Efficient ship loading

 A loading and unloading system in a port must be able to handle ships quickly – with minimal dust emissions and without the loss of bulk goods. BEUMER Group provides efficient systems for this purpose, which take into account both different ship sizes as well as the space available at the port. The modular design of the BEUMER Group systems makes it possible to deliver a precisely tailored solution for every requirement.

The right loading technology is crucial for efficient and safe delivery of products to the customers. BEUMER Group offers sophisticated solutions for loading and unloading trucks, railway wagons – and ships. The modular design of the BEUMER systems allows customised solutions for every application. The system provider offers ship loading technology, including quadrant type ship loaders, rail-mounted ship loaders with a luffing and swivelling boom, as well as simple stationary loading towers. All ship loader types can of course be equipped with telescopic chutes.

Coarse bulk materials, such as clinker or lumpy ores, are loaded into bulk carriers efficiently and dust-free with belt conveying systems and a vertical telescopic tube. The loading of powdered goods is handled by fully enclosed loading machines. An emission-free operation is ensured at all times, helping protect the environment.

BEUMER Group has for example installed a ship loader at one of the largest manufacturing plants of urea in Malaysia. This ship loader receives bulk material from belt conveyors and loads ships with up to 1,000 tons of material per hour. The swivel-mounted ship loader runs on rails with a telescopic chute and a throw-off belt conveyor to ensure effective and flexible loading.

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 Carbamide, also known as urea, is currently the most widely used nitrogen fertiliser in agricultural industries world-wide, mainly due to its comparably low costs. The demand is continuously increasing due to our growing global population. The manufacturing plant in the coastal town of Bintulu on the Malaysian island of Borneo has been one of the biggest of its kind in Asia for many years. It is operated by Asean Bintulu Fertilizer Snd. Bhd., a subsidiary of Petronas Chemicals Group Berhad (PCG).

PCG is one of the largest manufacturers of chemical products in Southeast Asia and the leading producer in Malaysia. 25 companies are part of the group, offering a wide range of chemical products, such as olefins, polymers, methanol and fertilisers, which are urea-based for example. Their customers are based in about 30 different countries. The most important markets include Malaysia, China, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

To meet the growing demand for urea, Asean Bintulu had to increase the capacity of its export facilities. BEUMER Group was awarded with the contract as a general contractor, and in a consortium with the PBJV Group Sdn Bhd from Malaysia, who took over the assembly of the system. The service provider from Malaysia is responsible for the transport and installation of onshore and offshore pipelines, in addition to other activities. The company also equips ships for their respective jobs in the oil and gas industries.

Compelling engineering and time management

“This order was a brownfield project,” explains Heinrich Beintmann, Senior Project Manager at BEUMER Group. “This means that we had to integrate our new systems into the existing ones in a way that ensured that the material flow from the longitudinal stockyard to the ship was not interrupted.” Another requirement was that the already available hardware and software components from third-party suppliers needed to be updated to match the increased performance.” The maintenance of the entire system will become a lot easier thanks to this modernisation, because all components are on the same technical standard,” describes Beintmann. BEUMER Group, in cooperation with PBJV Group, developed a technical solution which they presented to ABF together with a schedule that met all the required milestones. Asean Bintulu Fertilizer was convinced by the system providers hard work over the course of the proposal phase.

AFB’s production location is running 24/7. “To minimise the downtime, we had only 55 days scheduled to complete the entire integration, which was quite a challenge,” admits Beintman. BEUMER Group took over project management and engineering, supplied all the systems and supervised installation and commissioning.

The scope of supply included a portal reclaimer for 600 t/h, the ship loader for 1,000 t/h, a fully automatic tripper conveyor for filling the longitudinal stockpile, a mimic panel to comfortably monitor and control the system, the adjustment of the motor control units, a substation, a transfer station with a capacity of 1,000 t/h and a screening station, the most critical element in the schedule. The system supplier installed a solution with a capacity of 2 x 500 t/h. “We had to disassemble the existing screening station down to the main supports of the building and provide it with entirely new technology,” explains Beintmann.

The transfer station divides the material flow towards ship loading and truck loading. This allows the customer to load either ships or trucks or both at the same time.

The assembly of the portal reclaimer and ship loader was less time-critical, because the team could start working on it already prior to the 55-day shutdown, before the production plant was closed down. The assembly of the portal reclaimer in the longitudinal stockpile offered an entirely different challenge. “The low ceiling height made it impossible for us to assemble the reclaimer on the floor and then set it up, as we usually do,” so the BEUMER expert. The system supplier had to find another solution: “Here we had to assemble it segment by segment. Challenging and time consuming.”

BEUMER and PBJV were up for the challenge, and, in close cooperation, developed installation drawings and procedures for each work package, in compliance with the strict safety requirements of all parties involved.

Adapted to the performance requirements

The portal reclaimer traverses the longitudinal stockpile with the urea fertiliser, removes the bulk material in layers from the side slopes and transports it through a primary crusher to a belt conveyor at a capacity of 600 t/h. The portal reclaimer is fully automated. An existing side reclaimer adds another 400 t/h from a second longitudinal stockpile into the system.

“The existing belt conveyor systems were not designed for the higher performance of our new portal reclaimer,” says Otto Schmelzer, Engineering Manager at BEUMER Group. “Which meant that we had to upgrade the drive stations that were already there.” Not a problem for the system supplier: Because you want all systems used by the customer to run seamlessly with each other, BEUMER continuously develops not only its own products further, but its Customer Support takes care of upgrading mechanical and control technology manufactured by third-parties. “Our customers are incredibly satisfied with our modification concepts, because our goal is to keep already existing structures as much as possible,” describes Otto Schmelzer. This helps companies to reduce their costs, by reducing the number of necessary components and ensuring fast return on investment. Adding shorter installation and handover times was also particularly important with this project.

Efficient ship loading

Belt conveyors transport the urea over the screening and transfer stations to the new ship loader, also supplied by BEUMER Group. The mobile and swivel-mounted ship loader has a telescopic chute and a throw-off belt conveyor to make loading as efficient and flexible as possible. “With this system, our customer can now load ships with 1,000 t/h,” says Beintmann.

Petronas and Asean Bintulu Fertilizer are completely satisfied with the solutions, the progression of the project and the work of the BEUMER and PBJV consortium. “Our part aligned perfectly with the milestones of the entire project,” says BEUMER expert Beintmann. “And the cooperation between the PBJV Group has been exemplary.”

The commissioning for the ship loader took less than three weeks, the entire system was completely commissioned after eight weeks and handed over to the operator.

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At bauma in Munich BEUMER Group provided information on their system solutions expertise for the mining and raw materials industries and port handling. The portfolio includes curved belt conveyors, blending bed systems as well as ship loaders. Andrea Prevedello explains in the interview how users can benefit from BEUMER Group as a partner and which trends they can expect. Andrea Prevedello is Global Sales Director CL Systems of BEUMER Group.

 Mr Prevedello, at bauma you provided information on overland conveyors and Pipe Conveyors. Can you tell us a bit more about a current project?

Andrea Prevedello: What immediately comes to my mind is this very exciting project in the Belgian town of Flémalle. A coal-fired power plant was operated here in the past. The coal residues are landfilled on a fly ash stockpile. We installed a Pipe Conveyor to transport the fly ash to the Maas river for shipment. Its enclosed design prevents the volatile material from coming into contact with the environment and enables a low-noise transport to the destination. This was very important as the system runs over public motorways, railways and residential areas. The transport of the fly ash is carried out in strict compliance with safety standards, taking into consideration environmental protection and the effect of noise pollution on the local residents. It is planned to dissipate the entire stockpile within the next ten years, and repurpose the terrain into a nature park.

What were the challenges during this project, for example with regard to the installation of the system?

 Andrea Prevedello: The installation presented itself as quite a challenge, in this picturesque, but also quite hilly environment and as the Pipe Conveyor runs over roads, rails and residential areas we had to comply with public regulations. We set up three teams. We needed a safe conveying system design, that would prevent any environmental impact and noise pollution during the bulk material transport. In the first team employees of the local authorities worked in close cooperation with our experts. The second team was made up of ten BEUMER Group employees that assembled the system. Special cranes and helicopters were used for the assembly work. We assigned the third team for this: the Heliswiss International AG from Küssnacht, Switzerland. They provide transport and construction flights with heavy lift helicopters. Extremely precise flight manoeuvres were necessary so that the technicians could safely assemble the elements suspended from the helicopter to the steel structure. The pilots had to guide the components exactly to the bore holes of the connecting piece so that team II could then bolt them together. The BEUMER Group employees were working on platforms attached to cranes in heights of up to 45 metres. It was quite a sight!

How can you ensure that the customers always receive the best solution that allows them to remain sustainably competitive?

 Andrea Prevedello: An essential feature of our transport solutions is that they enable horizontal and vertical curves. This permits us to adapt the sections to the optimum route and we dont’t have to use straight line sections to build around obstacles. Angles of inclination of up to 15 degrees are possible, depending on the characteristics of the material to be transported and the topography, with lengths of more than twelve kilometres. Due to the ability to navigate curves, considerably fewer and in some cases no transfer towers are required. The customer gets an ideal solution which allows for substantial cost savings and the system continuously transports the material even over challenging ascending sections and downward slopes – this was a great advantage especially in Flémalle. Using BEUMER calculation programs, we precisely calculate the static and dynamic tractive forces of the belt during the development phase. This is the prerequisite for the safe dimensioning of the curves. BEUMER Group selects the required types of drive technology and conveyor belts based on these calculations. This ensures longevity of the entire system.

Would there also have been alternative possibilities for this task, using trucks for example?

Andrea Prevedello: Mine operators and manufacturers of cement and building materials often rely on trucks for the transport bulk material, even over long distances. These vehicles certainly also have their justification. However, depending on the terrain, they can rapidly reach their limits: they require well-developed roads and fuel, for example and the costs for the construction, maintenance and possible extensions are significant. The ecological aspect needs to be considered as well: new roads and access roads have a serious impact on the landscape. And this was to be avoided especially in the area around Liège with small villages along the Maas river as well as forests and unique landscapes. In addition, there are the emissions caused by truck traffic, which includes toxic substances as well as noise and dust.

Our belt conveyors are provided with environmentally safe electric drives and low-energy belts. The installed motors are mostly adjustable which permits the loads to be optimally distributed on the drive units under various operating conditions. If the belt conveying system conveys downhill, the system works in generative operation. The generated electric energy is fed back into the public network by a regenerative feedback unit. Depending on the project, our belt conveying systems require up to 90 percent less primary energy than comparable truck transports. Users often reduce their operating costs by several million euros per year. If you do not know which solution to choose, a cost comparison will help.

 As a system provider you also have stockpile equipment in your portfolio. What does the scope of supply look like, how do you support the operators?

 Andrea Prevedello: For this stockpile equipment, we offer the full range of stackers and scraper reclaimers. These can cover different functions as for example simple storage or mixing of the bulk material, and ensure a maximum mixing effect. Users can also efficiently homogenise different bulk material qualities which ensures the uniformity of the raw materials used. My colleagues carry out the entire engineering of the system. They calculate the storage dimensions and provide the design and static calculations of the associated storehouses. The blending beds are customised according to the requirements. BEUMER proposes either longitudinal or circular stockpile designs. The recommended design shape results from the spatial conditions and the amount of the material to be stored. Additionally, BEUMER provides material-specific detailed solutions with robust and low-wear equipment. The environmental impacts are also very low as minimal noise and dust occurs during operation.

 In what industries are your solutions needed?

 Andrea Prevedello: This can vary a lot, because our system solutions are used wherever you need to transport large quantities of bulk material. This is particularly true for the ore and raw materials industry, but also applies to applications beyond these traditional sectors, such as the transport of cereals. In ports, for example, we ensure that different materials are efficiently loaded onto ships.

 What is particularly important when it comes to these loading systems?

 Andrea Prevedello: The mobile and swivel-mounted ship loaders have a telescopic chute and a throw-off belt conveyor to make loading as efficient and flexible as possible. The ship loader is also equipped with a dedusting unit which keeps the process emission-free. We also offer bulk loading heads which are used to load bulk materials into silo vehicles quickly and without dust. Special fill level indicators are used, tailored to the bulk density, flow characteristics and temperature of the loaded cargo.

Due to rising living standards, especially in emerging countries and the expansion of key and future technologies, there is a growing demand for most raw materials. How will this development affect plant construction in general?

Andrea Prevedello: The prices for raw materials such as iron ore and copper are rising rapidly. This is why we notice that a lot of companies are willing to invest. In order to cover the increasing demand, there is an overall trend towards larger tonnages and throughputs since larger manufacturing facilities are more efficient. Many users don’t want to set up several parallel systems, but want to cover their entire requirements with one line or a minimum number of lines. This trend has a considerable impact on how we develop our systems.

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