Coal
Handling
and
Storage
Coal handling and storage systems are experiencing many changes as coal gradually moves into its expected dominant role as a fuel. The predicted growth in coal fired plants is 90% in the next five years, as 250 new power stations are expected
by 2000 only in USA
Continuously increasing power demand even in developing countries cans for setting up of higher capacity power stations. Rise in capacity of plant posses problems in coal handling systems.
A
good
coal
handling
plant
must
perform
two
duties
as
unloading
the
coal
from
railways
wagons
as
fast
as
possible
and
then
transferring
the
unloaded
coal
either
to
coal
bunkers
or
in
the
stock
pile
for
storage
and
then
feeding
the
coal
from
the
stock:
pile
to
the
bunkers
when
railway
wagons
are
not
available.
To
day,
most
of
the
world's
coal
production
is
still
consumed
in
the
countries
where
it
is
mined.
Only
about
10%
of
the
total
production
are
traded
internationally.
Coal
used
for
power
plants
accounts
for
only
30%
of
the
total
coal
traded
internationally,
and
much
of
this
goes
only
short
distances,
such
as
from
poland
to
USSR
and
Western
Europe
and
from
USA
to
Canada.
In
contrast,.65%
of
the
world's
oil
is
traded
internationally
The
future
of
the
world
coal
trade
will
require
construction
of
greatly
enlarged
transportation
system
and
this
in
turn
will
involve
massive
investment
and
long
lead
times.
Much
progress
has
been
already
made
by
improving
operating
procedures
and
by
scaling
up
conventional
equipment.
Even
with
present
technology,
there
are
still
considerable
opportunities
for
increasing
the
capacity
of
the
present
infrastructure
as
by
improving
existing
ports
to
take
larger
ships
and
adding
more
large
ships
to
the
dry
bulk
fleet
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