STORMAJOR® application prevents spontaneous combustion in coal stockyards
14.01.2022In cooperation with AUMUND Asia (H.K. China), responsible for the Asian Sales Area, SAMSON Materials Handling (AUMUND Group) has recently supplied a STORMAJOR® 2.0 to a Japanese company for the handling of coal at their chemical plant in Indonesia. The site, located in Banten province, is a specialist manufacturing facility producing various chemicals for the global supply chain.
Example of a STORMAJOR® 2.0 operating in an outdoor stockyard for coal
© SAMSON Materials Handling
Coal is delivered by sea going vessel, then it is offloaded and stored in the facility directly. During storage, the coal can spontaneously combust due to its quality. The STORMAJOR® designed and delivered by SAMSON manages the continuous in- and out-loading of the coal, whereby the coal is cooling down and hot spots will be avoided.
The situation before: in 2018, a coal fired power plant was opened to support the chemical manufacturing operations. This 2 x 151 MW facility is located on the periphery of the production plant with its own covered coal stockyard. The environmental conditions, if not ideal, can cause hot spots of burning fuel. These hot spots, if left un-treated, can spread resulting in a potentially dangerous situation and a loss of usable product. To combat this, the operating company has been using a combination of excavators and dump trucks to move the coal out from the covered storage area to an external un-covered stockpile. Once the coal has cooled down, the reverse process occurs and the excavator loads a dump truck to take the material back into the covered area before another excavator manoeuvers the material back onto the covered stockpile. This movement, along with manipulation from an excavator on the external pile allows any hot spots to be dealt with.
Prior to the purchase of the SAMSON STORMAJOR® 2.0, a number of excavators and dump trucks were being used to move the material, this double handling was time consuming and tied up a lot of resources. They identified a need to simplify this process and worked with AUMUND Asia and SAMSON on providing a simple, cost effective and reliable solution, a STORMAJOR® 2.0.
The situation today: After detailed review by SAMSON product specialists, a track mounted, self-powered, 450 series STORMAJOR® with a 27 m boom was selected. The STORMAJOR® could be positioned with the reception feeder inside the facility and the boom outside allowing the excavator to load the material transported outside directly onto the coal pile. Keeping the STORMAJOR® in place and turning the machine around it could subsequently feed cooled coal back inside onto the covered stockpile. The versatility of this machine allows the company to reduce the number of truck movements and the number of personnel needed in the coal facility thus reducing operating costs, increasing material yield and improving operator safety.
The STORMAJOR® is the Samson® Material Feeder combined with an outloading boom conveyor, which can slew and luff. The feeder and boom are combined into a single mobile machine. Mobility is achieved via self-powered tracks for uneven terrain or wheeled units designed to be towed. Three different types are available on the feeder section to enable the handling of light to heavy bulk materials. The modular outloading boom can be up to 27 m long and achieves stockpile heights of over 11 m.
Dust control can be achieved by fully enclosing the Material Feeder and Belt Conveyors then employing integral filter units mounted on the feeder and boom. In addition, for certain applications a telescopic discharge chute can also be fitted to the boom to allow dust free loading.
The feeder is able to accept material delivered by numerous methods such as a front end loader, tipping truck, mining dump truck, grab and excavator. This makes the STORMAJOR® a truly versatile machine with various applications including stockpiling, barge or ship loading, rail wagon loading, transfer or emergency material feeding.
