SIUC INNOVATIVE SPRAY SYSTEM FOR CONTINUOUS MINERS AND DEVELOPMENT OF LONGWALL DUST CONTROL LABORATORY

Transcription

1 SIUC INNOVATIVE SPRAY SYSTEM FOR CONTINUOUS MINERS AND DEVELOPMENT OF LONGWALL DUST CONTROL LABORATORY SIU Research Team Dr. Y. P. Chugh, Dr. Kanchan Mondal, Harrold Gurley, John Pulliam, Mike Smith, Vijaya Kollipara, Ahmad Mdazmi ICCI Project Manager Joseph Hirschi

2 Acknowledgements Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity Office of Coal Development Illinois Clean Coal Institute Cooperating Mining Companies ICG/Arch Viper Mine Knight Hawk Coal Company Foresight Energy Peabody Energy Alliance Resource Partners

3 Foundations of Concept Improve wetting Wetter material = less fugitive dust Confine dust to the face area Don t let it escape Increase residence time Enable sprays and scrubber to do their job Concentrate dust in small volumes Improve scrubber efficiency Prevent dust roll-back Protect miner and haulage unit operators Minimize spray cone interaction Keep water droplets small COMPLIANCE Meet pending reduced dust standard

4 Dust Sources While Loading Return air Dust HU Oper Dust from tail Scrubber exhaust Roll back dust Dust Dust from cutter drum Dust Intake air Continuous miner operator Dust from cutting coal Dust from loading Roll back dust Haulage unit Continuous miner chassis Dust from loading pan

5 Concepts of SIUC Spray System Dust TLD sprays Dust Dust SLD sprays Dust Dust

6 Second and Third Line of Defense Sprays Second line of defense sprays Third line of defense sprays Conventional sprays

7 Spray Block Design Current blocks have multiple spray orientations with minimal spacing so that spray cones intersect near spray nozzles New blocks add SLD sprays while minimizing interaction between all sprays on the cutting head boom

8 Spray System Comparison Example Spray location Conventional spray system SIUC Innovative spray system Across top of cutter head Under cutter head 8 6 Outer bit rings 4 4 Side cutter boom 6 6 Side chassis 6 5 TLD 0 5 Conveyor throat 4 4 Total number of sprays Total water volume (GPM) Note: This type of comparison is mine-specific

9 Field Demonstration Data Collection Ventilation Last open crosscut (LOXC) intake air volume running and idle Air volume entering the line curtain (LC) at the corner in LOXC Air volume at end of LC near face running and idle Air volume leaking past LC in the LOXC LOXC return air volume running and idle Scrubber on and off times Production Number of haulage units (HU) loaded Conveyor on and conveyor off times HU haulage routes and staging locations Mining sequence box cut, slab cut, clean up, delays, line curtain extension, etc. Cut type straight, turn crosscut, etc. Cut geometry height, width, depth, out-of-seam dilution, etc. Dust samples Time-weighted average dust concentration using ELF Escort dust pumps Real-time dust concentration using Thermo Scientific PDr 1000an personal dust monitor MSHA P-7 quartz analysis on selected dust cassettes

10 Typical Dust Sampling Locations

11 Field Demonstration System Checks All water sprays are operating checked before each cut Water spray pressures checked 2 to 3 times per shift Scrubber screen cleaned before each cut Vacuum (in/h 2 0) at scrubber inlets checked twice per shift Scrubber volume (with pitot tube) checked once per shift Cutter head bits replaced damaged bits before each cut

12 Continuous Miner Configurations for Field Demonstrations CM-CON: Continuous miner with conventional sprays CM-NIS: Continuous miner equipped with innovative sprays, but innovative sprays not operating CM-IS: Continuous miner equipped with innovative sprays operating

13 Innovative Sprays at Mine A Room-and-pillar walk-between super section Mining height is about 7 ft. Typical out-of-seam dilution is 6-8 in.

14 Mine A Results Location Percent (%) Improvement CM-IS vs. CM-NIS Percent (%) Improvement CM-IS vs. CM-CON CMO HUO RTI RTO

15 Quartz Sampling Results at Mine A 4.8% reduction in quartz concentration during CM-IS sampling CM-IS inches out-of-seam dilution CM-NIS inches out-of-seam dilution CM-NIS made deeper cuts

16 Innovative Sprays at Mine B Room-and-pillar split ventilation super section Mining height is ft. Typical out-of-seam dilution is 6-8 in.

17 Results from Mine B Percent (%) reduction CM spray configuration Gravimetric data PDM TWA data CMO HUO RT CMO HUO RT CM-IS vs. CM-CON CM-IS vs. CM-NIS

18 Innovative Sprays at Mine C Gate entry development Mining height is ft. Typical out-of-seam dilution is 4-5 ft. Large pillar sizes 100 x 125 ft. Mine C uses wet-head continuous miners

19 Results from Mine C Gravimetric data WHM vs. WHM with Innovative Sprays Location Percent (%) reduction CMO 17.9 HUO 55.5 RT 3.1

20 Innovative Sprays at Mine D Room-and-pillar split ventilation super section Average mining height is 7 ft. Typical out-of-seam dilution is 8-10 in.

21 Results at Mine D Miner Percent (%) dust reduction CMO HUO RT CM-IS vs. CM CON CM-IS vs. CM-CON Percent (%) quartz Sampling locations CM-CON CM-IS Average for all locations RT HUO CMO

22 Intellectual Property Protection Provisional patent application filed July 2010 Final application filed July 2011 Patent should be issued this year Current innovative spray blocks were manufactured for experimental use and are marked SIU Patent Pending

23 Objectives of Longwall Dust Lab

24 CFD Modeling of Longwall Face Air velocity vectors at mid-height around shearer cutting towards the headgate 3-D model of longwall equipment used for CFD modeling

25 Construction of Shearer and Cutting Drum in Test Gallery

26 Shearer Nearing Completion Shearer with trailing drum down Shearer with lead drum raised

27 Shearer Cutting Drum Full-scale model of Joy 7LS shearer cutting drum Drum can rotate over a range of RPMs Cutting drum can be configured to use pick sprays (mounted behind cutting bits) and/or drum sprays (mounted in drum below cutting bits) Water sprays can be positioned anywhere on the shearer chassis, the panline, and on shields The test gallery will have the capability to operate under a range of air velocities and introduce variable amounts of coal dust and dust from roof and floor strata

28 Thank You! Questions??