Identifying the relative importance of energy and water costs in hydraulic transport systems through a combined physics- and cost-based indicator

Modern long distance ore pipeline systems are subject to strong costs, both from the economic and environmental standpoints. The task of assessing the relative importance of energy and water consumption without a detailed engineering analysis is often not obvious. In the present paper, the relative importance of water and energy unit costs is assessed by a novel dimensionless formulation accounting for the essential hydraulic and cost elements that conform the slurry transport. It is found that, for conditions resembling those of copper and iron concentrate pipelines, the ratio between energy and water costs has a wide range, depending on the particular transport conditions and unit cost scenarios. Although operating at similar volume fractions, results indicate that energy/water cost relations may differ between copper and iron concentrate pipelines and local conditions, thus suggesting the need to explicitly include energy and water cost in the design strategy.