Since the Second World War the demand of energy has undergone an exponential growth that has led to a sharp annual increase in the use of natural gas in both, cities and thermal power stations. Nowadays, the strategic relevance of natural gas as a main source of energy is evident with a contribution of more than 20% of the total world consumption. This development in increasing demand of natural gas has led for a need of suitable storage and transportation infrastructure.

Various gases, especially hydrocarbons, are preferably stored in liquid form for transportation and storage since the phase transformation from gas to liquid comes with a significant reduction of the volume (e.g. up to 600 times). Gases can be liquefied by raising the pressure or by cooling to their boiling point, which for most gases is below 0°C. This is known as cryogenic storage. The term cryogenic is derived from two Greek words, namely kryos meaning icy-cold and genes which can be translated as shape.

These fib recommendations are concerned about post-tensioning systems used in cryogenic tanks and have been formulated on the basis of actual available knowledge with the aim to reflect the current state of the art. Consequently, these recommendations have included a classification of the different cryogenic tanks typologies used in the past and nowadays, the associated different tendon types depending on their exposure to low temperature (e.g. never, only accidentally or during normal tank operation) and the testing regime required for acceptance of the materials and the post-tensioning system according to this document.

An international working group comprising more than 20 experts from administrative authorities, universities, laboratories, owners, structural designers, suppliers of prestressing steels and post-tensioning systems suppliers have actively contributed in order to develop these recommendations. This text has been written to cover best construction practices around the world, and to provide material specifications which are considered to be the most advanced available at the time of preparing this text. For ease of use (for Owner, Designer and Post-tensioning System Supplier), the content has been arranged systematically according to the system components into chapters focusing on performance characteristics, requirements and acceptance criteria.