PERSPECTIVE
WORLD-GENERATION NOV/DEC 2015
12
There’s a new product destined to make
an impact at coal-fired utilities across North
America in the coming years. It’s the pipe
conveyor—so named for how the conveying
belt is rolled into a tube—and it can be right-
fully considered the conveyor of the future for
applications that require spill- and dust-free
conveyance of coal and coal by-products,
especially ash.
In fact, the pipe conveyor isn’t new at all.
It was developed in Japan in the late 1970s,
but its design was quickly patented world-
wide, and though a handful of license part-
ners marketed the technology outside of
Japan in the following
years, those patents sti-
fled innovation until their
expiration in the late
1980s and early 1990s.
But even then pipe
conveyors were seen as
having high capital costs
and therefore consid-
ered not cost-competitive
with trough conveyors, so most installations
were still to be found in Japan, where environ-
mental regulations were relatively strict.
In the last twenty years, however, design
improvements have reduced the cost of con-
structing pipe conveyors—and improved their
operation—while environmental regulations
on the handling of coal and coal by-products
have tightened in many developed and devel-
oping countries.
Today there are dozens of pipe conveyor
installations in India alone, where both envi-
ronmental regulations and the need to pre-
vent spillage and other loss of materials have
made them a preferred product, used to move
everything from coal to alumina to copper
concentrate.
Still, one would be hard pressed to find
a pipe conveyor at a utility in North
America, and many utilities are shutting
down or reducing capital investments in
coal-fired plants. Minnesota Power, for
example, generates 75% of its power from
coal but will reduce the share of coal to just
one-third over the next 15 years.
But coal won’t be going away anytime
soon—it still makes up nearly 40% of electrici-
ty generation in the U.S.—and it is widely
believed the EPA will continue stiffening reg-
ulations on the use of coal and its by-products,
especially ash, which will necessitate new
technologies in bulk material handling.
Conventional trough conveyors will still have
a place at utilities, but they simply cannot pro-
vide the kind of dust-free containment that
will be mandated.
Pipe conveyors, on the other hand, can.
They resemble conven-
tional trough conveyors
at the loading and dis-
charge ends, but
between the two, idler
rollers transition the
belt into a tube, effec-
tively eliminating mate-
rial loss.
Plus, due to their
enclosed design, they don’t require covers,
and they can be fitted with triangular galler-
ies, both of which reduce the amount of steel
required in their construction. In addition,
they can be fitted with maintenance trolleys
instead of walkways, further reducing costs,
even down to lighting.
Also, pipe conveyors can go places con-
ventional conveyors can’t. They can handle
90-degree horizontal turns as well as 20%
steeper inclines. This has the added benefit of
reducing transfer points and the costs associ-
ated with them. It also makes them effectively
the only kind of conveyor capable of negotiat-
ing some topographically challenging areas,
especially large ones. Pipe conveyors can be
built in excess of 10 kilometers in length and
operate at 5,000 tons per hour.
Yet only a handful of companies have
experience designing pipe conveyors. Wolf
Point Engineers & Contractors—a full-service
engineering, procurement, and construction
services provider for the power, mining, and
industrial processing industries, and a divi-
sion of North Alabama Fabricating Company
(NAFCO)—recently entered into a strategic
alliance with CKIT, a world-renowned design-
er of pipe conveyor systems, to offer this tech-
nology to North American customers.
CKIT is a Cape Town, South Africa-based
materials-handling consulting and engineer-
ing company that has dozens of pipe conveyor
installations in Africa, Europe, and Asia,
including more than 50 in India. CKIT’s pipe
conveyors move everything from coal and
cement to paper pulp and ash.
Indeed, because of their closed design,
pipe conveyors promise to make their mark
well beyond power generating. They are great
for mines, given the frequent need to take
tight curves and steep inclines, and they are
ideal in any application that requires keeping
bulk materials dry—such as grain processing,
fertilizer processing, and steel production, to
name a few.
So while their use might be more or less
mandated in some areas eventually, pipe con-
veyors are just as likely to be adopted out of
practical necessity where raw materials or the
environment, or both, need an extra layer of
protection.
CKIT’s Pipe Conveyor Information Database
can be accessed at
/
secure/conveyor/pipe/indexpipe.htm
GOING DUST-FREE
BY BOB WILLIAMS,VICE PRESIDENT
WOLF POINT ENGINEERS & CONTRACTORS
Pipe conveyors can go places
conventional conveyors can’t.
They can handle 90-degree
horizontal turns as well as
20% steeper inclines. This has
the added benefit of reducing
transfer points and the costs
associated with them.
