Black Mesa

Coal Slurry Pipelines. The only operating U.S. coal slurry pipeline is the 439-km Black Mesa Pipeline that has provided the 1500-MW Mohave power plant of Southern California Edison with coal from the Kayenta Mine in northern Arizona since 1970. It is a 457-mm dia system that aimuaHy deHvers - 4.5 x 10 t of coal, the plant s only fuel source, as a 48.5—50% slurry. Remote control of slurry and pipeline operations is achieved with a SCADA computer system. In 1992 coal deHvery cost from mine to power plant was calculated to be 0.010/tkm ( 0.015/t-mi) (28). 

Coal slurry pipelines have been widely discussed, but few slurry pipelines have been built. In addition to the Black Mesa operation in Arizona, a 38-mile (61-km) pipeline was built by the Soviet Union, and a 108-mile (173-km) pipeline in Ohio was mothballed in 1963 after six years of operation. It is arguable to what extent the limited use of slurry pipelines is due to economics or to political opposition from rail car-... 

As Example 5.1 shows, the velocities predicted by Eqs. (5.1) and (5.6) do not agree closely. Possibly an argument in favor of Eq. (5.6) is that it is proposed by the organization that designed the successful 18in., 273 mi Black Mesa coal slurry line. 

Economics vary in different locations, however, and slurry pipelines can be particularly, attractive where no railroad facilities exist. Thus, throughout the world today there are about ten operating coal slurry pipelines. The only one (1991) in the United Stales is the Black Mesa Pipeline, 273 miles (440 kilometers) long, mostly 18-inch ( 46 centimeters) diameter, but with some 12-inch (7.6-ceniimciers) diameter sections. 

USA Appalachians West Virginia Raymond (Pittsburgh) coal bed USA Arizona Black Mesa field subbituminous—bituminous 11 samples USA Gulf Coast Texas, Arkansas, and Alabama lignites 141 samples... 

Shelley, J.A. Black Mesa Pipeline s Operational and Equipment Experience in Proc. 

Leckie R. M., Schmidt M. G., Finkelstein D., and Yuretich R. (1991) Paleoceanographic and paleochmatic interpretations of the Mancos Shale (Upper Cretaceous), Black Mesa Basin, Arizona. In Stratigraphy, Depositional Environments, and Sedimentary Tectonics of the Western Margin, Cretaceous... 

A coal slurry pipeline is a system for transporting solid coal particles in a liquid carrier. Long-distance coal slurry pipelines are an alternative to railroad transport, and their practicality and economics are largely dependent on land ownership, terrain, water availability and water contamination concerns, political considerations, and coal demand. An example of pipeline transport is the 440 km Black Mesa pipeline, which was completed in 1970 and is currently the only long-distance coal slurry pipeline operating in the United States. Slurry pipelines are also used over shorter distances to transport material within a processing facility. 

Anonymous. Black Mesa Pipeline. Black Mesa... 

Table II. Concentrations of Selected Elements in Coal Samples from Black Mesa (Arizona), Powder River (Wyoming), and San Juan (New Mexico) Regions ...

The Navajo sandstone in the Black Mesa area is an aeolian quartz sandstone (Harsh-barger et al., 1957). Besides quartz, other types of sand grains include mostly plagio-clase and, to a lesser extent, orthoclase (Dulaney, 1989 Harshbarger et al., 1957). The sandstone is cemented by calcite and, to a lesser extent, by silica, and red iron oxide rims are common on the sand grains. 

Figure 9.3. Variation of groundwater Cl- concentrations at Black Mesa with time.

Brown, J.G., and Eychaner, J.H., 1988. Simulation of five ground-water withdrawal projections for the Black Mesa area, Navajo and Hopi Indian Reservations, Arizona. U.S. Geol. Survey Water-Resources Invest., 88-4000, 51 pp. 

GeoTrans, Inc., 1987b. A two-dimensional, finite-difference flow model simulating the effects of withdrawals to the N aquifer, Black Mesa area, Arizona. Submitted to the Office of Surface Mining on behalf of Peabody Western Coal Company. 

Wickham, M., 1992. The geochemistry of surface water and groundwater interactions for selected Black Mesa drainage, Little Colorado river basin, Arizona. Unpublished Master thesis, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, 249 pp. 

Zhu, C., Waddell, R.K. Jr., Star, I., and Ostrander, M., 1998. Responses of ground-water in the Black Mesa, northeastern Arizona, to paleoclimate changes during late Pleistocene and Holocene. Geology, v. 26, pp. 27-130. 

In 1970, the Black Mesa Pipeline, one of the longest pipelines ever built up to that time, started operation between the Black Mesa Coal fields in Arizona and the Mohave Power Plant in Nevada. Coal was ground to a particle size of minus 1168 p,m (14 mesh), and transported in a pipe with a diameter of 457 mm (18 in) over a distance of 437 km (273 mi). Coal was dewatered at the end of the line through a mUl before combustion with preheated air. 

Mining Coal transportation (e.g., Novo Siberski pipeline, Black Mesa Pipeline)... 

Duplex and triplex slurry pumps are manufactured to a power frame of approximately 1500 kW (2000 bhp). The Black Mesa Pipeline featured 13 duplex pumps, each with a driving power of 1250 kW (1675 bhp) to transport 4.8 million tons of coal over a distance of 440 km (275 miles) (Wallrafen, 1983). Some of these pumps were manufactured by Wilson-Snyder in the United States. 

Coal is an important fuel for power plants. Its transportation in the form of slurry has received considerable attention since the successful construction of the Black Mesa Pipeline (Figure 11-1). In fact, one of the longest slurry pipelines is the ETSl coal pipeline, built in 1979. It spans a distance of 1670 km (1036 miles), uses a 965 mm (38 in) pipe, and transports 23 million metric tons/year (25 US tons/year). In Russia, the Siberian coal pipeline is 260 km (163 mi) long and transports 4 million tons of coal a year from Siberian mines. 

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