Abstract
The mining industry is characterized by a high consumption of energy due to the wide diversity of processes involved, specifically the transportation of ore slurry via pipeline systems. This study investigates the relationship among the variables that define the slurry transportation system to minimize the power requirements and increase energy sustainability. The energy indicator (I), the criterion used for the energy assessment of three different pumping system layouts, was computed via numerical simulation. Optimization of response I was carried out through a statistical technique in the design of the experiment. In the study, four variables were defined to describe the slurry transportation systems, two of which are associated with the piping system (length L and diameter D); the other two are related to the slurry pattern (the volumetric concentration Cv and granulometry D50). The results show that all variables are statistically significant relative to the indicator I, with L having the greatest amplitude of variation in the response, increasing the energy indicator by approximately 60%. Likewise, the decrease of the D50 from 300 µm to 100 µm produces an average decrease of I of 24%. Moreover, the interaction among the factors indicates that two pairs of factors are correlated, namely D50 with L and D with L. Finally, a predictive model obtained a fit that satisfactorily relates with the numerical data, allowing, in a preliminary way, to identify the minimum power requirement in iron ore slurry pipeline systems.
Highlights
The Brazilian economy is strongly influenced by the behavior of the mining sector
The present study aims to determine the best combination of the four independent variables characterizing the application of relatively short-distance slurry pumping systems to minimize the energy requirement
The values of I obtained in the parametric study were used to fit the response surface models, which include the main effects of the independent variables, the effects of the interactions among them and the quadratic terms
Summary
According to the Brazilian Mining Institute [1,2], the contribution of the mineral production reached upwards of 4.8% of the Brazilian gross domestic product (GDP) in 2018. The GDP from mining in Brazil increased to Brazilian real-BRL 2717.82 million in the fourth quarter of 2018. Mining production in Brazil averaged 2.82% from 2003 until 2019, reaching an all-time high of 21.4% in January of 2010. The World Trade Statistical Review 2018 ranks Brazil eighth in the world’s iron ore exportation, and third in the last year, behind only India and the Russian Federation. As result of all mining activities, large quantities of products are generated from beneficiation processes, part of which is destined for trading or later processing, while another part is designated for storage in a tailing dam. There is a consensus that among the many different types of transportation systems, pipeline transport is the most efficient, mainly for systems with high throughputs [3,4,5,6,7]
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