This sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. No "Plant Engineer" in his right mind would design a system like this that did not provide for such considerations as water flush-out of the pipeline, because the operators WILL need to to that, and anyone who thinks not is only fooling themselves.

That said, there is a book that has helped me understand the nastiness of slurries and their surprises, and I can tell you another that is not covered in the book!

The book is (from the title page and its back):

Solid-Liquid Flow Slurry Pipeline Transportation by Edward J. Wasp (Bechtel-SanFran,CA), John P. Kinney (Consultant-UK), and Ramesh L. Gandhi (Bechtel-SanFran, CA); First Edition 1978, Trans Tech Publications, Clausthal, Germany; This Edition 1979 Gulf Publishing Company Book Division Houston, London, Paris, Tokyo. Library of Congress Catalog Number 78-75080; ISBN 0-87201-809-1. This edition published 19789 by Gulf Publishing Co., Houston, Texas [USA].

Now, for that last little surprise: Remember that first to pump it, you have to get it into the pump. If too thick, you can never get adequate NPSH--it will cavitate, or just flash vapor-lock. The most amazing case of this was trying to pump elemental phosphorus sludge in a vertical cantilever Nagle pump, with impeller submerged about 3 feet, and with a 4 foot tailpipe. The stuff was reactive, the P4 reacting with the caustic furnace dust, making hydrogen (H2) and phosphine (PH3), bad gasses indeed!

But the pump wouldn't pump reliably, for no good reason, until we put some of the sludge in a gallon lab vacuum bottle, and pulled a little vacuum on it--it foamed up just like a warm shaken-up cola! And that explained why that pump wouldn't work. We went to a top-suction vertical cantilever with about a 7 foot setting (a Lawrence Pump special), and that worked just fine, because that pump design is "gas-locking resistant" (the gas has an exit route up along the shaft) and also requires almost no NPSH. Sure, that pump cost 3.5-5x the cost of other options, but it actually worked--the ONLY thing that mattered to the guy running the process! ■

It appears to me that the product, at ambient temperature, if concentrated to a dough-like consistency or drier, could be be handled by a pipe type belt conveyor such as offered by many sources in recent times. Pipe conveyors use a looped conveyor belt supported by overhead rails. I believe they were first developed in Scandinavia but are now copied by many manufacturers. ■

I do not see that book on my shelves now, and I am surprised, as I thought I had it here before; perhaps it has somehow migrated to my Office-Eqpt and Old-Projects Storage-Unit, a 20x30-foot room that MIGHT contain it. If I can find it, perhaps I can copy and send it. No promises for sure now.....

Check out this page on AMAZON.com (found by putting in the book's title), which shows 3 used copies for sale at US$100 each plus shipping (plus other 'slurry handling' books): http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listi...condition=used

Good Luck! Dave Crea ■

I would encourage you to 'trust' the AMAZON.com used-book sources. I have purchased one book this way ('60s book on Fluid beds by Fred Zenz) and it arrived in 'perfect' condition, all nicely wrapped and protected. There are a bunch of people or businesses who buy-up these 'classic' technical books for pennies on the dollar and then re-sell at a hefty profit. Happy Shopping! ■

I have tried every possibility to get the same book and lastly narrowed down to the approach you enlighten. But teh only concern is whether the same book is still available (Fresh or used book) or it is simply appearing in website .

Sir i will be grateful if you can help me out sending the same soft copy or by any other means ■