Resumen del autor, extraído del trabajo. INTRODUCTION The presentation begins with a brief review of the advantages and drawbacks of current practices regarding secondary containment. The Q-Tank is reviewed as a single system solution to problems posed by both internal corrosion and external secondary containment. A review of the system is presented; from an explanation of its advantages to details of construction and installation. Parameters for applicable service and comparative cost are also presented. The presentation ends with a summary of the advatages of the internal secondary containment system as it applies to risk management and return on capital investment. Environmental damage due to leaking petroleum storage tanks is a major concern for tank owners around the world. A risk that, were it not for economics, would have long ago been eliminated. Bridging the gap between this environmental concern and corporate economics is of paramount importance to risk management professionals. Undetected leakage can lead to millions of dollars in environmental liability and further, expose a company to public scrutiny. Secondary containment has long been held as the answer to avoiding this problem; most notably lined burms and double wall tanks. Lined burms are the most widely employed but do pose significant operational risks because of drainage, restricted access, and damage from the environment and traffic. Most importantly, the owner of a lined burm is never truly aware of the integrity of the liner system and most often finds that the liner is an expense that meets environmental regulations but not the risks posed by long term undetected leakage. Double wall construction provides the best risk management against long term leakage because it actually eliminates the possibility of undetected leaks. Most importantly, it stops leaks from the primary containment vessel before ever hitting the ground. Unfortunately, double wall construction is prohibitively expensive and therefore rarely employed. Instead, tank owners play the odds with single wall tanks and engage in costly preventative maintenance programs; hence the multi-billion dollar specialty coating industry. A new technology promises to change all this. Q-Tank, a composite based internal secondary containment system not only provides the assurance of double wall tank protection but also complete internal corrosion protection. Most importantly, this technology can be applied on both new and used tanks of any size greater than 50 BBLs. The system is much less expensive than double wall steel construction and still provides full time leak detection for the tank owner. The patent pending Q-Tank was developed in Canada as a single system solution to the growing costs of internal corrosion protection and burm lining. By providing a single solution to both of these concerns immediate and future cost savings are passed onto the tank owner. Internal secondary containment offers the advantages of full time leak detection and assured integrity; thereby reducing future coating inspection costs; as well as eliminating the maintenance costs associated with burm liners. It extends the working life of each tank and virtually eliminates any possibility of undetected leakage. In summary, it makes tankage less of a potential liability and more a of working asset. There are several internal secondary containment systems currently being offered in the marketplace. Generally, these are either loose bag liners or double floor fibreglass systems. Performance and economics, respectively, continue to be concerns for both. The Q-Tank system is a hybrid of the loose bag liners and the rigid fibreglass system.