Estudo de bombeamento de partículas grossas

Abstract

In the past few years the mineral slurry transportation using pipelines has been of great relevance in the projects run in Brazil and in the world, mainly the iron ore concentrate slurries. There are two pipelines in operation (Samarco) and two in the design phase and implementation owned by Samarco and Anglo Ferrous Brazil, respectively. In general, the main iron ore concentrate slurry pipelines are the long distance type, with length varying between 100 to 500 km, and granulometry of 150um = 99,60% e 45um = 86,00%. However, another alternative are the short distance pipelines, designed for a wide range of solids and containing fine and/or coarse particles 150um = 96,99% e 45um = 46,65%. The presented paper shows the technical and economical viability of short pipeline transportation with the properties showed above. Another important factor is the advantage of the pipeline against other modes, such as the railroad that consumes an excessive amount of fuel and labor, increasing operating costs by approximately US$ 15/tonnes.