Bulk Handling Facility Commissioned in Townsville Port

 

Northern Stevedoring Services (NSS) and the Port of Townsville Limited (POTL) have announced the official commissioning of a state-of-the-art bulk handling facility in South Townsville.

The facility, which cost $15 million to construct, will be officially opened at 4pm on Thursday 10th September 2015 by The Honourable Coralee O’Rourke, Minister for Disability Services, Minister for Seniors and Minister Assisting the Premier on North Queensland.

NSS General Manager Juliette Sperber said that she was incredibly proud of the new bulk handling facility which sets environmental benchmarks in the industry.

“This new facility, which is designed to store and handle bulk materials such as mineral concentrates, represents a total asset investment of approximately $18 million by NSS and required around two years in the planning phase and 15 months to construct,” she said. “It is state-of-the-art in terms of its environmental management technology and represents a huge step forward for our industry in this region.

“During the design phase of the project, we took into account the proximity of the local community to the port and our target was to construct a facility that set new benchmarks in terms of dust control.We are so proud of the end result, particularly the new standards and benchmarks we have set and our efforts towards ‘greening’ the logistics chain.”

POTL Chairman Pat Brady congratulated NSS on the commissioning of the facility and said it supported the Townsville port’s vision for future growth in capacity.

“This bulk handling facility provides extra capacity for smaller mines in our region to get their products to market in a timely and cost efficient way, without having to build their own storage facility,” he said. “POT is the largest exporter of high-value minerals in Australia and this state-of-the-art handling facility supports our vision and aspirations to be Northern Australia’s transport link to the world.”

David Donohue, Chairman of the Port Stakeholder Working Group (PSWG) said that the group was impressed by NSS’ efforts to continuously improve performance in the area of dust emissions.

“The PSWG commends NSS on the commissioning of its new state-of-the-art facility. Innovations such as the “rapid doors”, negative air pressure, advanced dust filtration and recycling vehicle wash-down facilities helps to demonstrate the commitment by Port users to further reduce the potential for dust emissions from the area,” he said.

“Other steps to reduce the facility’s environmental footprint such solar power, rainwater harvesting and recycling and “smart” power control are testament to the work NSS and other Port users are doing to enhance environmental standards for our community.”

Bulk Handling Facility – Facts and Figures

  * The facility contains two stack release points fitted with filtration units to remove contaminants such as dust from the air prior to release to the atmosphere.
  * Negative pressure in the warehouse is used to prevent dust releases as doors are opened to allow trucks to enter.
  * NSS has installed high wind-rated Rapid Doors on truck entry and exit which work in unison with the negative pressure and dust filtration systems to ensure ultimate control of dust emissions from the facility.
  * The control measures are highly effective with NSS achieving 100% compliance and well below the thresholds.
  * The National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) recently completed compliance testing and confirmed the stack emissions consistently ranged between 1.21 mg/m3 - 2 mg/m3 over the last two sampling periods, well below the allowable threshold of 50 mg/m3. These results demonstrate the efficiency of the facility in reducing emissions to air.
  * Two truck wash bays have been built and are designed to wash the external surfaces of trailers (including the wheels) of prime movers prior to exiting the facility; this ensures no dust is tracked out onto public roads. The wash bays also use wash water that has been treated and recycled via an integrated treatment / recycling plant.
  * The facility is self-monitoring which means that any detected faults, such as air-system pressure decline, are notified via electronic SMS to operational personnel. This enables quick responses to rectify issues, ensuring any possible failures with the system are corrected immediately.
  * The facility provides real time monitoring and data collection to ensure compliance requirements are achieved.