A Comparative Study on the Cost-effective Belt Conveyors for Bulk Material Handling. (December 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Masaki, Mukalu Sandro; Zhang, Lijun; Xia, Xiaohua
• Is Part Of: Energy procedia. Volume 142(2017)
• Page Start: 2754
• Page End: 2760
• Publication Date: 2017-12
• Subjects: Multi-drive belt conveyor -- energy optimization -- optimal design -- component sizing -- life cycle cost -- environmental footprint; Power resources -- Congresses; Power resources -- Periodicals; Power resources; Conference proceedings; Periodicals; 333.7905
• DOI: 10.1016/j.egypro.2017.12.221
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1876-6102

Abstract

Abstract: Among the various types of belt conveyors, the multi-drive technology has gained worldwide popularity in recent years because of the cost saving opportunities as a result of the possible reduction of the belt weight. Until recently, however, limited knowledge on the cost-effective design of such conveyor systems was reported in the literature. Following the findings of a novel contribution on this matter, this paper presents a comparative numerical study for the identification of the most advantageous belt conveyor design for a specific bulk material handling application. Three types of belt conveyor are compared: the single drive belt conveyor, the single-tandem drive belt conveyor and the multi-drive belt conveyor. Subject to the assumption made and the manufacturers supplied information, the study shows that the implementation of the most cost-effective multi-drive conveyor will result in equivalent annual cost savings of about 63, 120 $(USD) and 29, 475 $(USD) over the cheapest single drive and single-tandem drive contenders, respectively. Other economic and environmental spin-off effects are also evaluated in the paper.