Bulk Plant

(or tank farm), a complex of structures and equipment for the receipt, storage, transshipment, and distribution of oil and petroleum products. A distinction is made among terminal, refinery, and distribution bulk plants.

Terminal bulk plants are designed for transshipment of products between vehicles or types of vehicles (from oceangoing tankers and barges to river vessels or from railroad routes to individual tanks). Refinery bulk plants may be of the raw-material type (receipt, storage, and preparation of raw materials for refining) or the commercial type (receipt of petroleum products from installations; storage and shipment). Raw-material and commercial bulk plants are usually combined in a single unit (complex) at the refinery or not far from it. Distribution bulk plants supply petroleum products directly to enterprises, and also ship them in small containers. Such plants are divided into oblast, raion, railroad, water-railroad, waterway, pipeline, and subsurface types. Bulk plants of this type have a limited sphere of operation, and their tank storage capacities are relatively small.

Many bulk plants perform the functions of terminal, refinery, and distribution bulk plants simultaneously. At large bulk plants, work is under way on the integrated automation of the processes of receipt, storage, pumping, shipping, and distribution of petroleum products.