An Initial Analysis of Slurry Transportation in Subarctic Environment

• Main Author: Friberg, Wilhelm
• Format: Bachelor Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Luleå tekniska universitet, Institutionen för teknikvetenskap och matematik 2021
• Subjects: Slurry Transport; Fluid Mechanics and Acoustics; Strömningsmekanik och akustik; Kiruna; Malmberget; Subarctic
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-85980

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 ...