A TECHNICAL COMPARISON OF COAL PIPELINE OPTIONS By N.T. Cowper1, J. Sobota2 and A.D. Thomas1 1 Slurry Systems Pty Limited, Sydney, Australia.
[email protected] 2 Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Wroclaw, Poland Hydrotransport 18 Conference, Rio de Janeiro September 2010 Long distance transportation of coal was commercially proven in the highly successful 440 km Black Mesa Coal Pipeline commissioned in 1970. The economic pumping of coal in water over long distances requires the coal to be reduced to a fine size consist. At the power station the de-watered coal is further reduced to pulverised fuel (pf) size. Another option is to reduce the coal to pf size before transport and pump as a coal-water mixture. For long distance transport of minus 50 mm export size coal, the only viable option is to use a unique Special Vehicle Slurry (SVS) system. The paper compares the technical issues involved in all coal pipeline options. 1. INTRODUCTION The transportation of coal over long distances was commercially proven in the highly successful 440 km Black Mesa Coal Pipeline commissioned Aug. 14, 1970. The Black Mesa pipeline fed the captive Mohave Power Station for over 35 years. Although the use of coal for energy may slowly decrease in the long term, coking coal will still require transportation. The economic pumping of coal in water over long distances requires the particle size of the coal to be reduced to a fine size consist with the Black Mesa pipeline having a top size of 1.4 mm and 18 to 20% minus 45 microns to ensure optimum slurry properties.