Search results

The paper is devoted to the evaluation of the possibility of effective use of recuperation as a key factor for the traction selection on a prospective railroad in the Russian Far East. The planned line will carry coal and general cargoes, shipping to Sea of Okhotsk ports and overseas. The construction of a new railroad will push development in the north of the Khabarovsk Territory and the northeast of the Amur Region. Due to the line will have a long descent to the seacoast, the main idea is to use the potential energy to generate electricity that covers power needed for oncoming trains going uphill. Performed traction-energy calculations allowed determining the available speed and energy consumption for uphill trains. Shown the ability of power self-sufficient train operations that provided under the condition of ensuring efficient energy exchange between electric locomotives located on the common feeding zone, which is possible only when freight trains operate on a fixed schedule. Given volumes of recuperated energy considered in the research cannot be stored onboard at autonomous locomotives using the existing level of technology, which confirms the need for electrification. The implementation of electric locomotives with an asynchronous traction drive and energy-efficient four-quadrant traction converters can provide an increase in the level of regenerative energy use compared to electric locomotives with zone-phase voltage regulation on traction motors. The proposed solution can significantly reduce the carbon footprint of railroad transportation on the line in question. The possibility of effective use of recuperative energy can use as a key selection factor for the type of traction on prospective railway lines.

Coal is one of the main sources of energy of the 21st century. New plasma-energy technologies are being developed to improve the efficiency of coal combustion. Today, pulverized coal CHP plants worldwide generate more than 50% of electric and thermal energy, the share of coal in the fuel balance of the CHP is growing. At the same time, the quality of coal is reduced. Traditional methods of reducing fuel oil consumption at thermal power plants (increasing the dispersion of the grinding dust, high preheating of the air mixture and secondary air, etc.) used to improve fuel ignition and burning stabilization, have exhausted themselves, therefore a radical increase in fuel efficiency can only be associated with the development and development of completely new technologies. Plasma technology seems to be the most promising among the alternative technologies available to solve the above problems. This technology provides a significant increase in economic efficiency and environmental performance of power plants operating on solid fuel.

Modern requirements for the organization of the transportation process depend on technological and infrastructural aspects. Traditional approaches to regulating car flows, including using methods to minimize empty runs of rolling stock, lead to the loss of profitable options for JSC Russian Railways to interact with customers in terms of organizing exports and imports with subsequent sale of these goods (products) in Russia. The technology of transporting coal in «Open Top» containers with back loading with imported cargo has advantages arising from foreign and domestic experience in implementing such transportation. This article focuses on the economic aspects of the technology under consideration, including reflecting the specifics and prospects for the development of container transportation of coal. A comparative analysis of economic indicators for several options for transporting coal is performed. For customers of railway transport and JSC Russian Railways, the feasibility of organizing freight transportation in «Open Top» containers with the formation of closed routes with back loading with imported cargo to an intermediate station is substantiated. It is noted that the savings of the closed ring route of coal and anhydrous calcium chloride in containers reach from 30% to 65% compared to the use of universal gondola cars. Given the current conditions of congestion of the railway infrastructure, the use of «Open Top» containers for the transportation of various goods is a key advantage of ring routes. This is important to consider when developing export-import relations with friendly countries.