Good way to make Butane evaporate in the Big Butane Tank 1

[Vivaldi M. Smith]

Good morning,
I am trying to get a Butane Tank to be completely empty due to a leak on te bottom nozzle. Is there any advise on how I can make all the remaining Butane in the Tank to evaporate?

 

[LittleInch]

Lower the pressure and apply some heat?

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[Vivaldi M. Smith]

I really cannot apply heat, I dont have any heater at the bottom of the Tank.

 

[LittleInch]

Get some electrical trace heating or hot water spray?

Heat comes in many forms.

Add hot water to a tanker and then spray it onto the base of the tank assuming this is an above ground vessel? You haven't given us any details...

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[georgeverghese]

N-butane boils at 0degC, isobutane at -10degC at 1atm, so you've got plenty pressure on this tank to keep this residual butane as liquid. So why cannot you drop the pressure on this "tank" ? No details on operating pressure, design pressure, design temp, design code, venting details...

 

[pierreick]

Hi,
Hot water or electrical heat mantel will do the job!
Pierre

 

[Vivaldi M. Smith]

The Tank is currently kept at almost atmospheric pressure, the operating pressure is 30 Inch H2O at -26/24F, the design pressure is 2.5 PSIG at -60 F, designed for 120,000 BBL, and has Vacuum protection . I believe the design code is API650

 

[LittleInch]

Ah,

So this must be some sort of insulated tank then - pity you didn't give as all these details in your OP....
Any drawings or sketches or somehting?

Your only real option is to let it slowly boil off the final bit once you've evacuated as far as you can go.
Turn on the electric base heaters if you have any.
Remove any insulation that you can.
Maybe circualte warm butane gas if you've got an extra nozzle or even bubble warm butane gas through the liquid?

What did the designers of the tank consider for this? Any low point stripper nozzles?

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[Vivaldi M. Smith]

Sorry , you are right I did not provide all the details, it is an insulated big Butane tank for storage. We have a low point nozzle leaking and have to be fixed.

 

[LittleInch]

e sort of tanks can take a long time to finally boil off the last bit of liquid.

Reduce pressure as much as you can and see if you can add any warm vapour.

and then wait.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[Compositepro]

Warm propane vapor might be effective. Any gas lower in molecular weight than butane, like air or nitrogen, would not work without a blower in the tank to overcome stratification due to gas density differences.

 

[georgeverghese]

See if you can sparge some warm butane gas or warm N2 at the base of the tank into the liquid space. Does this tank have a liquid heel? If not, all you can do is to wait till it is all boiled off. If there is small amount of C5 or butenes, it may take longer to boil off.