Molasses storage tank design

[Rum]

I am looking at replacing my tote farm of molasses storage with one or two stationary tanks with hard plumbing to the mash tanks. Anyone have experience with that? Do I need to worry about molasses infections or foaming? I have read about treating molasses stored in tanks with products to kill off bacteria. Not sure if that is necessary or not.

Any other design criteria to think about for a molasses tank that holds about a truckload of molasses? Gotta make sure the floor can take it of course. 

Any links to info on the subject would be appreciated.

 

[bluestar]

Molasses can become active during storage, so this is something you have to plan for.

[Rum]

2 hours ago, bluestar said:

Molasses can become active during storage, so this is something you have to plan for.

Thanks. We currently store it in 275 gallon totes. We buy a truckload at a time currently so we would be going through it at the same speed. The totes are kept closed and so far we haven't had any major problems. I'm a bit worried to have it all in one tank in case it does get active. 

Having never run into the problem before, I'm not certain how to plan for it.  How does one plan for that?

[bluestar]

23 hours ago, Rum said:

Thanks. We currently store it in 275 gallon totes. We buy a truckload at a time currently so we would be going through it at the same speed. The totes are kept closed and so far we haven't had any major problems. I'm a bit worried to have it all in one tank in case it does get active. 

Having never run into the problem before, I'm not certain how to plan for it.  How does one plan for that?

Release valve/plugs. Keep it stored cool.

[Silk City Distillers]

There is a beautiful thesis published by Victoria Green a few years back that looked at Bundaberg in Australia, it contains a wealth of fantastic information, and touches on the topic of bulk molasses storage quite a bit.  This is absolutely a must-read paper.

http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/fapi/datastream/unsworks:36385/SOURCE02?view=true

 

[Rum]

On 4/22/2019 at 7:03 AM, Silk City Distillers said:

There is a beautiful thesis published by Victoria Green a few years back that looked at Bundaberg in Australia, it contains a wealth of fantastic information, and touches on the topic of bulk molasses storage quite a bit.  This is absolutely a must-read paper.

http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/fapi/datastream/unsworks:36385/SOURCE02?view=true

 

Thanks Silk. I have never seen that paper before. An amazing wealth of information!

[Silk City Distillers]

Yeah it's rare to get such a behind the scenes glimpse into a large commercial operation like that.

[clearwaterbrewer]

I was thinking a couple 60BBL brewery fermenters would hold a tanker full of molasses. Tthe molasses place I get mine from suggested a couple roto-molded ones, but I am in a downtown, and they would get the evil eye, and people would worry about spillage...  but a couple beer fermenters would be more attractive...   not cheap, but reasonable if used, and attractive and have great resale value, unlike poly...