Slurry pipeline

Canadian researchers at the University of Alberta are investigating the use of slurry pipelines to move agricultural and forestry wastes from dispersed sources to centralized biofuel plants.

Over distances of 100 kilometres pipeline transport of biomass can be viable provided it is used in processes that can accept very wet feedstocks such as hydrothermal liquefaction or ethanol fermentation.

Slurry pipelines offer an economic advantage over railroad transport and much less noise disturbance to the environment, particularly when mines are in extremely remote areas.

Typical materials that are transferred using slurry pipelines include coal,[3] copper, iron, and phosphate concentrates, limestone, lead, zinc, nickel, bauxite and oil sands.

It is anticipated that in the next few years some long distance slurry pipelines will be constructed in Australia and South America where mineral deposits are often a few hundred kilometers away from shipping ports.