Above-ground storage tank bottoms are subject to corrosion. The tank bottoms have been protected
from corrosion by several methods, including oil sand, asphalt sand or impressed current cathodic
protection. The insulating property of the oil and asphalt supposes to stop corrosion; however, the
effectiveness of this approach has been questioned due to corrosion failure resulting from insufficient
dielectric protection. Impressed current CP electrochemically stops the corrosion on the tank plates
in contact with sand or soil underneath. However, it cannot protect the plate once it loses the contact
with the soil. In addition, if the transformer rectifier or the system hardware fails, the cathodic
protection is not effective until it repairs or replaced.
A new sacrificial anode system was developed using aluminum mesh with a high pH modified sand
backfill to overcome the problems raised by the other corrosion control systems. This paper will
discuss the new sacrificial anode CP system.
Key words: above-ground storage tank, sacrificial anode, cathodic protection, aluminum mesh anode,
passive film, backfill material, high pH