Ag Tech Sunday - New T Port facility to disrupt Grain markets on SA's Eyre Peninsula
- By: "Farm Tender" News
- Ag Company News
- Jul 27, 2019
- 1183 views
- Share
This article is bought to you by Mobble.
Lucky Bay is an innovative port development project on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula.
Watch the video here https://youtu.be/axAGX6ulsUg
The $130 million development is South Australia’s first farmer and private equity partnership port, which involved securing $96 million in private investor equity and debt.
After an expression of interest phase last year, 120 EP grain growers indicated their support for the project with 377,000 tonnes of estimated throughput.
These growers will acquire equity in the port for ongoing throughput over the next seven years.
Lucky Bay will provide an alternative grain storage and export option which will be fully operational for the 2019-2020 grain harvest.
Ad - For all your Farm and Livestock recording try Mobble - It's simple - Ad
Ad - For all your Farm and Livestock recording try Mobble - It's simple - Ad
At the Lucky Bay port site, 24,000 tonnes of silo storage is being built. These fumigable permanent steel silos can be filled directly by trucks from external storage or from the nearby bunker site via an internal haul road between the two Lucky Bay sites.
The silo design includes belts, gantries, services, framework, conveyors, piling and concreted works and is based on ‘off the shelf’ solutions.
The infrastructure will enable diversification through fertiliser importation using a separate berth directly adjacent to the grain berth.
The port itself underwent a harbour extension in 2014 and now incorporates two berth pockets for simultaneously loading or discharging two 87-metre or longer self-propelled self-discharging vessels.
Handling facilities at the port have been designed to be competitive and efficient for the long-term. They consist of a dual hopper which can facilitate two-truck simultaneous discharge of 1000 tonnes per hour.
The hopper feeds a conveyor system which feeds directly to the loading conveyor or is tipped back to the silos.
The 358 hectare site at Lucky Bay has been transformed with 360,000 tonnes of grain storage in 10 bunkers. The bunker site features dual-automated 40-metre weighbridges and two dual-sided sampling offices with automated probes.
Bunker design is based on operational efficiency including intake speed at 24,000 tonnes per day, efficient truck turnaround, out-loading speed, compliance to fumigation rules, automation and minimisation of work health and safety risks.
There will be six drive over hopper stackers deployed to the Lucky Bay bunker site, each with capacity of approx. 600 metric tonnes per hour. T-Ports is also adopting new technology at its bunker sites with bunker sweepers.
These South Australian designed and manufactured tools are designed to make reclaiming grain from bunkers easier and quicker by directly feeding into trucks or the DOH stacker. By automating grain retrieval from bunker floors, waste is minimised and operational efficiency is increased.
The transhipment vessel (TSV), tentatively named the Lucky Eyre, will load grain from port and unload onto deep water vessels five nautical miles from the port. It is capable of loading up to Panamax size vessels.
The Lucky Eyre is an 87-metre self-propelled, self-discharging vessel with a capacity of between 3,300 and 3,500 tonnes and a nameplate loading capacity of up to 13,800 tonnes per day.
The design of the vessel is based on Sea Transport Solutions’ previously designed and built vessels, including the MV Aburri, which has been used for the past 20 years for transhipment of lead nitrate in northern Queensland.
Ad - For all your Farm and Livestock recording try Mobble - It's simple - Ad
Ad - For all your Farm and Livestock recording try Mobble - It's simple - Ad
Previously unseen in Australia for grain exports, the use of a transhipment vessel means T-Ports requires less than four metres of depth in the harbour, eliminating the need for major jetty structures and other port infrastructure.
T-Ports transhipment technology is capable of operating in seas of up to 5m wave height and 30 knot winds.
A transhipment port facility has a much lower environmental footprint, reducing the ecological disturbance in comparison to deep water facilities.
Due to the port being located close to the product, these facilities substantially reduce the road haulage distances, hence reducing the cost to government for road repairs and maintenance and reducing carbon dioxide emissions considerably.
Resources that are uneconomical due to long haulage distances, and the cost of same, become economical when the port is moved significantly closer to the product.
The vessel is currently having material handling systems installed in Shanghai and is due to arrive in Australian waters in the second half of 2019.
Share Ag News Via