A Novel MagPipe Pipeline Transportation System Using Linear Motor Drives

A novel capsule pipeline transportation system using linear motor drives, called Magplane MagPipe, is under development with the intention to replace trucks and railways for hauling materials from the mine to the rail head, power plant, or processing plant with reduced operating cost and energy consumption. The initial demonstration of a MagPipe line in Inner Mongolia will be a 500-m-long double-pipe coal transport system with the design transportation capacity of 3 Mega-Mg per year. The pipeline consists of 6-m-long plastic pipe modules with an I-beam suspension system inside the pipe to carry sets of five coupled capsules. The pipe will also contain noncontinuous motor winding modules spaced at 50-m intervals. A set of Halbach-arrayed permanent magnets on the bottom of the capsules interact with the linear motor windings to provide propulsion. The motor is driven by variable frequency drives outside the pipe to control the speed. This paper briefly describes the overall MagPipe pipeline transportation system, including the preliminary conclusions of the linear synchronous motor analysis.