Patent ID: 7278811

Claim:
A system for transport of particulate material comprising: (a) a plurality of ship based hoppers mounted within the hold of a ship, each of which hoppers comprises: (i) a container for particulate material; (ii) a container inlet for loading of particulate material into the container by entrainment; (iii) a container outlet for particulate material; wherein each ship based hopper includes only one container inlet and only one container outlet; (b) a product loading internal manifold located within the hold of the ship and connected to the container inlet for at least some of the plurality of ship based hoppers; (c) a product unloading internal manifold located within the hold of the ship and connected to the container outlet for at least some of the plurality of ship based hoppers, said product unloading internal manifold being adapted to transport material received from said ship based hoppers by entrainment.