Should the Inside of a Diesel Storage Tank Be Painted?

I don't think it's required....but coating the bottom is recommended...

https://law.resource.org/pub/us/cfr/ibr/002/api.652.1997.pdf

http://www.cin-protective.com/portal/attachs.pdf?CONTENTITEMOID=98858080809C80GC&CLASSTOKEN=scpdescricaocategoria&ATTRIBUTEID=ficheiro

What material is the tank made of?

How clean and water free will the diesel reliably be?

Is the tank located in an area of high humidity, medium humidity, or always low humidity?

How long is the tank meant to last?

What type of paint are you considering using?

I think it would be a good idea.

Even if you have the best condensation proof venting system ever created there no saying you wont get a slug of water laden fuel delivered at some point (That happens more often than most fuel suppliers are willing to admit to.) that then leaves you nice clean tank sitting with water in the bottom that never will know about.

As for what to use for paint that would be something only a good paint supply dealer can tell you. More than likely it will be some sort of petroleum products compatible epoxy paint.

Just don't use something you think is or know used to be compatible with such applications.

A few months ago I designed and built a new boiler system for heating my new work shed and old house. I figured the best thing to do to make it long term rust and leak proof was to line the inside with a good coat of Rustoleum primer to keep the antifreeze and water solution off of as much of the steel as possible.

About 4 days ago I shut it down to do some work on the system including replacing the undersized feed lines to the house with larger diameter ones and doing the final install of the electrical and electronics control systems.

In order to do that and make the work easier I drained it down to move it out of the way only to find my antifreeze and water solution solid rust orange already.

Turns out that the new 'Environmentally safe' Rustoleum primer apparently breaks down when exposed antifreeze unlike its old formula so now I have a boiler that is lined with slimey orange goo.

The only fix I have is to cut the thing open and strip the bad primer coat off and redo it with two part industrial epoxy.

Probably, if paint does not comply comptability will end up clogging the fuel filter so soon.

The reason why to paint the tanker bottom is that water is abit corrosive to metal than deisel itself. In boilers its a different story, I guess.

It's still corrosive and needs to be properly treated to keep it from eating into the various metals but mostly it's just that 3/16" - 3/8" cast iron or steel takes way longer to rust through than does the typical 14 - 20 gauge steel most fuel tanks are made from.

By adding a chemically inert barrier between the container and the contents to keep the reactive components separate helps considerably in applications where less than ideal chemical compatibility issues may arise.

I just didn't expect to find out that something that used to be and was trusted to be chemically compatible with antifreeze and most every other fluid common to this sort of application apparently isn't any more.

I agree, nothing is built to last these days. I hate businessman who learns statistics and probability so much. They shouldn't have learn that.

The product of the 60's and 70's were good ones as compared to the stuff we have now.

You would have been better off burning the money you paid for that Rustoleum, and throwing the ashes into your boiler. Today's Rustoleum is garbage, rubbish. It is not worth the effort even to buy, much less pay the price, which you are now seeing is far greater than that number on your receipt.

TCM : Couldn't you build the tank out of aluminum ? Just like a fuel tank on a big rig ? I don't think they paint the inside of those tanks and aluminum doesn't rust either.

What tank?

My issue is with my new boiler I built and aluminum when exposed to untreated hot water and antifreeze for log periods of time tends to have far more issues with corrosion and breakdown than steel does.

TCM : not your tank or boiler.

Mr Nabil Habib , his tank, the one he wanted to know if it needed paint, that one.

Why are you trying to get TCM to build Habib's tank? Are they even in tye same part of the world?....

....is this fulfilling some odd match making impulse?

This is getting weird, I'm outta here,,

Why? Depends on MOC.

It depends on tank size. My background is pipeline fuels and bulk fuel storage. The only bulk fuel tank I ever saw painted was the 500k underground tank in Turkey that was damaged by an earthquake. It was lined with several layers to reinforce the tank walls, one layer was a fiber reinforced polymer concrete covered in several layers of epoxy.

The single most important layer was not the structural fiber concrete or even the epoxy, it was the conductive layer that is designed to relieve the static buildup that develops in fuel moving through pipelines.

So, if the original post is talking about a bulk storage or transfer tank I would say painting is a bad idea. There are regulations for inspecting storage tanks over a certain size to find corrosion before it becomes a problem.

As for TMC's tank, it is small enough that the static potential between the fuel and the tank should not be sufficient to cause a spark between the fuel and any exposed metal on gauges or un-painted piping.

I did not read the links above referring to painted bottoms, but none of the tanks I was in (except for Turkey) had painted bottoms. Water was drained off daily on active tanks and before tank transfers.

Drew K

It is the best way to block all filters and dynamic parts (Motors, pumps ...) associated with the tank.

Instead of painting why not have it sprayed with this?