Drive solution for Maasvlakte Olie Terminal

  • Oil terminals with SEW-EURODRIVE helical-worm gear units

    Robust and powerful explosion-proof helical-worm gear units

    Maasvlakte Olie Terminal relies on agitator drives from SEW-EURODRIVE, resistant against the salty sea air, explosion-proof and extremely low speed.

The crude oil in the Maasvlakte Oil Terminal is always moving. This movement is caused by special drives made by SEW-Eurodrive. Resistance to the salt sea air, explosion safety and extremely low speed are some of the requirements that the drive technology applied here complies with.

45 million tons of oil

With a total storage capacity of 4.5 million m3, the M.O.T. is an important link between oil producer and refinery. The 39 giant tanks contain 120,000 m3 of oil each, called crude. The tanks have a double deck roof with a diameter of 84 meters, thus a surface of 5,500 m2 (a small football field) and a weight of 550 tons. The roof floats on the crude. About 300 tankers from all over the world moor in the area annually. These carry a total of 45 million tons of oil to the M.O.T.

Ten times a year, all tanks are emptied and filled again. Each tank is equipped with four mixers. These are located on the side of the tank and are mounted on a pivot in order to stir the entire tank volume evenly. This mixing happens to maintain homogeneous oil and to prevent residue. The horizontal swivel movement of the mixer is achieved by a special concept with SEW-Eurodrive drives.

M.O.T. and SEW-Eurodrive developed this technique together, specifically for this purpose. These drives comply with the EU Directive 94/9/EC for equipment and protective systems for use in explosion hazardous areas, briefly called ATEX.

One rotation per day

SEW-Eurodrive supplied the first test drive in 2002, soon followed by 24 SEW-Eurodrive drives, type S47AM71SF37R17eDT71C6. As the drives are exposed to salt, chemicals and sand, the coating system was an essential aspect of the purchase. For that reason the drives are provided with a special paint system.

Another peculiarity of this drive solution is that the SEW-Eurodrive drive is making just one rotation in 24 hours, so that a total reduction of i = 1,209,171 was necessary. This was realized by mounting a construction of three gear units, an electric motor and the use of an overload coupling on the output shaft. Here too, the solution meets the ATEX Directive (zone 2), because even at a complete blockage the heat development in the overload coupling is nil.

We can therefore rightfully speak of a unique drive!

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