Truck unloading - USA

Efficient material flows at US dry bulk terminal 

Jacksonville, Florida, has a booming processed-wood industry with the area hosting industrial plantation forest lands of around 70,000km². Against this backdrop, US dry bulk specialist, Keystone Terminal, plays a key role in their supply chain, using a Bruks truck dumper to receive them for onward use.

Customer need

Florida’s industrial forests are a significant resource and within a hundred mile radius of Jacksonville, 12 million metric tons of wood fiber is handled annually. The wood chips are produced from southern yellow pine, also known as SYP, and are destined for pulp producers and the wood-based panel sector.

In the hub of this industry is Keystone Terminal, based on the waterfront of the St Johns River in Jacksonville. Handling mostly dry bulk materials and aggregates, the terminal’s wood chip operations are taken care of by partner company, Kastamonu USA, which was established to manage the area’s wood chip supply and logistics processes in 2015. Kastamonu USA, has an annual wood chip production capacity of 500,000 metric tons. 

The terminal’s wood chip receiving facilities are therefore critical to the region’s processed-wood industry and when the terminal needed a bulk truck-receiving system, it turned to Bruks Siwertell for its market-leading truck dump technology.

Our solution

Serving the wood chip flows at the terminal is a 22.9m (75ft) Bruks drive-over truck dumper and a 4.9m (16ft) receiving hopper. The truck dumper can process seven to eight loads per hour continuously. The receiving hopper has a storage capacity of 170m3 (6,000ft3) and an output flow of 250t/h.

Bruks truck dumper systems are relied upon throughout the world, proving to be an extremely effective method for receiving free-flowing dry bulk materials. They offer very efficient unloading cycles, as well as specially designed, covered receiving systems that minimize dust emissions to negligible levels. The covers can be fixed or articulating, depending on what is needed.  

The terminal has also commissioned a second-hand Siwertell VST-790D screw-type ship unloader to meet its expanding dry bulk material portfolio. Although specially designed for handling sulfur, Keystone was confident that it could bring the machine into use for cement, synthetic gypsum, and agromax, which is a mix of old and new slag and fly ash from coal burning facilities.

Both systems demonstrate the emphasis that Keystone places on equipment that will deliver long-term reliable, high performance operations.