AST & UST Installations

We have extensive experience designing and installing AST (aboveground storage tanks) and UST (underground storage tanks) systems, often in environmentally sensitive, remote and restricted areas. Our clients have included mining, aviation, marine, industrial and chemical companies.

Tank sizes can range from 1000 litre day tanks, often installed at emergency generator locations, up to 150,000-litre category 4 and 5 tanks and 2,000,000 litre category 6 vertical tanks.

AS 1940 describes these tanks in Section 1.4.7

Tanks, as classified in AS 1692, are as follows:

• Category 1: Tanks of up to 1200 L capacity, for aboveground use, intended principally for the storage of oil fuel in domestic type applications.
• Category 2: Vertical or horizontal cylindrical tanks of up to 2500 L capacity, for aboveground use, intended principally for farms and similar open space locations.
• Category 3: Rectangular tanks and tanks with unconventional shapes, intended principally for industrial use aboveground as either head tanks or storage tanks.
• Category 4: Horizontal cylindrical tanks of up to 150,000 L capacity, for underground or aboveground use, intended for industrial or service station use.
• Category 5: Vertical cylindrical tanks of up to 150,000 L capacity, for aboveground use, intended for industrial use.
• Category 6: Vertical tanks of any capacity, size and type that are usually erected on site.

Specifying the right tank for the job.

Tank construction materials and ratings include:

• Single skin
• Double skin
• Steel
• Fibreglass
• Fire-rated
• Combinations of the above

Other tank design options include square tanks based on a container module, the original round tank with dished ends, tanks with built-in dispensers and portable tanks that can be relocated with a forklift or crane.

In the mining sector, tanks are used to store a range of oils and lubricants as well as bulk diesel for mine equipment. In the locomotive sector, tanks store the sand at the provisioning facilities, ready to be loaded into the locomotive sandboxes via overhead piping and connected to large volume air tanks.

Recent advances in technology now enable Class 3 flammable liquids to be stored above ground in specially constructed fireproof tanks, removing the need to excavate and bury the tanks.

An advantage of aboveground tank installations is the ability to conduct visual checks to ensure there’s no tank shell corrosion or product leaking into the environment.