A floating roof tank is a storage tank commonly used to store large quantities of petroleum products such as crude oil or condensate. It consists of an open-topped cylindrical steel shell equipped with a roof that floats on the surface of the stored liquid. The roof rises and falls with the liquid level in the tank. As opposed to a fixed roof tank there is no vapour space (ullage) in the floating roof tank (except for very low liquid level situations). In principle, this eliminates tank breathing loss and greatly reduces the evaporative loss of the stored liquid. There is a rim seal system between the tank shell and roof to reduce rim evaporation.
The roof has support legs hanging down into the liquid. At low liquid levels, the roof eventually lands and a vapour space forms between the liquid surface and the roof, similar to a fixed roof tank. The support legs are usually retractable to increase the working volume of the tank.