Air and Power Requirements for the Vacuum Transport of Crushed Coal in Horizontal Pipelines

Pipelines were installed aboveground at the U. S. Bureau of Mines, Morgantown (W. Va.) Energy Research Center, to develop and evaluate different types of systems—vacuum or pressurized, horizontal or vertical—and to obtain information for the design and operation of a practical system. A previous publication [1] gave references on conveyance of lump-size solids, presented one of many concepts of pneumatic transportation of coal underground, and described the experimental system and its safety features. This paper presents the results of experiments in the vacuum horizontal transport of up to 2 1/2-in. coal through 2-, 4-, 6-, and 8-in. dia pipelines. Minimum air rates required to move the coal in full suspension and pressure losses resulting therefrom were related to coal and pipe variables in the form of empirical equations that were used in predicting minimum power requirements.