This bulk facility receives dry bulk materials from railcar, stores in silos and/or flat dry storage, then loads to ship. The original facility layout/design was intended for the processing of inert dry solids with much higher densities and lower fines content materials. (sand, aluminum oxide etc) Today a wide range of commodity products including grain, oats, barley, soybeans etc are routinely handled. A.W. Banister was retained to review dust system performance throughout the entire rail-sea bulk transfer facility as dust collection piping and collectors routinely plugged with commodity fines rendering all collection inoperable. Substantial effluent from the plant had caused a tenuous relationship with neighboring property owners.

AWB performed a preliminary review of in excess of twenty separate dust collection systems. This included review of plant operations procedures, system equipment, piping and hood configurations, and estimated airflows. As a result of our findings during the initial study we were subsequently asked to provide a prioritized plan including budget estimates for the improved dust control, collector performance and collected material handling plant wide. This phased project outline was ultimately tailored to allow the client to progressively improve their overall plant performance, tackle their “problem areas” first and immediately improve their neighborhood relations. Each system required modifications to handle the lighter materials including: collector housing and inlet modifications, piping modifications, and media change. All tailored to promote filtration of the dusts collected.

A major uncontrolled transfer also occurred at BC-5. Tons per hour of extremely dusty products fell through chute work 60-80 feet to an improperly designed belt conveyor feed boot. This less than standard transfer configuration challenged standard design of the collection system. AWB redesigned the entire transfer including slider bed, plenum hooding and new belt seals in order to reasonably (and reliably) size a new collection system. The pictures speak for themselves and the improvement was as dramatic as it appears.

GPA has implemented a number of our recommendations and we have been asked to provide detailed engineering for two additional dust system installations/revisions in the last two years. Improvements are planned including centralizing collected material accumulation to a new waste storage facility via pneumatic convey systems.