A Little History and A Lot of Photos of Monolithic Dome Storages
June 29, 2005
by David B. South
Monolithic Dome bulk storages have been constructed around the world to store chemicals, fertilizers, cement, sand, salt, feed, grains, aggregates, carbon, chips, seeds, peanuts, Coke, blasting powder and the list goes on. The benefits of utilizing Monolithic Dome construction technology for bulk storage can be learned by reading, Anatomy of a Bulk Storage.
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Lincoln County Farm Service, 75' Fertilizer Blend Plant, Chandler, OK. |
One of the most interesting stories about storages comes from the Chandler, OK storage. We didn't have it quite finished when the salesman representing the fertilizer company saw what we were doing and he reported it back to his bosses in Catoosa, Oklahoma, at the OK Grain Company.
OK Grain Company monitored the progress of the dome and after it was completed, ordered a dome for their river front facility. Before we could get mobilized to get there they decided they needed two. By the time we had the second one under construction they needed four more. So we wound up building six there on the river front.
The tug boat captain started reporting what they had seen and it wasn't long before we were building on the Mississippi and the Missouri and the Tom Big B and the Columbia and most of the major rivers. This was a period during the eighties when fertilizer use was expanding tremendously over the United States.
The construction of these large fertilizer storage facilities lead to other bulk storages-- especially cement. Bulk materials create tremendous bursting pressure in a storage. This huge amount of pressure can be best contained in a circle. The rebar used in the construction of the dome acts like hoops on a barrel. The bigger the building the more hoops.
The domes also have another advantage in that the materials that settles falls away from the domes, rather than pushing the side walls down as is the case in a silo. This may not seem like much but it changes the foundation dramatically. The silo may need a foundation ten to twelve feet thick, the Monolithic Dome will only need one or two feet which is a tremendous cost difference.
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Controlled Atmosphere Apple Storage - Calamco Cold Storage, Stockton, CA. |
Hamer, ID, 130' Potato Storage, 88,000 CWT | Kaiser Bauxite -- Two 90' diameter and one 75'diameter domes, Mexico, Missouri |
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Gulf Cement, Clinker Cement. This massive structure covers a total surface area of 81,681 square feet. |
Equalizer, Inc, two 130' x70' fertilizer storage, Port of Victoria, TX |
US Borax, Boron, CA Two 150' x 79'domes, 20,000 ton Borax Storage. |
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Great Lakes Carbon Storage, 120' diameter, Metal Cladding, Port Arthur, Texas |
Ammonium Nitrate (blasting powder), Peabody Coal, Kenova, West Virginia |
Lone Star Northwest Inc., Portland, Oregon, Dry Powder Cement Storage |
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PCS Phosphate, Morehead City, North Carolina. Fertilizer Storage with two 172' x 85' domes and one 132' x51' dome. |
Coal and Limestone for Electricity Generation, 260' diameter |
Hovensa Coker Storage, Bechtel Corporation, St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. |
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Award Winning, Great River Energy's Coal Creek Power Plant, Washburn, ND, 220' x 80' Fly Ash Storage |
Ambergris Caye Food Storage, 50' diameter dry pack food storage dome, Ambergris Caye, Belize. |
Great Salt Lake Mineral, 25,000 Ton Potash Storage, 160' dome, Ogden, UT |
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Nucor Steel, Blytheville, Arkansas, 145' diameter, 45,000 ton Iron Carbide Storage. Built by Dome Technology |
Thirty 10,000 metric ton grain storages, built in 1989 in Iraq before the first Gulf war. |
J.R. Simplot Co., 40,000 ton Raw Phosphate Ore Storage 182' x 82' dome, Pocatello, ID. |
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Bechtel Quebec Limitee, 46,000 MT Nickle Concentrate, 164' x 84', Montreal, Quebec |
Salt Storage for Colorado Department of Highways |
Apollo Beach, Florida, Fly Ash Storage. Built by Dome Technology. |
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Two 105' diameter domes built for Ford Motor Company in Tulsa, Oklahoma for Cullet Storage. |
25,000 Ton Coal Refuse Storage, Air Products and Chemicals Co., Edensburg, PA. |
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Related Links:
- Mapping It Out-- Monolithic Domes Cover the World
- From Toothpicks to Trailblazing-- Birth of the Monolithic Dome
- The Monolithic Dome-- Not a Square Idea
- Index of Larger Monolithic Dome Projects -- Partial List In Alphabetical Order by State
- Download Academic Thesis About Monolithic Domes
- Industrial Safe Buildings
- Protect Your Potatoes
- Fertilizer Blend Plants -- A Growing Demand
- Snow Control Salt Storage-- A Premier Use for Monolithic Domes
- Monolithic Crews to Repair Hurricane Claudette Damage
- Industrial Safe Buildings
- Anatomy of a Bulk Storage
- Biological Containment
- Free Bulk, Cold, Freezer or Other Storage Facility Project Evaluation
- Dome Technology Completes Estonia Project
- Ash Grove Cement-- Durkee, OR
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