ABSTRACT
The objectives of good oil storage and handling are to minimize costs and minimize oil deterioration. Sometimes these are mutually consistent objectives, but in the end the art is to strike an optimal balance. The capital costs of oil storage and handling are primarily determined by the quantity to be stored. The capital invested in storage facilities obviously depend on the oil storage requirements and the scale of operation but ultimately be determined by the number and size of the tanks. The type of operation, and in particular the number of crude oils and refined products to be handled, therefore also play a major role. The cost of any hydrolysis in crude oil storage is relatively simple to estimate. Each 0.1% free fatty acid (FFA) increase plus the neutral oil it takes with it during processing represents a loss of, say 1.5 kg/t, but the recovered (acid) oil can be sold at about half the price of the original oil.
