Managing dust during loading / unloading bulk cargo ships can improve efficiency and manage health, safety and environmental concerns

Huge volumes of airborne dust can be generated when bulk cargo materials are loaded / unloaded at ports and rail / road truck loading facilities. This creates operational issues along with posing a health, safety and environmental risk.

This video shows how effectively dust can be managed by using a Grydale® mobile dust collector to reduce these potentially dangerous airborne contaminants, protect the health and safety of workers and safeguard the surrounding environment while loading / unloading dry bulk cargo materials at a Queensland Port.

Health, Safety and Environment. Driving Demand for Effective Dust Control Solutions at Ports. 

Historically, when loading dry bulk products such as grains, fertilizers, coal, iron ore, bauxite or sands, dust control was often neglected. Ports were scarcely populated and port traffic was minimal, meaning time moved a little slower. There was also less awareness of the impact of dust for the health and safety of workers and surrounding environment.

Fast forward to today, our Ports are a hive of activity surrounded by businesses and residential communities. An increase in maritime traffic means that ships arriving to load and unload bulk goods are subject to tighter timeframes, increased costs and stricter regulations.

Protecting the health and safety of our maritime workers from the hazardous effects of respirable dust is by far the main priority. Followed by protecting visitors, residents and businesses that surround our ports from exposure to harmful dust. In addition, protecting our valuable waterways and oceans from dust and contaminants that can pollute and harm our sea life and vegetation are important factors driving the demand for effective dust control solutions.

Benefits of Dust Control during Loading / Unloading. Cost Savings and Operational Efficiencies.  

Along with being compliant with health, safety and environmental regulations, managing dust effectively has proven operational benefits and can lead to significant cost savings by:

1) Reclaiming valuable product that would otherwise be lost into the atmosphere.
2) Increasing the speed of loading / unloading materials.

Loading / Unloading speeds are often reduced in an attempt to manage dust. By using a dust collector the speed of loading / unloading can be increased to improve the efficiency of operations and reduce costs. In addition, shipping ports are currently experiencing extended shipping times/delays, the longer vessels are in port loading / loading the more fees are incurred (demurrage and labour). Increasing the efficiency of ship loading / unloading means that vessels have quicker turnaround times and spend less time in ports / saving on labour and demurrage costs.

Mobile Dust Collectors. Dust Extraction at the Source.

Grydale mobile dust collectors can be easily positioned on port loading / unloading decks. Skid mounted units can be moved using cranes or castor wheels. Alternatively track units are self-propelled to move into position when required and moved out of position when not in use. Units can be used to manage ship loading and unloading of a wide range of products either via clamshells or conveyors. Single air intakes can be used to extract dust from a single source or multiple side air intakes can be used to extract dust from multiple sources (e.g. lowered into a ship hull during loading).

Grydale JMS M-Series dust collectors offer:

• Air Volumes: 6m³/s (12,000 CFM) to 60m³/s (125,000 CFM)
• Mobility options:  skid, caster wheel, stepping, track mounted
• Power options: Diesel, Electric, Hybrid

Grydale offer flexible rental and purchase options for mobile dust collectors.