The last week of November saw the hand-over ceremony of the “Amoris” cutter suction dredger. The one-off, built by Damen Dredging Equipment in only 14 months time, has now arrived in Antwerp where it will work on the polluted silt treatment plant of SeReAnt.
The stationary cutter suction dredger with its 450 mm discharge diameter, is a dredging tool designed to very specific customer specifications. During the design and building process Damen Dredging Equipment and SeReAnt cooperated closely to integrate all requirements in the dredger. The dredger is for instance fitted out with 4 spuds of which 2 are placed in spud carriages to ensure a continuous and smooth dredging process.
The heavy duty cutter ladder swings by means of hydraulic cylinders, in stead of the traditional wide wire winches. The entire dredger including its dredge pumps is electrically driven, the required total power on board being 15.75 kV at 1.800 kVA. The dredge pump capacity for both the cutter action as well as the barge unloader is some 3.000 m3/h. The fully automated dredger features for instance dredge pump capacity control, swing ladder control, and automated coupling to the shore-based treatment plant.
The building of the dredger has been completed in a very short time frame, which was required due to the tight planning of the entire silt processing plant. Damen has succeeded in meeting this planning due to the excellent cooperation within the Damen Group. All design, dredging components and coordination work has been done by Damen Dredging Equipment. The hull has been built at the Polish Damen yard in Kozle. The completion of the dredger was done at another Damen yard, being Maaskant Stellendam.
After a full programme of dredging tests, the “Amoris” has been handed over to its owners, and it has already started its productive life on the Antwerp super project.
About Damen Dredging Equipment
Damen Dredging Equipment is a specialised supplier of dredging equipment and dredging instrumentation & automation. The company, based in Nijkerk, the Netherlands, has over 60 years of experience in the construction of dredging equipment serving the worldwide dredging industry. The dredging tools made are all built to specific customer requirements, making use of a wide range of standard equipment. The company is fully owned by the Damen Shipyards Group. More information can be found on www.damendredging.com.
About SeReAnt
SeReAnt is a joint venture company in which 2 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 15 years.
About 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. 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 under water 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 settling tanks where it dewaters to decrease volume. Then, 2 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.
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Source: damendredging, December 21, 2010