.

COAL HANDLING
PLANT
BY
BALAMURUGAN.P
PRABHU.N
DHAYANITHI.S

Introduction
Coal is the primary fuel for
production of electricity in our
country. The importance and
magnitude of the business of coal
handling is emphasized by the fact
that more than 60% of Indias total
installed generating capacity consists
of coal fired stations.

Transportation of coal
Coal is transported from the collieries by
the various methods viz. , by rail, road,
aerial rope way or conveyor belt. After
transporting the coal from coal mines to
power station, coal is required to be fed
to the boilers or to be stored in the
storage yard and this is accomplished
with the help of a system of equipments
called coal handling plant.

Stock Yard
When coal transportation system fails
it is essential that coal should be made
available to boilers continuously so
that there may not be stoppage of
power. To meet such situation it is
necessary that sufficient stock of coal
is made at the power station so that
there may not be interruption in coal
supply to the boilers.

Two main functions of CHP

It is expected to keep a minimum
ground stock of coal to cater to the
requirement of the station for the period
of 45 days. Thus besides unloading the
coal received by various mode of
transportation, coal handling plant has
to perform two main functions (I)
Stacking and reclaiming of coal to feed
the boilers in case direct supply from
mines fails (ii) To feed the boilers with
the coal directly received from mines

Classification of coal
Coal is the main fuel of a thermal
power station. Coal is classified as :
Peat.
Light
Bituminous
Anthracite

Semi-bituminous coal
Semi-bituminous coal is intermediate
between anthracite, and bituminous
coal. It has low percentage of moisture,
ash, Sulphar and volatile matter and
high percentage of available hydrogen.
It contains 10 to 20 % volatile matter
and 2 to 4 % oxygen.
For 300 MW unit consumes about 4320
tones of coal everyday

General Description
The main line of the coal handling
plant runs between the coal
unloading point and the boiler house,
and for maximum economy this line
should be as short as possible. It is
common practice to provide
screening and crushing plant (should
oversize coal arrive from the colliery)
in the bunker

Machineries commonly
employed

Rail track and line side equipment

Weighing machine
Wagon tipplers
Side arm charger
Apron feeder
Conveyor belts
Magnetic separators
Vibrating grizzly feeder
Crusher
Storing & reclaiming equipments
Trippers
Control room

Wagon Tippler
Wagons received from the
collieries are unloaded one
by one with the help of
wagon tippler.

Wagon Tipples
Side tippler

Side tippler in which

the coal in the wagon
is discharged into a
hopper which is at the
side of the railway
track

Rotary tippler

Rotary tippler in which

the coal in the wagon
is discharged into a
hopper situated under
the rail track level.

Apron feeders

These feeders are used for removing

the coal from unloading hopper and
to feed it to the conveyor belt

Feeder

Weighing Machines
The weighment of coal wagons is
established before the wagons are
discharged into the adjacent ground
hopper. This is done by placing the
coupled or un-coupled wagons on
weighing platform one by one.

Conveyor Belts

A conveyor belt consists basically of

an endless moving belt carrying
idlers and individual rollers with
antifriction bearings and conveys
from one transfer point to another.

Types of Idlers

Magnetic Separators

Foreign materials in the coal can
cause blockages in chutes, hoppers,
bunkers and damage to conveyor
belts, crushers & P.F. mills. Magnetic
separators are installed at suitable
points in the line of flow of coal to
remove any magnetic foreign
material from it.

Magnetic separator

Vibrating Screen

Screen are provided before crusher

for sizing the coal. The screened coal
(-100 mm size) falls on conveyor belt
and unscreened coal (+100 mm size)
is fed to primary crusher for crushing
to about 100 size. Thus screens help
in by-passing the undersize coal
which avoids unnecessary over
loading of the crusher.

Vibrating Screen

Crusher

These are installed for crushing the

coal to proper size. The crushers must
handle sticky coal without clogging up
and must be of suitable type to take
all the incoming coal from the
conveyors. Where it is certain that
small coal will always be obtained
crushers need not be installed.

Crusher

Storing & Reclaiming

Equipment.
supply from
Because of irregular coal

collieries which may be due to holidays,

strikes or break down in the coal
transportation system, coal storage is
necessary. Also there must be an
arrangement for reclaiming the coal .
Bulldozers, Tractor shovels, Drag scraper
and stacker-cum-Reclaiming systems can be
used for stacking the coal in the stock yard
and conveying it back to the feed system.

Stacker cum Reclaimer

Trippers

Trippers are installed on the bunker

conveyor belts for diverting the coal
from belts to bunkers These can move
backward & forward to feed the coal in
individual bunkers.
According to the plant capacity,
trippers may be fully automatic type or
manually operated.

Control Room

For controlling different equipments of coal

handling plant from one place and
maintaining the sequence of different belts
with safety of the plant, control rooms is
essential. In the control room all conveyors,
feeders magnetic separators, vibrating
screens and crushers are controlled with
illuminated diagrams, Where the position
of the flap valves is also indicated.

Control Room

In this way, the control room

operator can know the complete
operating condition of the plant and
thereby the equipments of coal
handling plant can be operated
efficiently with a few persons.

Transferring the coal from track Hopper House to Raw coal bunker
Apron, Blade or Vibration feeders
Conveyor Belts
Idlers
Pulleys
Driving Unit
Belt Cleaners
Take-ups
Accessories of Conveyor Belts
Magnetic Pulleys
Suspension type electromagnets
Mouth pieces and Isolating gates
Belt weighing Machines
Belt Swayings
Protection system of conveyors
Trippers

The various parts/equipments required for conveyor belt

system are as follows
Belt
Idlers
Pulleys
Driving unit
Belt cleaners
Frame work
Stringers
Stands
Decking plants
Galleries, walkway
Trastles
Belt covering
Hoods
Chutes
Gates and skirts
Take-up

Apart from these parts/equipments following

accessories are also required for successful
running of conveyor beltsPull wire switches
Belt sway switches. (interlocking switches)
Flap limit switches
Magnetic pulleys
Suspension type electromagnets
Mouthpieces and isolating gates
Belt weighing machines