Anhydrous Ammonia unloading facility

[nkalanaga]

Does anyone know what a small unloading facility for anhydrous ammonia would look like?  Google Images isn't any help, and I haven't found any in northeast Kentucky.  It's commonly used as fertilizer in the Midwest, and I'd like to add a farm chemical sales to one of my grain elevators.

Or are they basically some hoses attached to the storage tank, with little visible structure?

[Spades]

Googled images anhydrous ammonia facility : 

https://www.google.com/search?q=anhydrous+ammonia+facility&es_sm=93&biw=1680&bih=881&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAmoVChMIy4G9hofnyAIVQpqICh1tMgM_

Liked this one from Peroiastation: http://peoriastation.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/MVI_3232gavilon2.jpg

G

[mu26aeh]

Check this out from model railroad hobbyist forum.

http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/23953

[RockGp40]

The guy who models the Iowa Interstate has it spot on. If you want to do holding tanks, long ones like those used for LPG are appropriate.

[nkalanaga]

Spades:  Your Google search did turn up one picture I hadn't found before, an architectural model, but like my other searches, most of the pictures weren't of the actual equipment.  Lots of diagrams, so I now know HOW it works, but not much modeling info.

Mu26aeh:  Thank you!  And if you know the modeler, tell him I like his work.  That's beautiful.

RockGp40:  I'll have to have at least one tank, so thank you, too.  I was wondering if they were all the LPG style, which seems to be the common design in diagrams, so that's what I'll use.  Probably not a real long one, though, just a little bigger than the tank car, as my elevator doesn't serve that large an area.

[Spades]

Tanks and a lot of bollards : http://www.dnxengineers.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/jamesrivertank.jpg and http://randhpaintingmn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/propane-bulk-storage-tank-coating-and-painting.jpg and http://www.cherryenergy.com/images/lp_bulk.jpg andhttp://www.energysusa.com/images/corndryergassupply.jpg and my favorite with photo shop label: http://3.imimg.com/data3/TK/RC/MY-7359330/lpg-storage-tank-500x500.jpg

[nkalanaga]

Tank data isn't a problem, as there's a propane dealer a couple miles from here, and they seem to have the same type of tank.

On the other hand, that James River ammonia tank seems to have a lot more pipes than the LPG tanks, and even more than the diagrams I have show.  That would be a mess to model!

[Spades]

Nkalanaga

This may have been the model you looked at. http://www.lifeinscale.net/Ammonia_Training_Model.asp

[nkalanaga]

No, I hadn't seen that one before, but it looks very much like what I wanted.  A basic facility for a small farm chemical sales, with just the minimum equipment needed to safely do the job.

Thank you!!!!

[BruceStikkers]

The facilities form the 1960s and 1970s had a lot less safety equipment and were usually fairly simple with some hoses, pipes and a way to get on top of the tank to hook things up. As you move into the 1980s to today you have more safety equipment added to the mix. For a small fertilizer plant it can be a simple setup. They always had a galvanized stock thank with water to jump into in an emergency to dilute the ammonia. I am familiar with these because I called on these plants for decades.

Bruce Stikkers
St. Joseph, IL

[nkalanaga]

Mine will be very small, just an unloading spot and storage tank at a community grain elevator, in 1974.  So simplicity seems to be in order.  The stock tank wouldn't be hard to make from paper, and it looks like the rest can be cobbled up from wire, with wood or styrene for the platform and steps, and a shed for the compressor.  Sounds like a good project for this winter.

I noticed that all of the diagrams called for a container of water for emergencies, but didn't know how it was used.  Water will absorb a lot of ammonia, but one would have to get the spilled ammonia into the water.  I never thought of just jumping into the water for accidental exposure...