Capsule pipeline

Pipelines to transport soHds are called freight pipelines, of which three different types exist pneumatic pipelines, the use of which is known as pneumotransport or pneumatic conveying slurry pipelines, which may also be called hydrotransport or hydrauHc conveying and capsule pipelines. When air or inert gas is used to move the soHds in the pipeline, the system is called a pneumatic pipeline and often involves a wheeled vehicle inside the pipeline, propelled by air moving through the pipe (25). Slurry pipelines involve the transport of soHd particles suspended in water or another inert Hquid. HydrauHc capsule pipelines transport soHd material within cylindrical containers, using water flow through the pipeline for propulsion. 

Pipeline Research Society and the Capsule Pipeline Research Center and Gas Research Institute ia the United States. 

Pipeline Research Society and the Capsule Pipeline Research Center and Gas Research Institute in the United States. The concept of transporting heat over great distances with chemical eneigy pipelines has been considered (55). 

With annually increasing volumes of various fossil fuels to be handled and/or transported an interest arises in the new economical and operationally safe kinds of transport, including the pipeline one. Preliminary investigation has shown that application of a special kind of pipeline installations can be very useful for solving the problem to supply different countries by fossil fuels from distant finding place [1,2]. The hydraulic, pneumatic and capsules pipeline transport systems may be successfully used to solve this task in the near future. Of course, the state of knowledge in the field of pipeline transport requires applying also experimental research beside a numerical... 

The second way is a capsule pipeline transport. Hydraulic capsule pipeline and pneumatic capsule pipeline is the transport of freight encapsulated to cylindrical or spherical bodies, so called capsules (with diameter only slightly less than the pipe), conveyed through pipeline by liquid or gas, respectively. Hodgson Charles [8] and Jensen [9,10] referred to capsule pipelining as the third generation of pipelining. 

Capsule pipeline transport of coal, so called coal-log pipeline transport seems to be very close to commercial exploitation in the USA, [22,23], Coal is formed into cylindrical bodies (by using the high pressure without or with addition of some glue), which are conveyed by water in a pipe. Diameter of the body dc is about 90 % of the transport pipe diameter D, length of the body Lc is about two times of body diameters dc. The concentration of solids can reach a very high value (up to 80 %) and process of separation of coal and water is very easy and without additional expenses. 

It follows from economical comparison that coal-log pipeline is cheaper than truck transport for distances longer than 65 km and pipe diameter D = 200 mm. For D = 500 m even for distance over 25 km. Compared with railway, the transport cost is on the level of unit trains. For large quantity of coal it could be even less. Another advantage is given by fact that length of pipeline is usually at least about 30 % lower than that of the railway. From environmental protection point of view, capsule pipeline, similarly as slurry pipeline, is dust free and noiseless. In spite of these advantages the utilisation of coal-log pipeline system could expect only for transport of coal from new mines to power stations, especially in mountains areas without railways and highways or in heavy populated and industrial areas, where railway is overloaded. 

The comparison of hydraulic capsule pipeline transport with pipeline transport of oil products and slurry hydrotransport is particularly interesting. 

As follows from Figure 4, for coarse coal transport the power consumption of slurry pipelining reaches from 300 % to 100 % higher values than that in case of hydraulic capsule pipeline transport. The energy reduction increases with reduction of the operational velocity. 

Similar result brings comparison of power consumption reduction for transport of encapsulated viscous liquid (Russian oil) conveyed by water with conventional pipeline transport of the oil. Transport of viscous oil and oil products by means of capsule pipelining may again provide power consumption reduction from 50% to 70%, the reduction increases with operational velocity. Since for low temperature the oil viscosity significantly increases hydraulic capsule pipeline transport of highly viscous oil and oil products for long distances in arctic conditions can be economically attractive. Capsule pipeline transport could be recommended as suitable transport especially for longer distances when power consumption becomes the most important for operational cost. 

Jensen E.J. (ed.) (1974), TDA-RCA Capsule Pipeline Project. Alberta Research Information Series, No. 67. 

Fig. 1 Pneumatic capsule pipeline capsules in circular and rectangular conduits. (Courtesy of Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd.) (View this art in color at WWW. dekker. com.)...

Perhaps the most important progress made in the last decade in understanding HCP flow is the four-regime theory. The theory was developed by Henry Liu and verified by experiments conducted by several of his graduate students at the Capsule Pipeline Research Center, UMC. The theory is briefly described as follows. 

All capsule pipeline systems include a pipe, many capsules, an injection system to inject capsules into the pipe, a pumping system to pump the fluid and capsules through the pipe, an ejection system to eject the capsules from the pipe, an instrumentation system to monitor the flow rate, pressure, temperature, and the passage of capsules at key locations, and an automatic control system that uses programmable logic controllers and an SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition). 

Different types of capsule pipelines require different capsule designs. Information on designing capsules for PCP can be found in Refs. and from the vendors of PCP for HCP it can be found in Ref.. Usually, several PCP capsules are linked together to form a train, and there are usually more than one train moving through the pipe at any time. In contrast, HCP capsules are not linked—they operate better without being linked because collision between capsules is not a problem for HCP. 

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