Extra Time for Belt System
A mainstay of power supply in Bulgaria is the power station in the brown coal mining district of Maritsa. This region lies in the Thrakian Plain, around 100 km from the Black Sea coast. The Maritsa group includes three power plants. Maritsa Istok 2 went into operation in 1966 and is currently Bulgaria’s biggest power plant with an installed power of 1465 megawatts. For comparison, the biggest German brown coal power plant Niederaussem has a capacity of 3864 MW. For transport of the ash produced, a pipe conveyor with a FLEXOPIPE® conveyor belt supplied by Metso Minerals was put into operation as an enclosed conveyor system back in the year 2000. It was the positive experience with this system that led to the installation of a further pipe conveyor with corresponding conveyor belt in 2008.
1. Belt Conveyor is “Closed Up”
The combustion of brown coal from the Maritsa mining area produces large quantities of ash. This must be taken away and deposited with the overburden of the open mines on a stockpile, where it forms one component for landscape recultivation. The ash produced at the power plant is flushed into a collecting basin, where it dries out. Transport to the stockpile begins with the subsequent dredging of the basin. The first part of the conveyor line went into operation back in the year 2000. It consists of a chain- and bucket excavator with a delivery rate up to 1,100 m...
