Black Mesa Pipeline

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). 

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. 

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

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... 

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. 

FIGURE 11-1 The Black Mesa pipeline was one of the first long-distance coal sluny pipelines. 

For ultra-fine coal with a top size of 1.4 mm (0.055 in), as in the case of the Ohio and the Black Mesa pipelines, mechanical dewatering must be followed by thermal drying. One way to reduce the cost is to use the waste gas of the thermal plant to dry the coal. 

Despite all the promise of coal, only one long coal pipeline has been huilt in the United States—the Black Mesa Pipeline. Another long pipeline that transports coal is the Novo-Siberski pipeline in Siberia, Russia. Other minerals such as copper concentrate. 

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-... 

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