# Coal transport

Moving coal by unit trains, bulk ships, barges, trucks, conveyors and slurry pipelines.

Source page: https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_coal_transport/

Transport · Solid and nuclear fuels · No. 61

- Transport
- Form: Solid fuel
 Transport · Solid and nuclear fuels · Foundation · Energy

On China's Daqin line, about 51 trains a day each haul 20,000 tonnes of coal; the line carried 390 Mt in 2025.

Chart: Illustration: Coal transport

##### Where it comes from

Chart: Map of where it comes from

Coal is heavy and cheap, so moving it is all about tonnes. It is crushed at the mine and loaded into unit trains, trucks or conveyors bound for ports and power plants.

##### Three things to know

1. Rail and ships use about 1% or less of coal's energy per 1,000 km, while trucks use about three times as much.
2. An untreated open coal wagon can shed up to about 290 kg of dust over 400 miles of track.
3. The Black Mesa slurry pipeline pumped ground coal mixed with water 439 km, drawing about 1.3 billion gallons a year from the Navajo Aquifer.

##### The journey

1. 1 **Mine**Coal crushed and loaded from silos
2. 2 **Unit train**One cargo, mine to port or plant
3. 3 **Port**Stockpiles built, then shiploaders fill holds
4. 4 **Bulk carrier**Capesize or Panamax ships cross oceans
5. 5 **Power plant**Barges, trucks or conveyors finish the trip
 Covered in [Moving energy: wires, pipes and shipsEnergy](https://www.materialinsights.org/learn/energy/moving-energy/)

##### Go deeper pick a tab to open it in full

## Other sections

- [Overview](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_coal_transport/overview/index.md)
- [Correlation](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_coal_transport/correlation/index.md)
- [How it works](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_coal_transport/explain/index.md)
- [Efficiency and losses](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_coal_transport/efficiency/index.md)
- [Technology advances](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_coal_transport/advances/index.md)
- [Value chain](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_coal_transport/valuechain/index.md)
- [Geopolitics and regulation](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_coal_transport/geopolitics/index.md)
- [Unit economics](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_coal_transport/economics/index.md)
- [Impact on the biosphere](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_coal_transport/biosphere/index.md)
- [Relationships](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_coal_transport/links/index.md)