Executive Summary : | With the rapid increase in population and commercial industrial growth, the demand for suitable transporting systems for conveying the particulate solids from the source to their utilization point needs higher attention. In this context, the hydraulic transportation of slurries through pipeline offers many advantages like minimum environmental disruption; low air and noise pollution; no interference in the natural habitat; minimum en-route losses; less space required for installation; low operating and maintenance expenditure; feasible in adverse locations and so on. One of the major concerns in pipeline transportation is the service life of the pipeline, which degrades continuously over a period of time. The life-cycle of a slurry pipeline depends on the wear rate mainly due to erosion and corrosion mechanism. One of the solutions to the above problem can be plasma spray coating on the inner wall of the pipeline. However, it is expensive to coat a long pipeline that may vary 100-200 km or above. Hence, it becomes essential to find a low-cost and environment-friendly additive that reduces the pipe wear rate and promotes a favourable slurry flow while conveying in the pipeline without impacting the environment. The wear rate mainly depends on the properties of solid, suspending medium, target pipe material, flow condition, and rheological properties; hence, optimizing these slurry and flow parameters can also mitigate the wear rate in the pipeline. A detailed wear rate analysis also helps the industries related to mining, minerals, steel, power, and oil-gas industries to select a suitable grade of pipe material for their futuristic pipeline projects. The present proposal is to conduct detailed rheological, abrasion, erosion, and corrosion studies on dense phase iron ore slurries (above 40% by weight) with the selective and appropriate dosage of low-cost chemical/bio-additives. The effect of suitable additives on the wear rate of mild steel specimens/coupons will be assessed. The influencing parameters, including iron ore concentration, contact/conveying time, slurry velocity, pH, temperature, and conductivity, will be attempted to quantify the erosion and corrosion rate. Also, the effect of additives on the flow properties of iron ore slurries will be evaluated through rheological measurements. Field-scale erosion tests will also be conducted to get real-time data on wear rate using a pilot slurry pipe-loop test rig with a pipe diameter of 50 mm NB and pipe length of 25 m. The proposed solutions for improvising the slurry flow and enhancing the service life of an industrial slurry pipeline will encourage the industry to adopt the pipeline mode for handling the bulk solids from generation to utilization sites. The study will also promote using low-cost and environment-friendly bio-additives to efficiently dispose of industrial waste with minimum environmental impact. |