Dear rabmer,

A pneumatic unloader for a 30000 dwt ship is a rather big unit.

The average suction length for an unloader for 30000 dwt ships is approx. 38 – 45 m at an elevation of approx. 15 m above docklevel.

For unloading 3000 tons/day with 20 workable hours/day (# 150 tons/hr average) an unloader capacity of 200 to 250 tons/hr is the minimum.

The advised approach is to ask quotations from the various manufacturers for this type of unloaders with experience in alumina are:

Alcan Alesa

Neuero

Vigan

Kovako

VAB

May be there are more manufacturers.

Asking for a quotation on this forum makes no real sense. You might get a reaction when coincidentally one of the suppliers reads this thread.

Good luck

Teus ■

Dear rabmer,

I believe that the real expertise is with the reputable manufacturers of alumina unloading equipment.

They possess the knowledge (secrets) and experience.

The terminal layout is something that you have to decide yourself.

Since you can handle 3000 tons of alumina per day, you must be an insider in this industry.

Ask the vendors for built references and tell them that you will contact those references including (or especially) the ones they did not mention, for relevant information.

Hopefully those references behave as colleagues instead of competitors.

In your question, I sense some uncertainty towards the reliability of the supplier’s statements.

Good luck

Teus ■

Dear rabher,

I could not help it, but I ran the computer to make a quick design calculation.

The output is:

Vertical suction length 18.3 m

Horizontal suction length 19.9 m

Pipe 18” – 20”

Vacuum pump displacement 4 m3/sec # 240 m3/min

Filter area 240 m2

Capacity: Alumina 300 tons/hr at 0.6 bar vacuum

Suction arm moment approx 650 – 700 tonfmeter

A first reference for the design.

Success

Teus ■

Dear rabmer,

When I read your first thread, my first thought was; Why such a small capacity unloader for such a big ship.

The price for an unloader is for a significant part determined by the weight of the unloader, which in its turn is a function of the size of the suction arm (ship size).

The reason for such a choice could be to avoid a shore storage facility and use the ship as storage.

This makes the price relatively high.

By choosing smaller ships (which increases the cost of sea transport), the unloader will become less expensive.

Before you consider to build an alumina pneumatic unloader please read:

Pneumatic unloaders: Problems to avoid

https://news.bulk-online.com/?p=74

The design and manufacturing of a ship unloader is not just to calculate pipe sizes and air flows, but also addressing the structural reliability and integrity and the operational properties of the unit.

The existing manufacturers have their standard solutions, which an outsider has to discover by himself.

The required expert that you need works for the manufacturers.

However, if you have one, he must be a giant in his profession and stay with you until completion, because the project leans solely on him.

Guarantees on performance and quality move from a supplier to yourself.

A headache is the last thing you need in such a situation.

Have a nice day

Teus ■

Dear Rabmer;

I have read your inquiry and Neuero would be happy to provide a quote to you.

Please provide a name, address contact information with e-mail address.

We do manufacturer pneumatic ship unloaders for alumina.

Please respond to:

Neuero Corporation

Scott Neidigh

1201 Hawthorne Ln.

West Chicago, Il. 60185

ph: 630-231-9020

fax: 630-231-6120

e-mail: neuero@neuero.com ■

Dear rabmer,

As your business case requires a short delivery time and a reduced price, an alternative could be the purchase of an used pneumatic cement unloader.

There might be some modifications necessary s.a. a new suction pipe and modified kettle outlet.

I was involved in some projects where a cement unloader was used for the unloading of alumina and that worked.

A pneumatic cement unloader uses rubber flexible hose at the suction arm joints and those flexible rubber hoses were sometimes damaged by the static electricity of the alumina, which was generated in the pneumatic conveying.

Also the wear on the used butterfly valves increased, compared to cement unloading.

There seems to be one cement unloader available, almost perfect for your project, dock mobile and for 35000 dwt ships and 350 tons/hr in cement, which will be approx 250 tons/hr in alumina, make VAB, see :

http://www.tradekey.com/sellofferview/id/3093801.htm

Success

Teus ■

Dear Rabner

We noted your inquiry for Surplus Cement Unloaders and would like to offer the following machines:

-Portable Siwertell 5000S

-Portable Siwertell 10000S

=(3) Barge Mounted Cement Unloaders (Kovako/Siwertell:

-Package on I Beams made up of (2) pneumatic unloaders

Please feel free to contact us.

Sincerely,

Al Goodmundson

Phone Canada (306)-664-7260

Email norsequip@sasktel.net ■

Dear rabmer,

If you consider a smaller unloader, you also consider a smaller ship and that would change your business plan considerably.

Before buying a cement unloader and converting this unit into an alumina unloader, verify thoroughly the necessary modifications and resulting performance predictions.

Success

Teus ■

Dear sir

Can supply you with used Neuero vacuvators suitable for this operation.

Please email

href="mailto:mohammadkhalifa@link.net">mohammadkhalifa@link.net

Attachments

20080806(004) (JPG)

■

Dear Sir,

Reading your interesting messages...

VIGAN is indeed a manufacturer of ship-unloaders for alumina. Please refer to cover page of Dry Cargo International magazine (Nov 2009 issue). I'll be very happy to assist if I can.

www.vigan.com

and/or

Nicolas DECHAMPS

Managing Director

VIGAN Engineering s.a.

16 rue de l'Industrie

B. 1400 Nivelles

Belgium

Tel : +32.67.89.50.41

Fax : +32.67.89.50.60

Mob : +32.479.39.50.80

nicolas.dechamps@vigan.com

www.vigan.com

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all !

Best Regards ■

Dear rabmer,

Alumina (Al2O3) is more abrasive than cement.

However, due to the small particle size (<100 micron), the wear on pipes is still minimal.

Bends do suffer more, but with an outer box welded to the bend, the lifetime is very well acceptable.

The wear on rubber hoses and butterfly valves is higher, but is still manageable.

Wearing spare parts have to be kept in store available as usual.

Whether a pneumatic cement unloader, to be used for alumina, has to be modified depends on how good the cement unloader design is.

For alumina, the applied air velocities need to be a little bit higher than for cement.

The reason for this is the higher suspension velocity of alumina compared to cement.

The correction comprises the change of the suction pipe with a smaller diameter, resulting in a higher air velocity with the same vacuum pump.

On the pressure side of the unit, the discharge pipeline can be chosen for the right diameter when the storage installation is built.

The filter installation on top of the silo has to match the compressor size of the unloader.

A cement unloader, designed with a too high air velocity to start with, might not need a pipe change.

Alumina flows much better than cement and that can lead to overloading the compressor airflow in the discharge kettle outlet (too high SLR with choking risk of the discharge pipeline). Then some changes need to be made in the kettle outlet and perhaps in the kettle air by pass controls.

A cement unloader has always an articulated suction arm to move the suction nozzle through the cement and fluidize the cement by this stirring. (sometimes using a rotating nozzle)

The free flowing behavior does not need this stirring nor the rotating nozzle.

Most of the unloaders built for alumina have a telescopic suction pipe hanging from a horizontal boom, reaching the opposite side of the ship’ hold.

Nevertheless, both systems work, whereby the rubber flexible hoses in the suction arm of the cement unloader cause some extra wear compared to the fixed bend and steel flexible hanger of the telescopic execution.

In any case, a candidate cement unloader for your alumina project must be recalculated and structurally inspected in detail components before deciding to continue.

Take care

Teus ■

We have used equipment as well as new equipment available. Kindly contact us at info@scorpioengg.com

www.scorpioengg.com ■

Originally Posted by rabmer

href="showthread.php?p=60617#post60617" rel="nofollow">

I found this forum from the search engines and it is proving to be very useful with its information, so I thought I would post our request for a pneumatic ship unloader.

We are looking to discharge alumina or aluminum powder by a pneumatic unloader from a vessel to a bunker.

The maximum vessel size that we will deal with is 30,000 DWT and we must do 3000 tons per day ~ 150 tph

The material as stated above is alumina which is of density 0.96 t/m3 and is very fine and dusty.

The distance between the vessel and the bunker is around 20 meters.

We prefer the unloader to be mobile in order to be used on different berths.

Does anyone have any recommendations or any second hand equipment for this job?

Thank you

Dear Rabmer,

In China port, we discharge Alumina by ship unloader or by grabs with Dust collector. There are different handling cost.

Pls inform me your email, telephone and company name, address, we can share more experience with you by email contacting.

Do you need to weighing and bagging the Alumina in IBC bag? We design and produce the Mobile Alumina Bagging Machine. Pls refer to the photoes.

For further information, pls feel free to contact me.

Best regards!

Qi Xiaozhong

Shanghai Far-Star International Co., Ltd.

Mobile: +86-13701751499

Email:

href="mailto:qxzh2001@126.com">qxzh2001@126.com

href="http://www.sh-farstar.com" target="blank">www.sh-farstar.com

Attachments

img_6020 (large) (JPG)

■

Dear Sir,

I attahache another pictures for your reference.

Qi Xiaozhong

Mobile: +86-13701751499

Email:

href="mailto:qxzh2001@126.com">qxzh2001@126.com

href="http://www.sh-farstar.com" target="blank">www.sh-farstar.com

Attachments

img 163 (large) (JPG)

■

Dear Sir,

Pls. supply us detail information about your company, telephone, fax, e-mail, we will send you full information.

With my best Regards,

Eng. Pham Van Quyet-Managing Director

Cell phone: (+84) 986 333 375

E-mail:

href="mailto:setavietnam@gmail.com">setavietnam@gmail.com

YM: setavietnam

Skype: setavietnam

MSN: setavietnam

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

SETA jsc

Tel: +84 4 62692701 Fax: +84 4 62692704

Add: Rm.706, 184th building block, no.184 Hoang Quoc Viet rd, Caugiay dist., Hanoi, Vietnam.

Attachments

vigan9 (JPG)

■

Maybe we can help you.

The Kovako unit we are selling is able to unload up to 6000 dwt Ships.

The unloading capacity for cement is 200tns per hour. Unloading fly ash would be 175 tns per hour.

The convey distance to a storage silo will be 100 metres maximum. Longer distances would require a Booster Compresor

It has a Diesel driven motor and is completely autonomous and road mobile. (Pulling truck not included.)

Year of Construction: 1998.

This unit is available for inspection at Seville Port. Notice of visit to be given in advance.

Price: 360.000.-€ situated at the Port of Seville, Spain. ■