Transloading
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Transloading is the transfer goods from one type of transportation to another in delivery to their final shipping destination. Transloading is used if it is not economical and/or physically possible to transport goods to their final destination using one type of transportation. Transloading is used in fracking to carry bulk resources to and from dispersed fracking sites and to railway stations to be taken to processing facilities. It is also used to ship coal natural gas liquids, and liquid petroleum gases.[1][2]
Background
Companies choose a type of transportation for their goods depending on whether a product is perishable, how quickly a product must reach its final destination, and the location of the final destination. With transloading, products are shipped with different modes of transportation. For example, coal is shipped from the United States to China beginning with trucks and trains that deliver the coal to shipyards. The coal is then unloaded from a truck or train onto a ship, typically by a crane. Companies that need to transport goods by railroad if shippers cannot directly access a rail often rely on transloading. Goods or material are loaded onto trucks, which unload the goods into rail cars and vice versa.[3][4]
Coal and natural gas
Transloading coal can be done in several ways. Trucks, trams, and conveyors can move coal from a mine to a nearby area where the coal is loaded onto a variety of long-distance transportation methods, such as trains, barges, ships, and pipelines. 70 percent of coal deliveries in the United States as of September 2016 came by trains. Barges deliver coal through lakes and rivers, while ships transport coal on the Great Lakes and the oceans. Crushed coal and water may also be transported through slurry pipelines; as of 2016, the United States had not use slurry pipelines to transport coal, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.[5]
Transloading is used to move natural gas liquids, liquid petroleum gases, and other hydrocarbons. Transloading is used by well production operators with facilities that are not located near an existing pipeline, railroad, and/or refinery, or if the liquids must be moved from one mode of transportation to another. Liquids are taken from storage facilities to tank trainers, which transport the liquids to a rail, refinery, or pipeline.[6]
Fracking
- See also: Fracking and Fracking in the United States
Transloading is used to transport frac sand, a type of proppant used by fracking companies in frack fluid. Facilities for transloading are located near areas where fracking occurs. Trucks carry bulk resources to and from dispersed fracking sites and to railway stations to be taken to processing facilities.[7] A single fracked well can require up to 10,000 tons of frac sand.[8][9]
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ Union Pasific Distribution Services, “How Transloading Works,” accessed January 28, 2014
- ↑ TransLoading.org, “Railcar Transloading,” accessed January 28, 2014
- ↑ Genesee Valley Transportation, "What is transloading?" accessed March 26, 2014
- ↑ Investopedia, "Transloading," accessed March 9, 2017
- ↑ U.S. Energy Information Administration, "Coal mining and transportation," accessed March 9, 2017
- ↑ Transtech Energy, "NGL, LPG, Transloading Solutions," accessed March 9, 2017
- ↑ U.S. Geological Survey, “Silica Statistics and Information,” accessed January 23, 2014
- ↑ National Geographic, “Sand Rush: Fracking Boom Spurs Rush on Wisconsin Silica,” July 3, 2013
- ↑ Buy Frac Sand, "15 Top Factors Affecting the REAL Price of Your Frac Sand," accessed March 26, 2015
