Trial Location: Location Type: Date of Trial:
New South Wales, Australia Port loading facilities February 2013
Phase 1
The DSH hopper was installed on Unloader A to be used in the discharge of 28,000 tonnes of soybean meal from a vessel.
Unloader B is also being used in the discharge of the soybean meal but it still has the original truck loading chute — the same chute that was removed from Unloader A.
As soybean meal is a dusty cargo and both A & B are to be used at the same time in the discharge, it was an ideal time to compare the new DSH Systems dustless hopper in operation against the original truck loading chute in the same operation.
At this setting, it took Unloader A approximately 6 minutes to load one truck and there was minor spillage occurring over the top of the hopper — at the same time Unloader B was taking approximately 2 minutes 40 seconds to load a truck.
After lowering the hopper height to increase the spout opening size and adjusting the unloader slide gate that controls the flow rate into the dustless hopper, the truck loading rate was reduced to an acceptable 3 minutes and there were no spillages from the dustless hopper (Unloader A).
Phase 2
DSH Systems’ dustless hopper has now been used on the discharge of four different cargoes. v Soybean meal — 28,000 metric tonnes v DAP — 500 metric tonnes
- MAP — 5,422 metric tonnes
- MES10 — 2,350 metric tonnes
It has shown to be most effective on the dusty soybean meal cargo with a significant reduction in dust during truck loading and only minimal time difference compared to the truck loading rate using the original truck loading chute.
The truck loading rate of fertilizers MAP, DAP and MES10 showed an increase in time to complete a load compared with the original loading chute.
The loading rate is controlled by the unloader slide gate positioned directly above the DSH hopper and is set to enable the maximum amount of cargo fed into the DSH hopper without overflowing out of the hopper.
To enable a quicker loading rate the DSH hopper was modified to provide a larger spout opening.
The height of the installed DSH System is perfect to give adequate clearance from the top of the truck trailers.
CONCLUSIONS OF TEST
1) During Phase 1 only soybean meal was loaded. On first installation, the hopper loading was slower than the traditional chute, but after adjustment loading time was very similar. Significant dust reduction was observed by using the DSH System.
2) During Phase 2 further soybean meal was loaded as well as a variety of fertilizer products. Again significant dust reduction was achieved by using the DSH System on all products.
Loading time on soya bean meal was very similar with both systems. Loading time of the fertilizer products was slower with the DSH due to different bulk densities of this product over the soybean meal.
3) Based on the significant dust reductions achieved, the DSH hopper on Unloader A was replaced with a modified model and the same unit was also installed on Unloader B. All products are now being loaded at the same speed as the traditional unit, but with massive dust reductions.