Last month I attended a West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum meeting, and it was at the City of Grand Rapids Wastewater Treatment Plant. What initially sounded like a fairly dull outing, during the tour of the plant I found myself genuinely impressed and interested. It is quite a large operation, processing approximately fifty million gallons of wastewater a day. Process tanks are an integral part of the wastewater system, from primary to secondary treatments. Of course, process tanks are used in a myriad of industries, like energy processing, plastics, and pharmaceutical production.
Process tanks are large pressure vessels used in many manufacturing and processing contexts, such as the chemical processing, plastics, paper, pharmaceutical, fuel and oil, energy processing, power generation and, as we’ve mentioned, water treatment industries. Depending on the levels of pressure and volume and the size and sort of liquids being handled, pressure tanks come in a variety of types, as is true for any other kind of pressure vessel. From removable or attached lids to vertical or horizontal positioning to extra features like ladders, windows and any needed plumbing features, process tanks are diverse in many different ways. Facilities that produce gold, aluminum and nickel, for an example, use different process tanks than those, let’s say, of the food and pharmaceutical industries, which generally use process tanks made from stainless steel, a material which can best be sanitized. Such industries, though, also utilize titanium, carbon steel and aluminum. For processes involving especially high levels of pressure, various kinds of material is used in addition to the mentioned metals in order to create extra protection and resistance.
The manufacturers that make these tanks are often involved in their individual set-up, ongoing maintenance and inspection— all of which is extremely important for industries in which sanitary is vital to the process, such as the food and pharmaceutical industries; any contamination for either could have deal-breaking consequences.
