From http://www.cheresources.

com/invision/blog/4/entry-301-boil-off-gas-bog-
calculations-for-cryogenic-liquefied-natural-gas-tanks/, post by shzx603 on 12 Sep
2012.

Hi,everybody!
I have the actual experience to work with LNG tank designer. I am
process designer and am lucky to communicate with the famous LNG
tank contractors in the word, such as KOGAS from KOREA, TEG from
GERMAN, CBI from AMERICA.
The basic method to calculation the BOG is very stable and the
contractors almost have the same philosophy. The normal precedure is as
follows:
The prevail BOG rate in the word is 0.05%(wt) based on the
gross volume of LNG inner tank and pure methane. The smaller
the BOG rate, the smaller the equipments(BOG compressor and the
BOG pipe in the LNG terminal) used to cope with the BOG.
Maybe somebody think the BOG rate should be reduced to the
least to reduce the BOG. But in fact, the LNG designer usually set
the BOG rate according to the running project experience, such as
0.05%. If the BOG rate is set to 0.03%, lots of insulation material
such as perlite is required to installed, especially in the tank deck,
tank inner wall, which will increase the cost of LNG tank. So it is
not a good thing to reduce the cost by reducing the BOG rate.
The LNG designer simulates the required the structure and
insulation material to guarantee the set BOG rate. During the
process, the designer will simulate the heat ingress from the
atomsphere to LNG tank every 24 hours. The tank usually is
divided 3 main parts to simulate the heat ingress: the tank dome,
the tank wall and tank bottom. The method and the mathematic are
easy and simple by the heat conduction, convection and radiantion
according the most highest temperature due to the sun radiation in
the day and the most highest temperature in the night.
At this time, you can simulate easily the BOG rate according the
above total heat ingress. We must make clear that the BOG rate is
simulated based on pure methane and the gross inner tank volume.
IF the BOG rate is bigger than the set point, then the designer will
make some changes in the structure and simulate again until the
perfect result.
So, this is the basic and normal procedure to design BOG rate in
the LNG tank. I just make some comments about this topic. I am
intrested in LNG tank.
Regards
Gary!