An area of major concern in considering increased coal production and utilization is the health and safety of increased numbers of workers who mine, process, or utilize coal. Hazards related to mining activities in the past have been especially serious, resulting in many mine related accidental deaths, disabling injuries, and disability and death from chronic lung disease. Underground coal mine...

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas and the principal component of natural gas. Coal seams often contain significant quantities of methane, and underground coal mines must ensure that methane released into the mine during coal extraction does not build to dangerous levels. This is accomplished in part through the use of large-volume ventilation systems that remove methane from the mine and rel...

In advance longwall mining, the safety of mine network, production rate, and consequently, economic conditions of a mine are dependent on the stability conditions of gate roadways. The gate roadway stability is a function of two important factors: 1) characteristics of the excavation damaged zone (EDZ) above the gate roadway and 2) loading effect due to the caving zone (CZ) above the longwall w...

The safety issue of coal mining engineering is very important to coal industry. According to our coal mine enterprises' safe characteristics, this paper analyzed the risk factors of coal mining engineering and studied the safety problem of “humanmachine-environment” system. The risk factors of coal mining engineering are divided to natural geological factors, personnel factors, equipment factor...

Surface coal mining in Appalachia has caused extensive replacement of forest with non-forested land cover, much of which is unmanaged and unproductive. Although forested ecosystems are valued by society for both marketable products and ecosystem services, forests have not been restored on most Appalachian mined lands because traditional reclamation practices, encouraged by regulatory policies, ...

Propylene and acetylene are released to mine air with the increase in the temperature of self-heating coal. Concentrations of these gases in mine air are applied as indicators of the progress of the self-heating process. Hydrocarbons emitted from the self-ignition center are sorbed on coal, while migrating through the mine workings. Coal crushed during the mining process is characterized by a h...

Abandoned coal mine wastes can result in severe pollution and have aesthetic impact on the local environment. A range of reclamation techniques is available for substrate but only through the use of vegetation to stabilize coal mine wastes can complete long-term rehabilitation be achieved. Experimentation has been undertaken at coal mine sites to attempt to elucidate and overcome limitations to...

Rescue operation in coal mine is extremely dangerous due to several factors. It is particularly very harmful for the rescuers to get into the coal mine tunnel in disaster without the prior knowledge of environment because the subsequent explosions may likely to occur at any time it is therefore essential to detect the explosive environment details such as toxic gases, high temperatures and also...