...is on his deathbed.

Impressive as the rapid loading bunker might be it is worth mentioning that in April 2017 the UK manged to satisfy its entire daily power demand using renewable energy without burning a single tonne of coal. It was a warm day, OK, but the writing is on the wall for coal. Even China and India are aware of the public resentment about pollution. Only the US and some other few avoirdupois orientated countries are interested in coal as a future source of energy supply.

Personally: I was often employed in the coal business and when it died in Britain I had to pursue other areas of bulk handling. Do I miss coal? Sort of.

I would recommend that young engineers appreciate that coal will one day become obsolete due to politics or exhaustion and find something else to occupy their endeavors. That development would enhance the demise of this obnoxious material. ■

Years ago PICOR developed and patented the ultimate Train Precision Loading System (PLS) in the USA and several other countries (India, China, South Africa, Canada, Columbia, etc). PICOR has been designing and building Train Precision Loading Systems since 1980 and developed the ultimate system (PLS) some years later. The system is now in use on coal, limestone, power plant waste (bottom ash, fly ash, and sludge), and manganese and is capable of loading both trains and trucks (but not at the same time).

The gates, hydraulic systems, bins, seals, and controls have been custom designed to minimize operating, maintenance, and housekeeping cost. For example, all the wear parts of the gates can be inspected and, if necessary changed, from outside the gates and the systems are hermetically sealed so that any dust inside the Precision Loading System will have had to enter through the access doors.

Anyone who wants to challenge the claim concerning this system being the ultimate is very welcome to contact us at .

Thank you for reading.

Attachments

tshipi manganese pls south africa (picor 2013) (JPG)

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