POWER April 2015 - 18

Innovative Pipe Conveyors:
Effective, Efficient,
and Environmentally
Friendly
Transporting household and industrial
waste as well as sewage sludge from a
treatment plant to a power station can be
a messy business. The utility company Linz
AG found that a pipe conveyor system offered
an optimal solution. The conveyor is
not only highly energy efficient, but due to
its closed design, it also allows waste products
to be conveyed through public spaces
without affecting the environment.
Linz AG's waste incineration power
plant has been in operation since 2011. It
is located in the industrial area of the port
of Linz, Austria, built on the banks of the
Danube next to an existing biomass power
plant and the district heating plant.
The waste incineration plant generates
district heat and electrical energy for the
company's networks. The utility company
manages the entire waste removal
process-from collecting to eco-friendly
recycling. This helps Linz AG guarantee
much higher supply security in its district
heating network as well as adequate
waste disposal.
A Coordinated Operation
Generating energy from waste and residual
material incineration is a relatively
efficient process. The steam produced
can be used for heat or for turbine operation.
Trucks, ships, and trains transport
about 150,000 tons of household, commercial,
and industrial waste to the residual
material processing plant located
on a neighboring property of the Linz
tanker port.
Additionally, approximately 50,000
metric tons of dehydrated sewage sludge
is processed in the wastewater treatment
plant in the municipality of Asten, located
13 kilometers (km) away. The sludge and
screenings are transported directly from
the Asten plant to the power plant.
The highly efficient residual material
processing plant sorts and shreds the
waste, separating ferrous and non-ferrous
metals and impurities. Finally, particles
of 80 mm or less are transported into the
3,000-ton-capacity fuel bunker.
Material Transport Using a Pipe
Conveyor
The residual material processing plant,
18
www.powermag.com
POWER | April 2015
and the heat and power plant are located
several hundred meters away from each
other. To complicate matters further, a
public street is crossing the route. The
safe transportation of materials has to be
absolutely guaranteed. No waste, not even
the smallest amount, can be allowed to
fall on the ground.
The odor of the waste must not be a
nuisance to people living in the area either.
The people in charge of the project
at Linz AG evaluated several different
solutions for the bulk material transport.
In the end, they opted for a pipe
conveyor.
The pipe conveyor system not only
protects the environment from falling
items during transport, but it is also able
to navigate long distances (Figures 1
and 2) and tight curve radii. Due to this
characteristic, considerably fewer transfer
towers are required compared to other
belt conveyors (Figure 3). This allows for
substantial cost savings for the customer,
and the system can be easily customized
to the individual routing.
Similar to a conventional belt, the
feeding area of the pipe conveyor is open
(Figure 4). After a certain distance, which
depends on the pipe diameter or belt
1. A long and winding road. Due to
its ability to negotiate curves, the pipe conveyor
system can be optimally designed for
any plant layout. Courtesy: BEUMER Group
GmbH & Co. KG
width, special idlers mold the belt into the
desired closed shape. From this point on,
the closed belt runs along the entire conveying
distance, through what are known
as panels and partition plates.
2. Going up? Relatively steep inclines can also be overcome using a pipe conveyor. Courtesy:
BEUMER Group GmbH & Co. KG

http://www.powermag.com

POWER April 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER April 2015