Carports in chemical plants

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Cheap carports can sometimes be found in unusual applications. Talk about wise applications by engineers – I am writing this post in amazement about an application I saw for cheap carports in a small chemical plant. This chemical plant uses hydrogen in its operations and I wanted to detail how they used cheap carports to solve their storage issue.

Hydrogen is a flammable gas and is required to be stored either in an explosion proof room or outside the building in an open manner which allows for plenty of natural ventilation, so that there is no build up of the flammable gas. Laws are in place that require that storage outside the building must be in a locked and fenced in manner to prevent unauthorized access. Now this small chemical plant stores hydrogen in six pack racks and two to four racks are usually in storage for their process use. Attached to the racks are sophisticated controls and manifolds which are all situated outside the building on the outside wall. There is a fenced in area which is locked per the local laws. Now where does the cheap carport come in, you may wonder.

Simply put, they built the fence and then installed a cheap carport that protects the hydrogen cylinders as well as the manifolds and controls from the snow and heat and rain throughout the year. Carports by design are open to the atmosphere, and so there is plenty of ventilation and plenty of natural light available for the operators to do the necessary work including changeovers and such. The alternative choice of building an explosion proof room would have cost about fifty times the cost of installing a cheap carport that does the work just as fine. Thus by using ingenuity and installing a cheap carport, this small plant saved a lot of money while meeting the requirements of all the local laws. Have you come across a unique application for cheap carports lately? Comment away.