Abstract:
Ventilation Air Methane (VAM) comes from various sources, including return (exhaust) ventilation air from active coal mines. VAM abatement is necessary to substantially reduce greenhouse gas contributions from mining. A newly proposed VAM mitigation pilot plant is expected to be hosted at a highwall mining (HWM) operation. Current HWM equipment includes remote control systems which use video feedback from the cutting head to the operator unit during normal mining activities. To improve video quality during mining operations, mechanically supplied airflow is proposed as a control system improvement that will clear dust from the field of vision at the surveillance camera, underground during coal excavation activities. Airflow generated at the HWM is expected to be completely saturated with water vapor (2.5% by volume), with possible high methane concentrations (1.1% to 5% by volume) and have a concentration of coal dust greater than 300 milligrams per cubic meter. VAM flowrate for this HWM is expected to be approximately 0.7 cubic meters per second. These metrics demonstrate the very outer limits of contamination that could be expected in VAM generated by coal mining.
Session: Coal & Energy: Alternative energy at mine sites
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