LEC’s Tank Battery Lightning Protection Product – A Wise Investment

Tank Battery Lightning Protection Product

Lightning protection is a wise investment for the oil production and storage industry.

If a storage tank or a tank battery is adversely affected by a lightning, the results can be monumental.

• Parts of that battery may become heavily damaged, and the battery will not only become useless but will also become a liability.
• Production from the field will be severely reduced or possibly stopped.
• Production might be continued with the use of fractured tanks and trucking water for disposal, but these are expensive options.
• Rebuilding the battery not only takes time, but it diverts expensive man-hours from other needed activities.
• If slightly radioactive fluid was being produced or the battery was in an urban area, liability concern will predominate.
• Even if the tanks are not struck directly by a lightning termination, a nearby lightning strike can still create an internal spark that can and, in some cases, will lead to an explosive event and a catastrophic failure.

Therefore, tank battery lightning protection is a must as production must be continued with minimum down-time if an oil company is to stay profitable. One low-cost way to do this is to stop lightning damage.

Our patented Dissipation Array System (DAS) working on Charge Transfer technology provides far superior protection thus a very viable and attractive option for tank battery lightning protection.

DAS consists of three parts: an ionizer, a ground current collector (grounding system) and wire to connect the two. The ionizer is constructed of multiple, sharp, wire points suspended above the facility to be protected. The ionizer points are deployed in sufficient quantity and in the proper geometric orientation to maximize their ionization effect.

When a thundercloud passes over the ionizer, voltage in the air causes electric charge in the ground or fibre glass tanks to form a corona off the wire points that transfers that charge into the atmosphere. This “Cold Corona” (electric charge that is neutralized by the ionizer) cannot ignite any gas that may be present and prevents the tank battery below from being a target for lightning.

Lightning Eliminators & Consultants, Inc. (LEC) has developed a number of products to address the primary and secondary effects related to Tank Battery lightning protection to ensure maximum site and tank integrity.