An Initial Analysis of Slurry Transportation in Subarctic Environment

In today’s economy, it is important to have a sustainable business model where as little as possible goes to waste or finding solutions to create something useful out of by-products. Therefore, LKAB are looking to make a large investment into creating an infrastructure of several plants to turn tail...

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Main Author: Friberg, Wilhelm
Format: Bachelor Thesis
Language:English
Published: Luleå tekniska universitet, Institutionen för teknikvetenskap och matematik 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-85980
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author Friberg, Wilhelm
author_facet Friberg, Wilhelm
author_sort Friberg, Wilhelm
collection Luleå University of Technology Publications (DiVA)
description In today’s economy, it is important to have a sustainable business model where as little as possible goes to waste or finding solutions to create something useful out of by-products. Therefore, LKAB are looking to make a large investment into creating an infrastructure of several plants to turn tailings from the production of iron ore into usable products for several industries which LKAB has designated project ReeMAP (Rear Earth Elements and MonoAmmonium Phosphate). These products include phosphorus used in the production of food, gypsum used in the building industry and fluorine used in the chemical industry. One of the key ingredients in making these products is apatite, a calcium-phosphate crystal which is extracted from the tailings. The plant where the apatite is to be produced will be located close to the mining sites in Kiruna and Malmberget and then transported to the coast. The transportation can be caried out by rail carts which is how the iron ore is transported. Depending on the quantity of apatite that will be transported, a new rail track would need to be built which is a huge investment on top of the investment for the ReeMAP infrastructure. An alternative transportation method for the apatite is to use a pipeline that is pressurized by a series of pumps known as slurry transportation. This method of transporting material has been utilized in many countries around the world as it has shown to be a cost effective and more environmentally cautious method of transportation. Slurry transportation comes with its own unique challenges, the major ones are making sure the slurry is well mixed and the solid particles do not deposit inside the pipeline and the other is the risk of freezing during a longer system shutdown. This has been studied using Computational Fluid Dynamics analysis in the software ANSYS Fluent. In addition, an overview calculation of the pressure losses to determine the number of pumps needed for the transportation has been conducted. The software ANSYS Fluent Multiphase was used to ...
format Bachelor Thesis
genre Kiruna
Malmberget
Subarctic
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Malmberget
Subarctic
geographic Kiruna
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institution Open Polar
language English
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op_rights info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
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spelling ftluleatu:oai:DiVA.org:ltu-85980 2025-03-02T15:31:59+00:00 An Initial Analysis of Slurry Transportation in Subarctic Environment Friberg, Wilhelm 2021 application/pdf http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-85980 eng eng Luleå tekniska universitet, Institutionen för teknikvetenskap och matematik info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Slurry Transport Fluid Mechanics Strömningsmekanik Student thesis info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis text 2021 ftluleatu 2025-02-11T01:18:00Z In today’s economy, it is important to have a sustainable business model where as little as possible goes to waste or finding solutions to create something useful out of by-products. Therefore, LKAB are looking to make a large investment into creating an infrastructure of several plants to turn tailings from the production of iron ore into usable products for several industries which LKAB has designated project ReeMAP (Rear Earth Elements and MonoAmmonium Phosphate). These products include phosphorus used in the production of food, gypsum used in the building industry and fluorine used in the chemical industry. One of the key ingredients in making these products is apatite, a calcium-phosphate crystal which is extracted from the tailings. The plant where the apatite is to be produced will be located close to the mining sites in Kiruna and Malmberget and then transported to the coast. The transportation can be caried out by rail carts which is how the iron ore is transported. Depending on the quantity of apatite that will be transported, a new rail track would need to be built which is a huge investment on top of the investment for the ReeMAP infrastructure. An alternative transportation method for the apatite is to use a pipeline that is pressurized by a series of pumps known as slurry transportation. This method of transporting material has been utilized in many countries around the world as it has shown to be a cost effective and more environmentally cautious method of transportation. Slurry transportation comes with its own unique challenges, the major ones are making sure the slurry is well mixed and the solid particles do not deposit inside the pipeline and the other is the risk of freezing during a longer system shutdown. This has been studied using Computational Fluid Dynamics analysis in the software ANSYS Fluent. In addition, an overview calculation of the pressure losses to determine the number of pumps needed for the transportation has been conducted. The software ANSYS Fluent Multiphase was used to ... Bachelor Thesis Kiruna Malmberget Subarctic Luleå University of Technology Publications (DiVA) Kiruna
spellingShingle Slurry Transport
Fluid Mechanics
Strömningsmekanik
Friberg, Wilhelm
An Initial Analysis of Slurry Transportation in Subarctic Environment
title An Initial Analysis of Slurry Transportation in Subarctic Environment
title_full An Initial Analysis of Slurry Transportation in Subarctic Environment
title_fullStr An Initial Analysis of Slurry Transportation in Subarctic Environment
title_full_unstemmed An Initial Analysis of Slurry Transportation in Subarctic Environment
title_short An Initial Analysis of Slurry Transportation in Subarctic Environment
title_sort initial analysis of slurry transportation in subarctic environment
topic Slurry Transport
Fluid Mechanics
Strömningsmekanik
topic_facet Slurry Transport
Fluid Mechanics
Strömningsmekanik
url http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-85980