Pneumatic pipelines, also called pneumo transport, transport solid particles using air as the carrier medium. Because air is free and exists everywhere, and because it does not wet or react chemically with most solids, pneumo transport is preferred to hydro transport for most cargoes wherever the transportation distance is short. Owing to high energy consumption and abrasiveness to pipe and materials, pneumatic pipelines are usually adopted for distances not more than a few hundred feet or metres. Large-diameter pneumatic pipelines can be used economically for longer distances, sometimes more than a mile or a kilometre.

Pneumatic pipelines are employed extensively throughout the world in bulk materials handling, and hundreds of different cargoes have been transported successfully. Common applications include the loading of grain from silos or grain elevators to trucks or trains parked nearby, transport of refuse from collection stations to processing plants or from processing plants to disposal sites, transport of cement or sand to construction sites, and transport of coal from storage bins to boilers within a power plant.

There are two general types of pneumatic pipelines. The first employs suction lines, which create a suction or vacuum in the pipe by placing the compressor or blower near the downstream end of the pipe. The line operates like a vacuum cleaner. The second type is pressure lines, which have compressors or blowers located near the upstream end. This creates a pressure in the line that drives the air and the solids through the pipe. Pressure lines are used for longer distances and in places where solids concentrated at one location are transported to several separate locations using a single blower or compressor. In contrast, suction lines are more convenient for shorter distances and in places where solids from several locations are to be transported to a common destination by means of a common blower or compressor.

In addition to the pipe and blower, a pneumatic pipeline system also must have a tank or hopper connected near the pipeline inlet to feed solid particles into the pipeline and a tank near the pipeline outlet to separate the transported solids from the airstream. The exhaust air also must be filtered to prevent air pollution.

Combustible solids such as grain or coal transported pneumatically through pipe, if handled improperly, can cause fire or even explosion. This is due to the accumulation of electric charges on fine particles transported pneumatically. Prevention of such hazards can be accomplished by using metal rather than plastic pipes; by grounding the pipe, valves, and other fixtures that accumulate charges; by cleaning the interior of the pipe to rid it of dust; and by increasing the moisture of the air used for pneumatic transport.

Capsule pipelines

Capsule pipelines transport freight in capsules propelled by a fluid moving through a pipeline. When the fluid is air or another gas, the technology is called pneumatic capsule pipeline (PCP), and, when water or another liquid is used, it is termed hydraulic capsule pipeline (HCP). Owing to the low density of air, capsules in PCP cannot be suspended by air at ordinary speeds. Instead, the capsules are wheeled vehicles rolling through pipelines. In contrast, because water is heavy, the capsules in HCP do not require wheels. They are both propelled and suspended by water under ordinary operational speeds. HCP systems are operated normally at a speed of 6 to 10 feet per second (1.8 to 3 metres per second), whereas the operational speed of PCP is normally much higher—20 to 50 feet per second. Owing to high frictional loss at high velocity, PCP consumes more energy in operation than HCP.

PCP has been in use since the 19th century for transporting mail, printed telegraph messages, machine parts, cash receipts, books, blood samples (in hospitals), and many other products. Since 1970, large wheeled PCP systems have been developed for transporting heavy cargo over relatively long distances. The largest PCP in the world is LILO-2 in the republic of Georgia, which has a diameter of 48 inches and a length of 11 miles. The system was built for transporting rock.

In contrast to the long history of PCP, the technology of HCP is still in its infant stage. HCP was first considered by the British military for transporting war matériel in East Asia during World War II. The concept received extensive investigation in Canada at the Alberta Research Council during 1958–75. Interest in this new technology soon spread to many other nations. In 1991, the United States established a Capsule Pipeline Research Center at the University of Missouri in Columbia, jointly funded by industry and government.

A new type of HCP being developed is coal-log pipeline (CLP), which transports compressed coal logs. The system eliminates the use of capsules to enclose coal and the need for having a separate pipeline to return empty capsules. Compared with a coal-slurry pipeline of the same diameter, CLP can transport more coal using less water.

Capsule pipelines of large diameter (greater than seven feet) can be used to transport most of the cargoes normally carried by trucks or trains. In both Europe and the United States, large-diameter capsule pipelines (mostly PCPs) have been proposed for intercity freight transport in the 21st century. Proponents of such projects point out that such underground freight pipeline systems not only allow land surface to be used for other purposes but also reduce the number of trucks and trains needed, which in turn reduces air pollution, accidents, traffic jams, and damage to highway and rail infrastructures caused by the high traffic volume.