Dear Tony ,Lectori Salutem

Please find below answers of your querries.Please note that we have learnt lot of things from this forum where, we have got BEST EXPERTS which always boost our morales by giving their comments. Please note that I have been appointed by A

DUTCH COMPANY CALLED ROYAL HASKONING AS THEIR MATERIAL HANDLING CONSULTANT IN INDIA.I have the honour of developing ASIA’S BIGGEST COAL UNLOADING TERMINAL with them.

Querry--How is a dry bulk terminal designed, from beginning till the end what steps are taken and what are the major design criteria?

What equipement is used and why, how is the layout chosen and so on.

ANSWER-First of all, for the designing of A BULK TERMINAL A detailed project report is carried out by Experts,where they give all the information regarding—

1.Type of material and quantity to be Imported or Exported for the viability of the project.

2.Size of the ships to be handled.

3.Max. draft available near the facility.

4.Ship turnaround time. Ect.

On the basis of above figures now your work is start.

Here below I am taking an example and assuming you have been given a task to design a coal unloading terminal @ 60000 tpd,on the basis of working 22 horus per day and evacuation the same by TRAIN using RAPID LOADING SYSYTEM @ 12 mtpa.

Now first of all-

1.You will design a berth/jetty to suit the ship size- CAPE or PANAMAX keeping in view of draft available their.

2. Then you will choose unloading system/type of ship unloaders and you have option to choose from—

1.Continuous type unloaders—CSU

2.Mobile Harbour cranes. MHC.

3.Grab type unloaders ect.

Now above mentioned systems have pro and cons,it is always better to use CSU for such HIGH CPACITIES,but these are very costly.We can use rest of the two also by increasing their number.In this case we can have 2 no. of CSU but if ,we will provide 3 NOS OF MHC,the same capacities are also met and the cost is very less.

Now you will choose conveyor system,its capacity on the berth.You can choose A single belt conveyor, 2 m wide belt with a speed of 5-6m/.second.

Now, you will carry this material to stockpile area,where you will choose stacking and reclaiming system,stockpile shape ect. And also reclaiming system to FEED RAPID LOADING SYSYTEM.The Rapid loading systems are usually designed to load a racke @ 5000-6000 tph. The reclaiming cap. For the same shall suit the RLS system capacity.

I Hope that the above will meet your requirement,if you need I can design the entire sysytem on CAD and send you for your information.

Regards, ANIL

LIBRAN SETH

0091-0-9811055650 ■

Greetings Toni from my corner of the Easten wilderness @1140 fet above sea level.

Lectori Salutem,

I second what Anil has told you- the commodity

you are desirous of handling, the space for handling it, its durability and desired transfer methods and levels are all in the mix of what is needed. Most important is the commodites value as to whether it needs special/soft handling like food stuffs or in the case of coal and other mined ores they are market and time sensitive just like whole grains moved by ship or rail etc. this is where you see the flood loading systems for ships and coal unit trains etc.

Your design for the storage/transfer area and the space allowed for the sysytem is the anchor for the entire project as this site will regulate and move all materials from point A to B.

Ship to storage to rail or truck and truck to storage to ship or rail to storage to ship or ship directly to rail load out etc. There are as many examples as to methods used for every bulk commodity. not to mention setting up bagging lines for products.

The fragility of the commodity goes hand in hand with system design because the product quality must be maintained. with items like rock salt you have to worry about too much handling, with coal and iron ore you do not. If whole grains are damaged they become unusable depending on the grain type-with corn it in itself is a very sturdy grain from the point of handling it as a corn kernal is very strong.

Decide what you wish to handle as this is not a one method fits all situation.

lzaharis@lightlink.com ■

Dear lzaharis, Thanks for your value addition.

Regards, ANIL ■

Dear Tony,

Having some real big dry bulk terminals (ore, coal, grain, cement, etc.) in your near vicinity (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp and inland), why not contact their technical departments and arrange a visit ?

This will also give you a realistic impression of the used installations and the terminals.

In case your task is to design a terminal for a dedicated commodity or a group of commodities, please let us know, because then more specific issues can be addressed by the forum members.

As already stated in the previous posts, the design procedure should be from main overall requirements to detailed engineering.

During this procedure, you will have to restart parts of the design in order to fit in all aspects. (design feed back)

Success. ■

Dear Tony, If you have CAD loaded in your computer,Iwould like to send you a LAYOUT where I have shown how to import 1,25,000 tpd of material and export 80,000 tpd of material from a same jetty, showing A single conveying system for import and as well as for export(pipe conveyor),stockpiling arrrangement,dome silo feeding and extraction system.

Tony in the END I WILL GIVE YOU AN ADVISE--SURF THIS SITE DAILY .

ANIL ■

This thread gives a very wide brief & has started off very well. Here is an observation on the ecology side which I hope does not enter the discussion too early.

You should seriously take account of the prevailing wind conditions. Wind affects the ship berthing energies and overturning forces on the wharfside machines. It is not unknown for the mast of a continuous unloader to puncture the hull of a nearly empty vessel after the machine has toppled over under the influence of onshore wind. Of course it is covered in the Codes but it is handy to know the wind implications beforehand.

Similarly important is the carryover distance of windblown product which is generated at each transfer point despite all our best efforts; as well as blown off the stockpile ridges. Neighbours will soon bring their dislike of windblown product to your attention. There is also the possibility of windblown cross contamination to consider. If your terminal handles several products it will be necessary to offer comprehensive sampling facilities to all parties eg. sampling of grain normally requires deep probe collection to locate the vermin & parasite evidence. Other cargoes will no doubt require similar facilities.

Ballast water will also need thorough biological conditioning if discharged vessels travel between different marine environments. Alternatively ballast can be taken aboard locally, if the holds are not contaminated, for berthing purposes. Why? An empty vessel offers a higher freeboard which has 2 effects. The wind forces are stronger & the reduced draft generates less hydraulic drag twixt keel & seabed. For further information on this topic see the Yokahama Rubber Fender catalogue (Dusseldorf office is a good place to ask) or even view some publications from Delft. There is also a Japapnese Manual for Harbour Design, or similar title, which the Yokahama book refers to, but it is as rare as rocking horse manure.

It should be taken for granted that the terminal design caters for spillage avoidance & treatment, whether toxic or not, & adequate berms should be seen along modern jetty edges.

This maybe a digression; but I have noticed that some wharfs are saturated with heavy track mounted machines, notably the container berth in Singapore. Outer axle spreads on our machines result in anti-collision lockouts which must compromise the effectiveness of the working end of the gadget. If a machine is temporarily disabled it must be able to park far enough away so that the other machine can take over. Although this is more important in container handling there might be a carryover of this situation on a high capacity bulk terminal. Let’s make a plea for more operational feedback on this thread. Examples of terminal construction, operation & planning were frequently contributed to the hard copy Bulk Solids magazine & should still be available. ■

Dear Tony,

You have started very interesting thread.

Too many advices can be given for this subject. But if i understand you clear, you need a list of refers on the articles, books and other papers that were published.

Few years ago, when i was PhD student, i had look through some books about sea ports design, wich can be related to that you searching for. But some of them are different from english.

If you interested in this, you can mail me by address kozakevich@mksat.net and i will try to find information about that books. ■

Dear TONY,

I have just sent you a G.A DRAWING,the topic of the same is EXTREME SYSTEMS AT PORTS.

In this drawing I have devloped the system with following parameters--

IMPORT TERMIANL

1.UNLODING TERMINAL@1,25,000 TPD BY CSU'S AND CONVEYING THE SAME BY PIPE CONVEYOR TO STOCKPILE AREA.

2.STOCKPILE LAYOUT-- CAPACITY-15 MILLION TONNES.

3.HIGH SPEED EVACUATION OF THE COAL BY RAILWAY -RAPID LOADING SYSTEM@15 MTPA.

EXPORT TERMINAL

1.STORAGE IN DOME SILOS.

2.EVACUATION FROM SILOS

3.LOADING IN TO SHIP THROUGH SAME PIPE CONVEYOR-RETURN SIDE.

ANIL SETH ■

Dear Tony,

Looking at the previous replies on your subject, I believe that some of the respondents had their share of problems in the past to solve.

That can benefit your study.

If your professor is so keen on books, writers and articles, etc. he should know those and mention them to you (or do they not really exist?), to make it easier.

(The knowledge is much more important than the names of the books)

And, your network is too small at the start of your career.

After you have narrowed down your subject, the help from the forum can be more specific.

keep us posted

success ■

Teus is quite right. Experience is being passed on in this thread more readily than in some other threads because it encompasses all our disciplines.

Terminal construction involves major Contractors & Consultants operating in often uncharted waters. Mistakes are made & although these are a backbone of progress they are not going to be publicised so readily. The Financial overtone is what makes Engineering a Cinderella among the professions.

That said there was a pair of texts in the Bulk Solids Bookstore concerning harbour development and it included several articles on terminal design. They were a compendium of papers from a conference in China & I read them over & over when I have time. Unfortunately I can't remember the title & they're in the house in Java, you'll be old one day, but the keywords Harbour, Development & China should help you find the titles on the Bulk Solids Bookstore list.

Another long shot for information would be the Maritime Museums; Liverpool is particularly good at other things besides football & music, there must be plenty similar libraries in Holland. Your Liverpool contact would be Ms Threlfall who was most helpful to me.

A lot of shipping & terminal information is published by shipping lines & these books were intended to be circulated as gifts & mementos within the marine hierarchy. Hence my mention of Maritime Museums to track some of these down. ■

OK my turn.

1. SIZE!, SIZE!, SIZE!, of the terminals.

The value of the commodity and its bulk density will always be the determining factor no matter what.

The desired or required method of handling method is the overwhelming factor-foodstuffs must be handled in accordance with UN or USDA guidelines etc.

2. Again it all depends on the commodity as to how it is handled, segregated, stored and the like.

Coal

Since high bituminous is the major export it is a dumb as rock and does not need a lot of special handling it is a bulk commodity and is stored out side and is handled by a bucket wheel reclaimer conveyor, railcar car dumper to ship loadout conveyor etc. and is imported unloaded by the bulk carriers unloading equipment on ship under bin conveyors in the ships hold and squeeze conveyors/vertical- to move the coal from the hold using the same method and off loaded using a moveable boom conveyor on the ship and from there it is dumped and carried away to storage pads for movement later to its desired destination, there are a many variables as their are bulk commodities as each situation is different and driven by commodity use, value and market prices.

A lot of anthracite coal is bagged and sold to consumers in the various sizes- egg, stove, chestnut, pea coal and rice sizing of same to homeowners that heat with coal.

The old anthracite coal in the eastern United States is taken from the old mines where the rock covering the old mine workings is blasted then removed and the remainiing coal left from the original mine is reclaimed with excavating machinery, hauled away to a coal tipple where it is washed, cleaned and the remaining rock is picked out of the coal and bagged or stored outside for bulk delivery depending where it is needed during the heating season.

Minor bulk and ores:

it all depends on the size of the unloading facilities and how much is needed at any one time.

most everything except rock salt, borates and fertiliser is stored out in the weather.

Rock products and sand are stored out of doors as they do not deteriorate. the one thing no one tells you is that every time it rains they see dollar signs because the moisture adds to their bottom line profits unless a moisture discount is mandatory to the purchaser of said product :^)

3. The product and its end use are what determines how much physical plant a commodity needs.

Depending on the location of the end user and the end users ability to use the product-the amount of labor or techonlogy the end user has is the big factor- If a Bangladesh farmer has only a water buffalo to plow and harvest his crops he will have no need of one ton super bags of fertiliser-as small bags are what he can use efficiently-if he can afford them!!!!!

The end use and user will drive the design of the physical plant for storage, bagging, blending and delivery of same.

Coal can be blended to upgrade the BTU. Coal washing is done only if it will enhance the value and reduce the pollution related to burning same.

Fertilser usually is not blended as it is in its complete form-prills the fertilser prills all start out as one grain of sand and are coated multiple times with a scalping screen to the desired thickness.

Agricultural products:

Sanitation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you are handling food stuffs you need to keep the grains clean and dry or you will have mold and kill livestock and humans.

You can not safely store ag commodities with other commodities unless they are sparated by storage vessels -bins,tanks, shipping containers sealed from moisture, sunlight and vermin.

Sampling:

there are basic methods of sampling:

Using a hand shovel and catch samplers which are shoved under the head pulley of a conveyor and quickly removed.

with regard to coal a rotary dumper has a catch sample bottle held in place in th epath of the dumped coal coming out of the railcar and tested for BTU and moisture additional work is needed such as screening and microscopic inspection if you want and dirt amounts with moisture determinations you need a base sample that is absolutely dry to determine weight via percentage of material tested,

This is where an oven comes in to play to heat and dry coal samples.

Sand and gravel are never dried and sterilised unless it is bagged by a gravel mining

company and sold to the public to guarantee purity and product quality.

Gravel pits and quarries that store their materials out of doors and usually never have covered storage as it is a low value commodity and Like I said before every time it rains they make money from weight gain of the water in the commodity and end user pays more than they should due to the additional moisture.

4. The commodity will drive the design so it is not a simple question or answer on my part.

5. offshore loading and unloading is done to eliminate the need for deep water dredgeing a port berth and allowing a larger vessel(VLCC, LCC) to be unloaded and loaded quickly- the down side is potential storm damage if the offshore loadout load in system is poorly designed and unable to with stand local conditions/storms/typhoons or earthquakes not to discount war or civil strife and the percieved desire for revenge for whatever reason by the population of a country.

An excellent example of this problem are the oil platforms in the Nigerian Delta in West Africa.

6. Trends.

Finding new ore deposits or oil will foster developement of port or rail bulk facilities.

Lost time is lost money/reduced income-increased expense it does not matter what commodity it is or whether you are in the western hemispere or eastern hemispere with a global economy.

the faster a commodity is loaded or unloaded determines freight expenses/berthing charges due to loading and unloading time, not to discount transit times and insurance of cargo in transit and the more trips made in a specific period will do two things-increase gross income and gross expenses and hope that you wiil not end up with a net loss meaning red ink in any languages accounting principles.

Everything has its opportunity cost where you give something up to get something else.

You have to remember that you are exchanging a product of value for another product-monetary funds and this drives everything in the production and delivery cycle not discounting the market and its driving forces of supply and demand affecting the money supplies of any country and foreign exchange rates so you have to keep this in mind at all times.

No simple answer for a not so simple problem.

you must under stand that there is no one solution for bulk commodities of any type as they are all different and the product value is the driving factor.

Its not easy is it? :^0 ■

Final point of sale for power plant coal is the burner which receives fuel from the pulverisers, fed by variable feeders under the bunkers, fed by an overhead conveyor receiving material from a twin line crossover conveying system fetching coal from a stockyard which usually carries 30 days strategic supply as a minimum. Using a value of 0.5kg/kWh enables reasonable guesses of the required feed capacity.

Instrumentation signals from belt weighers, bin level indicators & boiler controls assist the control system in regulating the coal supply. Heavy & rapid power demand fluctuations cannot be satisfied by regulating the coal supply alone & boiler blowdown is often necessary. For example, at the beginning of commercial breaks in peak viewing programs the power demand rises almost instantaneously. As the kettle thermostats trip out within the same minute it would be prudent to adjust the coal flow accordingly. You can't start or stop the conveying line quickly enough.

On your macro scale supply terms it is impossible to synchronise power plant demand with cargo scheduling. It would be necessary to equate ship unloading rate with the power station demand. Hence the stockyards, which must hold 30 days rated supply plus the consignment minus the coal burnt during ship unloading, have become quite large in order to accommodate the large vessels directed their way.

Considering the cash flow disadvantages for a coal fired system against the piped supply of other fossil fuel it seems like burning coal is an act of desperation. In the capitalist short term it is. Smaller ships, barges even, used to alleviate the situation.

Finally; the pulveriser feeder & the coal bin level indicator are the critical control media. ■

very well put john, I forgot about bin switches, etc. In my area they stock a three monthe supply of king soft coal-216000 tons or so. ■

Hi Tony, This is ANIL SETH again from LIBRAN ENGINEERING AND SERVICES, INDIA.First of all please let me know whether you have received the drawing which I have sent you.

The main difference between Coal and Iron Ore terminal is as follows-

1. The bulk density of the iron ore varies from 2-2.8 t/m3 where as coal is having between 0.6 to 0.9 t/m3 sowhilw designing capacity the equipment you should take care of this.

2. Iron ore is more abbressive then coal.

3. Difference in dust suppression equipment .

4.difference in stockpile ht. of the iron ore and coal.

5.Coal stockpiles can catch the fire.

6.There is not much differnce in selecting the similar type of equipment for both the materials but, you will have to take care of above points.

I thing rest of the points I leave to the HON. Members or this forum.

Anil ■

Lots of positive information here but everyone has neglected the critical issue of selecting the correct management systems for the operation of the terminal. Too many times this is not considered causing the development of spreadsheet cultures resulting in poor management efficiency and hindering effective decision making.

IT systems should be an inherent aspect of the development of a bulk terminal to handle inventory admin, planning and scheduling, work management, stockpile management, receipt and delivery, overall equipment effectiveness measurement etc etc.

Our systems provide all of this and are operational in coal and ore, silo and flat store operations.

For more info drop me a line ■

I agree that geography has not been mentioned directly; but, in mitigation, we have been talking about ports or harbours which are generally put on/near the coatline where big ships can get into them. Neighbours have been mentioned & their input will override most other selection criteria. Dredge up mussel beds & the environmental lobby will soon speak up for those neighbours.

IT system selection is very important. I have sat in my air conditioned cab for hours in queues outside port entrances at Felixtowe, Southamptom & Seaforth because the swipe card reader has broken down i.e. it doesn't matter how good the software is if the input won't go in. ■

Dear Anil

I have a few queries. What kind of coal unloading rates are achievable practically for unloading a single handymax as well as a single panamax? what are the types and numbers of unloaders you would recommend. typically what would they cost? instead of train wouldnt a conveyor system be preferable.

in the example below wouldnt 60000tpd work out to 18MTPA @300 working days, why only 12?what would be the ideal size mix to achieve 10MTPA?

rgds,

Shyam

■

Dear Shyam, Please find below answers of your querries-

I have a few queries. What kind of coal unloading rates are achievable practically for unloading a single handymax as well as a single panamax?--

Answer--The unloading rates depends upon your requirement,as per present circumstances you should be able to unload a Panamax and Handymax vessel with in a day including all the facilities .

what are the types and numbers of unloaders you would recommend. typically what would they cost

Answer--You can achieve the above mentioned output by 3 nos of mobile harbour cranes,the other systems are costlier by 40-50%.

? instead of train wouldnt a conveyor system be preferable.

Answer---A conveyor is not suitable for higher capacity loading

systems,now a days you will have to load a racke with in two hours other wise you will not get the rackes from Railways.

in the example below wouldnt 60000tpd work out to 18MTPA @300 working days, why only 12?

what would be the ideal size mix to achieve 10MTPA?

A

rgds,

Shyam ■

Dear Anil,

thank you for the prompt reply. Two queries remain unaswered namely, 60000tpd working out to 18MTPA and ideal ship size mix to achieve 10MTPA (maybe with a wharfage of about 500m). Secondly, the unsuitability of a conveyor is not clearly understood. What is the connection with the loading of rakes? If the coal is going straight to a stacking yard and then being consumed/redistributed, would a conveyor be suitable?

thanks and rgds,

Shyam ■

Dear Mr. Shyam, May I request to your goodself to send me your detailed enquiry/writeup about the project on my mail id-libranengineering@gmail.com.

For detailed answer, I think I should get detailed input/enquiry from your side.

Regards, Anil ■

Dear Anil,

my mail bounced back from the given id.

rgds,

Shyam ■

Dear Shyam, You can send the same on--libranseh@yahoo.com or at libran@vsnl.com

Regards, ANIL ■

Dear Mr. Tony,

The port handling facility for bulk material handling can be in following three versions :

- Bulk material unloading facility (material receiving from vessel coming by sea).

- Bulk material loading facility (material dispatch by vessel for the sea)

- The bulk material unloading as well as loading facility

All the aforesaid systems can be simple / complex depending upon the capacity, annual operating hours and nature of the system.

The first item influencing the facility is the size and type of ship. The other item influencing the system is the type of material handling system towards the land side. The system will also get influenced by the number of materials to be handled by the facility and the frequency of inflow and frequency of outflow. The system layout will also depend upon the available size and shape of the land. These are the basic parameters influencing the aforesaid three systems.

The next issues will be the type of equipment for the system. This means type of ship unloader, ship loader, stacker, reclaimer, stacker-cum-reclaimer, rail loading, road loading, etc. The specific features of these items will depend upon the capacity, price, technical / operational preference, etc. This is a very big subject and elaboration about the various types of equipment is not feasible here.

It would be advisable for you to visit some nearby port facility for such purpose and get the first hand information about such installation.

Regards,

Ishwar G Mulani.

Author of Book : Engineering Science and Application Design for Belt Conveyors.

Author of Book : Belt Feeder Design and Hopper Bin Silo

Advisor / Consultant for Bulk Material Handling System & Issues.

Email : parimul@pn2.vsnl.net.in

Tel.: 0091 (0)20 25882916 ■

Originally Posted by libranengineering

Dear Tony, If you have CAD loaded in your computer,Iwould like to send you a LAYOUT where I have shown how to import 1,25,000 tpd of material and export 80,000 tpd of material from a same jetty, showing A single conveying system for import and as well as for export(pipe conveyor),stockpiling arrrangement,dome silo feeding and extraction system.

Tony in the END I WILL GIVE YOU AN ADVISE--SURF THIS SITE DAILY .

ANIL

Hi Anil and others in the thread

Can you send me autocad or PDF file of above bulk terminal to me as I am going to plan such terminal for Bangladesh soon. my email. solutionsecstatic@gmail.com

Regards ■