Damen Customised DOP Pumps Clean Antwerp Harbour
Damen Dredging Equipment has delivered two customised DOP submersible dredge pumps, plus their ladders, to SeReAnt for the Antwerp harbour clean up project, which is running smoothly. The DOP pumps are mounted on trolleys over the settling tanks. The use of a standard DOP pump in a customised execution is another sound example of the relevance of the Damen standard concept.
The standard 150 kW hydraulically driven dredge pump, type DOP2320, has an average production per hour of 1.000 cu.m. The working angle of the DOP pumps, which are identical and interchangeable, can be adjusted by means of a hydraulic cylinder. Depending on the amount of silt stored, it works at a maximum dredging depth of -6 m. The ladder-based DOP pump is fitted out with a hydraulically driven auger head to maximise the mixture concentration. The ladder integrates the DOP pumps discharge piping, plus its hydraulic piping and signal cables. The customer has chosen the DOP pump because of its compactness and as it has proven itself to be a reliable part of the long production line.
AMORAS
In order to guarantee sufficient draught to shipping traffic in the Port of Antwerp for the coming decades, the Flemish Government and the Port of Antwerp have launched one of the largest silt dredging and treatment projects of the world. The project, called AMORAS, covers the entire process from dredging to responsible storage of the contaminated material of which high volumes have to be dredged and stored annually. AMORAS is an acronym for ‘Antwerpse Mechanische Ontwatering, Recyclage en Applicatie van Slib’, meaning ‘Antwerp Mechanical Dewatering, Recycling and Application of Silt’.
The process starts with one of the current dredgers of the Port of Antwerp depositing silt and sludge in a closed part of the harbour, the underwater depot. Here, the Damen cutter suction dredger is located to pump this sediment continuously to a shore-based plant where the sand is regained from the sludge. The silt is then pumped to in four wedge-shaped settling tanks of 120.000 cu.m each. Over these storage tanks runs a fixed 173 m long 24 m high bay, to which two controllable trolleys are connected. Attached to each trolley is the Damen ladder with integrated DOP submersible dredge pump. The two Damen DOP pumps fitted out with auger heads pump the material to a plant where the fully dewatered silt is pressed to filter blocks. These dry filter blocks are stored on land for future use in for instance infrastructural works.
Joint Venture
SeReAnt is a joint venture company in which two major contractors, Dredging International and Jan De Nul, have combined the forces of their respective specialised environmental subsidiaries DEME Environmental Contractors and Envisan. SeReAnt will design and build the silt treatment and storage system, followed by the exploitation of the project for the next fifteen years.