Safety, coal mining problems

New coal supplies are still obtainable at a capital cost of 1.5 billion to 2.0 billion per Quad per year. However, the mining, processing, and combustion of coal is attended by serious environmental and safety problems that may ultimately limit its rate of consumption, or at least cause increases in the cost of supply. Moreover, coal does not possess the flexibility of application inherent to oil and gas. The industrial sector could undoubtedly substitute more coal for such purposes as the raising of process steam, but any major increase in our reliance upon coal will depend, for the most part, upon its greater use by electric utilities. 

At present, mine gas is the major risks affecting coal mine production safety in China, the safety problems caused by the gas accounted for over 80% of coal mine production safety accidents, and its casualties account for 90% of all serious accidents casualties (Li Jing 2007), Especially the gas explosion accidents, which have caused worst human and economic losses. From 2004 to 2009, various national coal mine accidents caused more than 10 people died approximately 225 cases, 5280 people deaths, of which including 147 gas accidents, 3,667 people deaths, accounting for 65.3% and 69.5% respectively. After restoration efforts, the industry in recent years, coal mine production safety situation in China is a little better. But the coal mine production safety situation is still grim, the total accidents is still too large, serious accidents have occurred from time to time. Based on the statistical data of the state production safety supervision and Management Bureau in 2010 and other statistical data, in 2010 China s coal mine gas accident occurred 135 cases, killed 593 people... 

Mine gas is one of the main safety problems in coal production, which does great harm to coal mine safety production and people s life and property. Since 1980s, people pay more and more attentions to the comprehensive utilization of mine gas. At present, the widely used technique is pumping coal seam gas by gas drainage pumps, and compress it by gas compressor, and then used in industrial and civil fuel, or power generation, etc. According to this way, not only improve the safety of coal mine production, but also relieve the strain on energy, protect the environment, which achieves to use for extraction, from extraction to promote safe virtuous circle development of coal mines. 

The coal industry is one of the most important parts to worldwide energy supply, especially to that of China. However, there are dways some safety problems to be solved urgently, such as coal gas explosion accidents. With the mining depth rapidly increasing, the gas explosion accidents severity grows at the same time (Heping Xie et al. 2012a Research. ..). These accidents do harm to coal production itself and miners, lives and health. What s more, this accident was one of the most severe accidents in which more than 100 employees were lost their lives. 

Almost all types of coal may ignite spontaneously in snitable environmental conditions. This leads to serions safety problems as well as economic losses for coal mines and storage areas. The determination of the liability of a coal type to spontaneous combustion is qnite important in dealing with the problem before, during, and after mining. 

The 2 billion tons of waste coal fines existing in impoundments and ponds is an environmental and safety problem for the coal mining and coal preparation community. Coal fines do not readily dewater, and will remain in suspension in water—the primary transport medium in the coal cleaning processes— for long times. If stocked out and dried, these fines become a fugitive dust emissions source. Morc likely, however, they will be handled by being placed behind the many dams in impoimdments... 

The safety problems are staggering. In each of the last two years (2003, 2004) around 6000 lives were lost in mining accidents in China, and this number is on track in 2005. In the U.S., if there is a single coal mining fatality, it is cause for national front page news. In China, an average of fifteen fatalities occurs every day ... 

Uses. In section 1, we showed that most of the LOX in the USA are used in the strip mining of coal. In Europe LOX were also extensively used in open pit mining, tunneling and construction. Indeed, in the first half of this century, LOX were used in most expls applications, although not extensively, where fumes were not a problem. O Neil Van Fleet (Ref 5a) consider LOX economical and safe (See Sect 4 on LOX safety). La Magna (Ref 9) prefers LOX to Dynamites. In the last decade... 

The increasing use of explosives in mining greatly increased coal output but numerous gas explosions occurred in mines where blackpowder was used. The development of nitroglycerine and more modern explosive compositions did not eliminate this hazard. As thejndustry developed and the demand for coal increased the safety of explosives used in mines become-so urgent and important a problem that in the nineteenth century many countries set up special commissions charged with its detailed analysis. 

Some of the problems, such as safety in coal mines, merit a special monographic treatment which should go far beyond the scope of this volume. Therefore safety in coal mines was tackled only from the point of view of the composition of coal mine explosives. 

Occupational illness and injury187 cost 30-40 billion dollars/yr in the United States.188 In 1994 there were 6.8 million injuries and illnesses in private industry, amounting to 8.4 cases per 100 workers. Nearly two-thirds were disorders associated with repeated trauma, such as carpal tunnel syndrome.189 The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 set up the National Institute Safety and Health (NIOSH) to study the problem and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to deal with it through inspections and regulations. Both have received so much criticism of their effectiveness that they are struggling to find more effective ways to deal with the problem.190 NIOSH is searching for practical ways to protect workers, especially those in small businesses from methylene chloride, tetrachloroethylene, diesel exhaust in coal mines, isocyanates, 2-methoxyethanol, and others. OSHA is about to expand a plan that worked well in Maine, a state that used to have one of the worst accident and illness records in the United States.191 The 200 firms with the worst records were asked to look for deficiencies and to correct them. They were also inspected. These measures cut injuries and illnesses over a 2-year period. 

Coupled coal-methane-water process has been an active research area in China for a long time due to its utmost importance to mine safety and productivity and the traditional importance of coal mining in Chinese energy industry. In this review only some of the recent works on mathematical modelling on methane migration and water burst problems are highlighted due to space limit. 

It is a well-established fact that the description of the interaction between coal/rock mass and gas in the gas leak flow system is difficult. Nonetheless, the problem of gas leak flow must be studied for the sake of coal mining safety and gas drainage in the multi-coal-seam. In this study the gas leak flow systems for coupled coal/rock mass deformation and gas seepage in double coal seams are studied with the principle of rock mechanics and coal gas seepage. 

Relief did not come. The mine owners had made a quiet, high-level agreement with the leadership of the UMWA acceptance of the union and major wage and benefit increases in return for automation of the mines and reduction in employment. The union hierarchy, led by the autocratic John L. Lewis, feared that any discord over the health and safety consequences of this deal would undermine their entire strategy so, while they gave lip service to the problem of coal dust, they carefully avoided taking any action. 

Chen Zhao 2012). Therefore, the coal mine gas disaster is one of the key factors to the coal industry production safety in china. Research shows that, in order to solve the gas disaster problem fundamentally, accurate prediction of mine gas emission is the key. ... 

Wang Zhao-feng.. Problems on drainage of in coal mine in China and its Countermeasure Discussion [J]. Safety in Coal Mines, 2005, 36(3) 29-44. 

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