Caldic Methanol Tank-loading Caldic Europoort is a fast developing terminal for receiving, storage and shipping of chemicals. The chemicals are transported in and out of the terminal by truck transport, wagon train, barges or ships, or can be fed into pipelines under rigorous quality and safety controls. Most products are stored in tanks until they are shipped out, but the terminal can also perform a direct transfer between tankers and barges. Due to this expansion, automation of truck and train wagon loading was required for both methanol as ethanol liquids. As a sub-contractor to ODS metering systems, the primary engineering company for the loading dock, GSD has engineered a reliable and accurate solution.

The methanol loading facility consists of two separate loading docks. One is suitable for only trucks, whereas the other can handle both trucks and train wagons. The automated eXLerate HMI grants the operator the possibility to enter relevant data for a loading procedure and check several safety conditions before a loading procedure is started. The application is designed to automatically stop the loading when the requested volume is reached or when the truck or rail wagon has reached its high level limit. The application both stores and prints all relevant data after each loading sequence. On this loading dock, loading can reach flow rates of up to 10.000 kg/h. The flow rate and total volume is accurately measured by an Emerson CMF300 coriolis meter, which is connected to an Omni flow computer which is used for totalization of the measured values. The Omni flow computer, in turn, com-municates directly with the HMI which handles all further data interpretation and reporting and storage functionality. In 2010 an additional loading dock was brought up to stream which is capable of loading ethanol. The original HMI and equipment was easily expanded to fit the customer needs.

GSD Activities :

- Functional design, detail engineering and programming of the eXLerate application - Commissioning and start-up assistance of the loading station in Europoort, Rotterdam.