What Are Chemical Tankers?

• Introduction
The industrial use of chemicals grew massively especially as
the wings of globalization and trade spread over the past
several decades. Since sea is one of the only methods of
transporting goods in bulk quantities across the oceans, it is
imperative that the trade of chemicals via the water-route is of
vital importance for the industry and global trade. Apart from
the different types of ships , there are ships which specialize in
carrying dangerous chemicals across the oceans and they are
known as chemical tankers.
Chemical tankers have a history of more than half a century
now and initially they were not dedicated chemical tankers but
normal bulk carriers carried chemicals in drums. Later on
special ships dedicated for chemical trade came into popular
use.
• What Types Of Chemicals Are Carried?
Ships designed to carry chemicals can deal with a variety of
products such as oils, fats, petrochemicals, alcohol and so forth.
Even synthetic or non-organic chemicals can be transported. These
types of cargoes are different from other cargoes in that they have a
lot more potential for danger to the men and environment as
compared to other cargoes. Such dangers could include
flammability, toxicity and corrosive properties of extreme nature.
Just imagine that you are carrying tons and tons of acid in a tank
and roaming around the oceans. That would give you an idea about
the types of dangers and precautions required for the same. Just to
give you an idea shown below are two pictures of marine accidents
caused by chemicals on board.
• Types of Chemical Tankers
Even chemical tankers can be of different types such as
product tankers and parcel tankers apart from the dedicated
chemical tankers. The only difference being that only proper
chemical tankers can carry chemicals which are classified as
dangerous, while the product tanker can carry both non-
dangerous chemicals as well as petroleum goods.
A parcel tanker, as the name suggests, is normally used to
carry relatively smaller quantities or parcels of chemicals of
different nature, instead of carrying only a specific chemical in
bulk. The latter is taken care of by dedicated chemical tankers.
• Material of Tanks
You can guess intuitively that since dangerous chemicals are
being transported, it is very necessary to provide a proper
 material for the construction of the tanks otherwise that would
result in damage and accidents. One cannot name a single
material which is best suited for all situations.
Yet generally speaking it is mild steel or stainless steel. The
latter is sturdier than the former against resistance to
chemicals; hence mild steel is often coated with anti corrosion
paint or a layer of stainless steel for damage prevention.
• Inert Gas Plant
• It is necessary to maintain an inert atmosphere inside cargo
tanks. Since chemicals are mostly flammable, IG plants are
installed on chemical tankers to minimize risk of fire and
explosion.
Before a chemical is actually loaded a proper cargo loading
plan is made as usual which takes care about the compatibility
between the storage tank and the cargo type, apart from other
considerations of balance and draft.