gaseous natural gas. This offers advantages in terms of storage and transport.

Due to the extremely low temperatures of around -160 °C prevailing in the storage tank, significant frost damage can occur to both the tank’s components and its foundations. The intense cold can cause surrounding materials to become brittle, cracks to form or components to deform. Furthermore, the ground beneath the tank may freeze as the cold penetrates it, thereby compromising its load-bearing capacity. This potential damage poses a serious safety risk and, in the worst-case scenario, can lead to technical malfunctions or structural problems

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Cracks can form in the foundation of the LNG tank due to the temperatures of -160 °C inside the tank – this causes frost damage! This can be counteracted by maintaining a temperature of 5 °C. For this reason, the engineers at eltherm developed a redundant system to prevent system failure and avoid damage to the foundation.

In addition, a ring heater was installed beneath the outer wall of the LNG tank to prevent the effects of the cold.

The electric heating elements are usually arranged horizontally in a series of parallel heating circuits, the spacing of which is calculated using ANSYS Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software to ensure a consistent spacing.