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Specifications Cement carrier 30 000 dwt
The Endeavor is a 30,000-ton giant, 170 meters long and 27 meters wide, the biggest of its type ever built.
This latest-generation cement carrier is of the pneumatic self-unloading type. The cement is stored in four tanks. First the cargo is “fluidized” by the injection of a great quantity of air; then the mix thus obtained is literally “pumped” into the receiving silos on the shore by a complex pneumatic system. It has no contact with the atmosphere. This system avoids the dust emissions that usually shroud cement terminals and represents a real plus point in environmental terms. “It has taken three years to build the Endeavor, and the involvement and collaboration of our technical teams was singled out by the shipyard itself during the launching ceremony as being a key factor in the project’s success,”
noted Yves Rastoin, CEO of Setaf Saget. Its pneumatic system was designed and manufactured by Van Aalst, a company that supplies a lot of equipment to vessels in the Offshore Division, particularly the Bourbon Liberty series.
Endeavor
| Built - Construction | 06/2009 | |
|---|---|---|
| Shipyard - Chantier | Batam | |
| Length overall -Longueur hors-tout | 170,00 m | |
| Beam - Largeur | 27,50 m | |
| Deadweight - Port en lourd | 29 245,11 mts on 10,04 m | |
| Volume (cubic feet) | grain | 947 508 cf |
| Hold - Cale | # 1 | 208 242 |
| # 2 | 260 184 | |
| # 3 | 260 187 | |
| # 4 | 218 895 | |
| Cargo plant : 7 compressors, 3 blowers, 6 vacuum pumps | ||
Focus on...
The technique of pneumatic unloading
A special feature of Portland cement is that it behaves like a liquid when it is mixed with air.
The design of the Endeavor has been based on this idea. To unload the vessel, two boosters
pump air into the bottom of the hold, through a ver y thick canvas. As the air penetrates the
cement, it makes it as fluid as water. The bilges are angled at 9 degrees so the cement flows into the center, from where it is aspirated by a central collector. It takes six vacuum pumps to reconstitute the cement in two capacity systems that are pressurized using six compressors. These systems fill and empty alternatively, like an enormous pump. The cement is thus expelled from the vessel to the cement terminal through two flexible pipe strings of flexible 16”. The unloading can either take place “mechanically,” with the cement reaching each silo by a normal process of gravity, or “pneumatically,” with the terminal propelling the cement in the same way as the vessel unloaded it.
Although the principle is very simple, this facility has been somewhat complex to develop and
perfect. It is totally automated. All the operator has to do is enter certain parameters and the
computer does the rest.
