Coal transportation

Railroads

Rail transportation is by far the most common mode of hauling coal over long distances. Roadbed and track requirements and large fixed investment in railcars make rail transport capital-intensive. However, the long life of the permanent assets, relatively trouble-free operation with minimum maintenance, the large-volume shipments that are possible, the high mechanical efficiencies that are obtained with low rolling resistances, and the dedicated nature of the origin and destination of the runs are some of the factors that make rail transport most attractive for long-term, long-distance, high-volume movements of coal.

In the United States, about half of the coal carried by rail is transported by unit trains, groupings of 100 or more cars of 100- to 110-ton capacity each. Unit trains generally carry 10,000 to 15,000 tons of coal in a single shipment. A “dedicated unit train” is made up especially for movement between one point of origin and one destination. In order to attain high efficiency, carefully matched loading and unloading terminals are necessary. In one example, a unit train transporting 17,400 tons per 1,200-kilometre round trip from mine to plant has a turnaround time of 72 hours—including a 4-hour loading and 10-hour unloading and servicing time per train.

On-highway trucks

If haul distances and shipment sizes are small, it may be advantageous to transport coal by truck through a network of public roads. Whereas off-highway trucks have exceeded 250 tons in capacity, on-highway trucks are usually much smaller, not exceeding 25-ton payloads. Advantages over railroads are that trucks can negotiate more severe grades and curves, roads can be resurfaced or constructed more readily and with far lower capital investments than can railways, and the coal flow can be made continuous by adding new trucks and replacing failing trucks.

Barges

Rivers and lakes have long played a major role in the transport of bulk commodities like coal in Germany, The Netherlands, France, Belgium, Canada, and the United States. The costs of barge transport depend on the number of barges being towed by a single towboat; this in turn depends on the dimensions of the waterway. For example, the Cumberland, Ohio, Tennessee, and upper Mississippi rivers in the United States can take up to 20- to 25-barge tows, and the lower Mississippi can take 25- to 35-barge tows. Each barge has a capacity of up to 1,500 tons. Waterways are usually circuitous, resulting in slow delivery times. However, transport of coal on barges is highly cost-efficient.

Conveyors

While use of conveyors for carrying coal over long distances from producing to consuming centres is uncommon, it is not uncommon to find conveyors transporting coal from mines to barge-loading stations. In addition, where a power plant is in close proximity to a mine, conveyors are generally used to transport coal to the power plant stockpile. Conveyors can traverse difficult terrain with greater ease than trucks or rail systems, and they can also be extended easily and have the advantage of continuous transport. Conveyors with wide belts and high operating speeds can have enormous capacities, varying from 2,000 to 5,000 tons per hour.

Slurry pipelines

Coal slurry is a mixture of crushed coal and a liquid such as water or oil. The traditional mixture, first patented in England in 1891, consists of 50 percent coal and 50 percent water by weight. So-called heavy coal slurries or slurry fuels consist of 65 to 75 percent coal, with the remainder being water, methanol, or oil. Unlike traditional slurry—which is transported by pipeline to the user, who separates the water from the coal before burning—slurry fuels can be fired directly into boilers.

Coal slurry pipelines currently in operation in the United States and Europe cover distances ranging from a few kilometres to several hundred kilometres. They have several advantages. A large portion—approximately 70 percent—of the costs involved in a slurry pipeline are invested in the initial construction of the line and pumping stations and are fixed for the life of the pipeline. Therefore, the total costs of moving slurry during the life of the line do not increase in proportion to inflation. The advantage over rail and truck transport is clear, as the costs of these latter modes escalate with inflation. Furthermore, pipelines require less right-of-way, much less labour, and about half of the steel and other supplies required for other transport methods.

On the other hand, slurry pipelines involve potential environmental problems. Water requirements are substantial: almost one ton of water is needed to move one ton of coal—an important issue in Australia and the western United States, where water supplies are scarce and its availability cannot be guaranteed. Other concerns focus on water pollution at the mouth of the pipeline as well as along its length. For this reason, efforts to obtain right-of-way to lay a pipeline have often faced legal and environmental challenges.

Electric wire

In the early 1960s, dedication of large coal reserves to mine-mouth power plants resulted in the development of huge complexes involving mining, preparation, and utility plants. Transportation of electricity from coal-fired power plants to distant consuming centres is still attractive for several reasons. Coal is generally available in abundance and is the lowest-cost fuel in many instances. In addition, the search for inherently cleaner and more efficient ways to burn coal in electric utilities has intensified. The world’s highest-voltage transmission line (1,150 kilovolts) transports electricity from Siberia to consumers in the western republics of the former Soviet Union—a distance of more than 3,000 kilometres. In the United States, coal-fired plants account for 50 percent of electricity generation. The U.S. electrical grid consists of three networks—one in the east, one in the west, and one in Texas. Although there are only small transfers between networks, the ability to transmit power from one network to another reveals the potential for greater use of electrical wire for coal power transport.

Ships

It is predicted that coal exports and, therefore, the importance of ocean transport will increase. Ocean transport of coal requires detailed considerations of (1) transportation from the mine to the port, (2) coal-handling facilities at the export port, (3) ocean carrier decisions such as number and size of ships, contractual obligations, management of the fleet, and route decisions, (4) coal-handling facilities at the importing port, and (5) transportation from the port to the customer.

Transportation costs have an important impact on coal exports. Mining, rail, port, and shipping costs may vary greatly for different overseas buyers, and the combined cost may represent more than one-half of the delivered price of coal to overseas ports. In addition, substantial capital costs are involved in developing the necessary facilities and in maintaining sizable stockpiles at the exporting ports. Since all these costs differ considerably among suppliers, they are important in determining the competitiveness of various coals in world markets.