Four Linnhoff asphalt-mixing plants have been delivered to the New Doha International Airport (NDIA) site in Qatar by Linnhoff Technologies in Singapore.
They will be used by a consortium of contractors led by Malaysian contractors Gamuda Berhad and WCT Engineering Berhad who were awarded the US $490 million contract to design and build the runways, road tunnels and other facilities.
The four plants were ordered through Linnhoff’s Malaysian distributor Brac Engineering, and delivered to the site over a six-month period.
The four units, model LH4000 tower asphalt batching plants are designed to provide high capacity production for mega projects, with an output capacity of 320 tonnes per hour.
With such capacity, this type of plant is also used elsewhere for commercial sales production of various recipes of hotmix asphalt.
To reduce the unnecessary dissipation of heat, the Linnhoff dryer drum comes fully insulated and equipped with a highly efficient dual fuel burner utilising liquified petroleum gas (LPG) and diesel. The robust four tonne mixer with twin shaft synchronised spur gear is powered by two 55kW motors.
Stringent environmental re-quirements from the country are resolved with Linnhoff’s ambient reverse air, baghouse pollution control system, limiting the emission to less than 20 mg/m³.
Gamuda Berhad and WCT Engineering Berhad, in a joint venture with Sinohydro Corporation of China, are building two runways of 4.84km and 4.25km, three full-length parallel taxiways, all airfield lighting and electrical substation equipment, a 1km dual three-lane tunnel providing access to the airfield area, and a detention ponds system to manage airfield drainage.
“The Sinohydro Gamuda WCT JV (SGW) is placing about 10,000 tonnes of asphalt per day,” said Linnhoff Technologies general manager Thomas Wolf.
“The contractor is working six days a week, and using a fleet of Tata trucks from India to shuttle the asphalt to the laying areas.”
Wolf said that a deciding factor in the SGW selection of Linnhoff’s technology was the ability of the plants to achieve high quality hotmix asphalt coupled with uninterrupted high production.
“Equally as important, however, was the fast delivery and installation time, and the ease of maintenance when the plants are working,” added Wolf.
“In any Middle East project, maintenance of equipment is a very important contributory factor, and with a mega prestigious project such as the NDIA, there is no leeway for delays.”
Linnhoff Technologies, an affiliate of Linnhoff GmbH of Germany, can trace its origins back to 1919.
Strategically located in Singapore from 1984, Linnhoff’s product range includes mobile, modular, containerised and tower asphalt plants, base stabilisation plants, and hot recycling plants.