Source: International Dredging & Port Construction
Ellicott® International of Baltimore, Maryland, USA, commissioned the first of two bucketwheel dredgers which will be used in the salt mining industry in both Saudi Arabia and China.
The first of two orders was to provide a special electric bucketwheel dredger for Saudi Petrochemical (SADAF). The vessel will be used by SADAF, a joint venture of Shell and Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC), to mine hard rock salt at its plant in Jubail, Saudi Arabia, which will then be processed into chlorine for PVC and caustic soda.
The new dredger will, according to SADAF, increase the plant’s production because its 95 percent uptime rate is 25 percent better than that of SADAF’s existing dredger and because of its superior technology. Among the features which Ellicott® has incorporated into the dredger, the design is higher horsepower wheels, highly reliable variable speed AC electric motor drives, as well as state-of-the-art hydraulics.
The dredger’s 600 HP dual-wheel has the most HP ever applied to a 94″ (2388 mm) diameter wheel, and this means that it is able to deliver the high cutting forces required. Ellicott® believes the monolithic salt deposit in Saudi Arabia involves the hardest digging of any mine in the world using bucketwheel dredgers.
The company’s second order follows a 2-year worldwide evaluation by the Chinese which resulted in the choice of an Ellicott® brand B890, 14″ bucketwheel dredger for the Xingjiang Salt Lake Chemical company, for use at a salt mine in western China.
The standard design of the B890 is to be modified to take account of extreme climatic conditions.
Principal particulars of the Ellicott® Brand Series B1990E
Total HP – 2100 (1100 on ladder pump and 1000 auxiliary)
Bucketwheel – 600 HP hydraulic, 94″ diameter dual wheel
Pump power source – 1100 HP, AC wound rotor motor with variable speed control
Design production – 400 TPH
Principal particulars of the Ellicott® Brand Series B890
Total HP – 914 (624 on hull pump, CAT 3412 and 290 auxiliary CAT 3406)
Bucketwheel – 150 HP hydraulic, 94″ diameter dual wheel
Pump – Ellicott® 14″
Reprinted from International Dredging & Port Construction