Bringing coal prep back to earth

摘要

Way back in the prehistoric era of large-scale coal preparation plant design (circa 2005), the belief of top coal companies and engineers was: the taller, the better, Maybe it is the innate human belief that reaching for the sky has sound advantages; however, top coal companies are now starting to question these beliefs. After all, the Tower of Babel was designed and built "with its top in the heavens." And, of course, the Tower of Pisa (183 ft; 56 m) was built in 1173 with the lofty goal of being the tallest manmade bell tower of the time, but is now simply known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Maybe taller is not always better? Most coal preparation plant designers, engineers and architects have the long-held Newtonian belief that gravity is our best friend, having enormous benefits for cleaning coal in a truly vertical process, without having to use energy to move coal from one set of screens or crushers to the next step in the cleaning process. But this has many problems. This article will explore a few.