Continuous line bucket lifting versus pipe lifting

Abstract

In the literature, the continuous line bucket (CLB) lifting system and the pipe lifting system (PLS), as two typical mineral lifting methods in deep sea mining (DSM) systems, have been discussed since the 1960s. The purpose of this paper is to determine an appropriate lifting method for deep sea mining systems at different working conditions. The determination is based on the comparison of the analysis results of the two typical lifting methods considering the technology performance and the profitability. The analysis is based on a numerical calculation performed in a matlab environment. This paper shows the comparison of the results of the CLB system and PLS in terms of the lifting efficiency, the energy consumption, and the profitability. The research reported in this paper can be utilized to select a proper lifting method for a DSM project depending on its specific criteria analysis.