Conveyance is a critical, massive element in any bulk-storage project, and Dome Technology’s team has decades of experience designing and installing custom reclaim systems meeting client needs.
Such was the case with the 2020 Barrette-Chapais project in Port of Saguenay, Quebec, Canada. Pellets are produced at a plant nearby, and upon arrival at the storage facility, they are dumped into a truck-unloading hopper and conveyed to a bucket elevator, which delivers them to a reversing conveyor on top of the domes.
The domes are situated on a hillside some distance from the water, so the outbound conveyor on the reclaim side is incredibly long—1,153 feet (351.4 m) total, reaching 357 feet (108.8 m) to collect product underneath both domes and then stretching 796 feet (242.6 m) to ships that will deliver it to Europe.
Another example of clever conveyance customization showed up in McInnis Cement’s Rhode Island project. Piping on the loading side needed to be routed up and over an existing warehouse; it was then anchored to a structural stair tower as it climbed to the dome apex. Load bearing on the warehouse wasn’t an option, so a new truss and structural-steel supports carry the weight. Part of keeping operating costs low comes from the system’s ability to keep product flowing. A dome with automatic reclaim allows McInnis to offload a ship while simultaneously reclaiming—no need to pay demurrage costs.
“What that’s going to allow us to do is to offload to the dome without having to stop. So it will drastically reduce our unloading costs,” said McInnis project director Dominic Demers. McInnis Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Francis Forlini agreed, adding that this new system reduces operating costs by not having to double-handle product inside the warehouse.
Companies interested in exploring custom conveyance are welcome to discuss projects with our sales team.