Slurry Pipelines

Mining and processing of coals and ores usually take place in remote and less developed regions. Mines and the respective processing plants are often located several hundred miles apart so that slurry transport through pipelines often represents the only economically viable alternative. In order to keep the plant dimensions and costs as low as possible, solids transport is carried out in the form of concentrated suspensions that often reach the limits of the pumpability. As an undesirable side-effect these slurries often exhibit a non-Newtonian behavior including a flow limit.

To remedy this situation, a customized mixing technology is used in front of the pump stations and at the end of the pipeline to liquefy the suspensions in vessels up to10,000 m3. Applying this technique, highly concentrated solids suspensions can be transported trouble-free with relatively low investment and operating costs.