You have a sticky wicket, wet footall pitch or muddy polo field unfortunately.

The problem with any slurry including vegatable matter is that it will eventually settle out unless you use countless thousands of gallons per minute to move it in a small pipe:^(. not to mention using a pipeline pig to keep it clean. if you have lots H2O its possible but it has weight and will be slowed down by other biomass having settled previously your are dealing with gravity at all times.

If you used a 24 inch capsule pipeline for your biomass it would be very easy to do as it is light weight material and will take very little energy-low pressure air to move the capsule trains in the pipeline from point A to point B.

The minimum economical distance is one mile and the minimum yearly tonnage is 100,000 tons US for these systems.

You are pumping a semi solid and solids it will always want to slow down as it is not a homogenious liquid. its lazy just like water or electricity.

First look at www.capsu.org to find out more, then go to www.pnuetrans.net and they will give you a free quote after you fill out the online questionaire.

Disclaimer:

Please note I am not affiliated with pnuetrans or

any other organisation. ■

At 8.5 lb/cu.ft you have a product which will want to float. Perhaps later on it can get waterlogged and sink. Either way you have a product which strongly wants out of the solution.

Secondly it is needle shaped, which means it will want to form a porous wad. This will allow water to flow through it. So it will tend to block up pipes.

Thirdly how will this straw mixture behave in a centrifical pump? It can be very difficult to induce a floating layer to mix with the fluid in the suction hopper - even with aggitation. You need a special, non-standard design to cope with it.

But there is no harm in doing some experiments with a trial rig - see how it behaves, and how you can overcome problems. That's what invention is all about.

In Australia we compress the biomass to give it a much smaller volume, stow the packs in a container and ship them to Japan, which is slightly over 50 km away. ■

We hear about long distance conveying all the time.

Zeppelins' gear is impressive but there is a big shortfall in distances. A Warman with an attritor cell might be able to handle the input side but you would still need a lot of booster stations whatever the casing limitations.

Better follow John's advice & freight it. Then you won't have to bother about water consumption & reticulation quality. ■