Huanghua Port Becomes China’s First Full-Process Intelligent Coal Port

Recently, Huanghua Port under China Energy overcame technological problems in intelligent operation and became the first coal port in China to achieve automation across the entire process from coal tipping to storage and loading and unloading. Its Phase III project and Dagangshan Hydropower Station of the Dadu River Hydropower Development Co., Ltd., another subsidiary of China Energy, are among winners of the 17th Tien-yow Jeme Civil Engineering Prize.

Huanghua Port, on the coast of Bohai Bay, is a coal export port with an annual throughput of 200 million tons. Since 1998, it has built 17 coal berths, two general cargo berths and one oil berth. In 2016, a research and development team was set up to promote the construction of an intelligent port. After technological research over the years, automated stacker/reclaimer operations have been achieved, and the port became the first coal port in China to realize unmanned operation of the yard.

Unmanned operation of coal conveyors

On April 27, 2020, Huanghua Port successfully completed intelligent loading test, becoming the first coal port in China to achieve full process intelligent operation. The established procedures allow for unmanned loading and unloading operations across the entire operation process from stacking and reclaiming in the yard to cargo loading at the container terminal, ship monitoring and leveling, and loading data recording. The entire process is controlled automatically by equipment monitoring and computer programming, and the centralized control room of Huanghua Port is responsible for all information visualization management.

The intelligent transformation of the whole process has greatly reduced the failure rate of equipment and labor intensity of workers at Huanghua Port while significantly improving the operation efficiency and safety.

Centralized control room staff overseeing unmanned operations at the terminal