Storage tank

Storage tank/infobox

Four storage tanks linked together to form a large storage facility.

The Storage Tank is a building that can store up to 25,000 units of a fluid (2,500 for version 0.14). It is a passive storage - it has no input and no output, depending on pressure to fill it, essentially being a large pipe.

Usage

Storage tank will only be filled to the same percentage of capacity as pipes that lead to it. Pipe that always carries about 5 water will fill the tank to about 50% of its capacity. Small Pumps can be used to fill the entire tank from a low pressure source (such as distant Pumpjacks).

Storage tank is typically used to store excess oils (Crude Oil, Light Oil and Heavy Oil) to ensure that Oil refinery works smoothly.

Storage tank can also be used as a water-based Accumulator. If hot water consumption by Steam engines changes a lot during the day-night cycle (for example because of Solar panels or Laser turrets), storage tanks can be filled with hot water during low power usage and then emptied during night.

You can empty a storage tank either by mining and rebuilding (you don't get the liquids back!) or if you connect a steam engine on it. You can also use a Small Pump to drain the tank into another storage tank.

Usage as "Energy-Tank"

Since 0.15.0, a Storage tank filled with Heat exchanger 500°C Steam stores around 2.4GJ; a Storage tank filled with Boiler 165°C Steam stores 750MJ.

• 1 Storage tank can store 25,000 units of 500ºC Steam.

• 1 Steam turbine can output 5,820kW = 5,820kJ/s using 60 units of 500ºC Steam/s.
• 1 Storage tank can keep 1 Steam turbine working for 25,000 ∕ 60 ≈ 416.6667s
• A Storage tank can store up to 25,000 ∕ 60 × 5,820 = 2,425,000kJ using 500ºC Steam.

• 1 Storage tank can store 25,000 units of 165ºC Steam.

• 1 Steam engine can output 900kW = 900kJ/s using 30 units of 165ºC Steam/s.
• 1 Storage tank can keep 1 Steam engine working for 25,000 ∕ 30 ≈ 833.3333s
• A Storage tank can store up to 25,000 ∕ 30 × 900 = 750,000kJ using 165ºC Steam.

Up to 0.14, a completely filled tank with 100°C hot water stores 212MJ. This is the equivalent to 42 Basic accumulators, but the tanks needs only 3x3 tiles of space.

See Liquids/Hot to learn more about using stored hot water. See Pipe physics to understand, how this is calculated. Energy-tank is not correct, it is a "work-tank". See Energy and Work about the difference between work and energy.

History

• 0.15.0:
  • Multiplied all fluid amounts by 10.

• 0.13.12:
  • Fluid icon now scales with size of tank.

• 0.12.0:
  • Liquid inside can be seen through a small window.
  • Now connectible to the circuit network.

• 0.9.1:
  • Now has double capacity and takes longer to mine.

• 0.9.0:
  • Introduced

See also

• Liquid network