LANPEC has been engaged in research on spherical tanks since 1968, consistently playing a leading role in the formulation of industry standards: It compiled the 1970 edition of technical conditions for the manufacture and installation of spherical tanks, and participated in the technical compilation of spherical product sections in the 1980 edition of pressure vessel technical conditions. In 1990, LANPEC led the drafting of China’s first national standard for spherical tanks, GB 12337-1990, and subsequently took the lead in developing the basic parameter standard for spherical tanks, GB/T 17261-1998. To date, the company has successively revised and issued multiple spherical tank-related standards, including GB 12337-1998, GB/T 17261-2011, GB/T 12337-2014, and GB/T 12337-202X. LANPEC serves as the lead drafting unit and the secretariat unit for the national spherical tank standards, and also acts as the leading unit of the National Spherical Tank Standardization Working Group. The company has long cooperated with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (now the State Administration for Market Regulation), responsible for engineering technical consultation and training for spherical tank products. Through more than 40 years of dedicated efforts since the reform and opening-up, LANPEC has achieved world-leading levels across the entire chain of spherical tank design, manufacturing, and installation. 

The company boasts a professional R&D technical team led by domestic experts in spherical tanks, capable of precisely meeting owner requirements and customizing specialized, individualized spherical tank design solutions. Currently, LANPEC designs over 200 spherical tanks per year. It holds more than 30 patents related to spherical tanks, covering various distinctive types such as deep-sea double-shell spherical tanks, liquid hydrogen spherical tanks, and energy storage spherical tanks, with wide technical applicability and strong practicality.

LANPEC possesses full qualification and capability for both rule-based design and analysis-based design (SAD) of domestic pressure vessels. It is one of the earliest units in China to obtain SAD analysis design qualification and has built the first spherical tank in China designed using analysis-based methods. Additionally, the company has professional spherical tank calculation software that, through deep integration with ANSYS software, effectively reduces shell thickness and optimizes structural forms, significantly saving material costs while greatly enhancing the safety and reliability of spherical tanks. 

I. Specialized Spherical Tanks 

1) LNG Double-Walled Spherical Tank 

LANPEC holds patents for the design, manufacturing, and installation of LNG double-walled spherical tanks and led the construction of China’s first LNG double-walled spherical tank – the 3,000 m³ spherical tank for Wuhan Ganghua Gas Co., Ltd. 

Main structure: 

•  The inner tank uses a spherical shape to bear pressure, with stainless steel selected to withstand the low temperature and pressure of the medium, and is equipped with a cold shrinkage absorption device. 

•  The outer tank uses a spherical shape to hold the insulation material. 

•  The annular space is filled with perlite as insulation material, and nitrogen is charged to prevent moisture. 

•  The inner spherical tank is supported on the ground foundation by pillars, with fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP) used as a cold energy transfer barrier.  

•  Cold energy isolation measures and displacement compensation devices are installed at connections between annular space piping and the outer tank. 

•  Multiple temperature monitoring devices are installed to monitor temperature changes at different locations, including the inner tank, annular space, and inner wall of the outer tank, thereby assessing the service condition of the inner tank.  

•  No internal inspection is required during the design life; periodic inspections rely primarily on indirect methods to assess the safety condition of the inner tank.  

•  Finite element analysis is performed on stress levels, temperature distribution, and cold shrinkage stress of pipelines.   

Structural advantages: Wide applicable volume range, low daily evaporation rate, simple process piping, convenient operation, low maintenance cost, pressurized storage, small footprint, and low investment and maintenance costs.

2) Energy Storage Spherical Tanks

Energy storage spherical tanks are highly efficient thermal energy storage devices, primarily used in industrial waste heat recovery, renewable energy (e.g., solar thermal) coupled energy supply, and district clean heating. Their core value lies in optimizing energy utilization efficiency through peak load shifting, reducing energy costs, while supporting low-carbon transformation. The national demonstration project of advanced compressed air energy storage (CAES) with a capacity of 300MW/1800MWh in Feicheng, Shandong Province – the world’s first of its kind – was designed by our company and utilizes spherical tank thermal storage technology. The 8,000m³ spherical tank in this project serves as a thermal storage unit for compressed air energy storage, used to store hot water, while another 8,000m³ cold storage tank is used to store cold water.

Characteristics of the spherical tanks: The spherical tanks in this project feature large volume, high design temperature, frequent load changes, and complex operating conditions, making them one of the largest fatigue vessels for thermal storage in China.

3) Liquid Hydrogen Spherical Tanks The 

"deep cryogenic large-volume liquid hydrogen spherical tank" developed by the company effectively integrates four disciplines: mechanical strength, cryogenic low temperature, vacuum engineering, and heat transfer. Key breakthroughs have been achieved in the development of materials for the cryogenic temperature range, support and thermal insulation connection structures, and high-vacuum composite insulation and cold retention structures. As a result, the company has developed a liquid hydrogen spherical tank that consumes less material, is lightweight, offers good pressure-bearing capacity, and has a low daily evaporation rate for the same volume. This major technological equipment represents the first of its kind in China, filling a domestic gap and achieving a breakthrough from zero to one.

II. Typical Projects

 Dalian Petrochemical's 8,000m³ LPG spherical tank, the largest in Asia   

Lanzhou Petrochemical's 4,000m³ liquid hydrocarbon spherical tank with the largest PV product in China

China's first 8,000 m³ steel egg-shaped sludge digestion tank

LPG spherical tank in Nicaragua

LPG spherical tank in Pakistan

Xinjiang Bayi Iron & Steel Group low-temperature steel spherical tank