In West Australia one mining company is planning to ship iron ore by slurry pipeline several hundred km to Geraldton Port. The idea is to keep vehicles off the road, and to control fugitive dust.

Conceptually waste coal transport is not a new idea. The coal lumps are friable so you might get more fines at the end than you expected.

I'm not sure if 3 m/s is fast enough. If you want to get down to tin tacks talk to your slurry pump Vendors, such as Warman International or Georgian Iron Works. They have design charts and software. ■

I have come across a few studies related to sand slurry pipelines in the canadian oil sand industry transporting particles upto maximum size more than 50 mm through pipe diameters ranging between 0.483 m and 0.737 m.

Mathematical models available in literature can predict deposition velocity of particles (=minimum operating flow velocity-1m/s) and pressure drop (per m of slurry pipeline) with fair amount of accuracy. However, these models require pipe diameter and solids speific gravity besides slurry concentration and particle size distribution as input.

D.R. Kaushal ■

One should take into account the effect of particle size on pressure drop while designing a pipeline for transporting coarser particles. Coarser particles behave very differently from finer particles in slurry pipeline. I have compared pressure drops for 125 and 440 micron particles flowing with different flow velocities and concentrations in one of my papers recently published in IJMF:

Kaushal, D.R., Sato, K., Toyota,T., Funatsu, K. and Tomita, Y.,"Effect of particle size distribution on pressure drop and concentration profile in pipeline flow of highly concentrated slurry", International Journal of Multiphase Flow, Elsevier Publications, Volume 31, Issue 7, July 2005, pp. 809-823.

Regards

D.R. Kaushal ■

Mr Kaushal

Is there a possibility to get a copy of the article?

Regards

Ziggy Gregory

ziggy.gregory@vibfem.com.au ■

Why not condsider a capsule pipeline/pnematic for deliver of coal rejects rather than slurry?

Brink weaver in toronto can help you-Pneutrans.net

Please see the attached file for your use. ■

I blew quite a few bob on that McGraw Hill Handbook. Just check the calculated results for the worked examples against the formulae...and then come back and tell me its an excellent book. Proof reading is a forgotten art. ■

Hello Ziggy,

Have Promet lumbered you with the tailings disposal then? Elsewhere there has been mention of piping strength. In recent discussions with the Engineering Manager of an/the industry standard pump manufacturer based on the Lancashire/Yorkshire border I was alarmed to learn that there is no NDT procedure to verify the pump wet end integrity. So the rated casing pressure goes ex fenestre in my book.

It seems to be the practise throughout the business. Works testing is not undertaken because the test water would not be relevant to the, as yet unavailable, pulp. A pulptight alibi if ever there was one.

If you dig deep enough it confirms what we all suspect... it is impossible to cover yourself against pulp. But I, for one, know how to agitate it.

I suppose I've just blown my invite to a round of golf at St Andrews while their parent company prepares a test rig. Oh well. ■

No, project I am on, we do not do the tails disposal. ■

I'm with Vincenzo. Wetting stuff & then having to dry it later is a troublesome business; further frought with leaps into the unknown wealth of mystery that surrounds hydraulic conveying. Keep your powder dry!■

Fine particulate tailings slurries are being transpoted successfully through pipelines nowadays in the paste form with weight concentrations upto 70%. Higher solids concentration not only reduces the water requirement but also make the paste transportable at very low flow velocity thus reducing the pump power requirement. I dont think transporting tailings for longer distances pneumatically will be a wise idea. ■

Please look for an alternative of conveying coal rejects to mill feed stream by a combination of a small bucket elevator, conveyor with lifting magnet / magnetic drum for lifting / discarding scrap iron. I have seen such a system installed for a verticle roller mill in a cement plant. ■

In a vertical roller mill, some material falls out from the table. This is very small amount and is normally fed back to feed material stockpile or feed stream. The spill may contain some trap iron, which needs to be separated before reuse. ■

Hello Dick,

Our group have vast experience in the application you have outlined.

Both pump manufacture . Wear protected pipework and conveying equipment are our speciality.

If you could sned me your details we can make contact if you wish.

email; trevor@densit.co.uk ■

Very informative topic this.

As I posted in this topic

https://forum.bulk-online.com/showth...0867#post50867

I am investigating which types of valves are used in several industries and processes, as my company developed a fail-safe spring return actuator for lift plug valves. I can't find concrete information of which valves are commonly used in slurry systems, so maybe one of the experts here can help me. So my question is: are manual lift plug valves used in slurry pipelines, or might a lift plug valve become interesting for these systems if automated?

Best regards,

Roy ■