China's coal mine dust treatment technology has made a major breakthrough

Pneumoconiosis is one of the most serious occupational diseases in China, especially in the mining industry. Since the statistical data, the cumulative reported cases of coal workers' pneumoconiosis accounted for nearly half of the total occupational pneumoconiosis. In recent decades, the annual new cases of coal workers' pneumoconiosis are more than 60%, and even as high as 80% in recent years, the resulting death toll far exceeds the death toll of coal mine production accidents.

"Dust has become the number one 'culprit' that endangers China's coal mine safety production and occupational health, and it is urgent to research and develop key technologies and equipment, as well as update policy standards." Yuan Liang, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and president of Anhui University of Science and Technology, recently pointed out in an interview with reporters.

On November 12, the identification meeting of major scientific research projects of "Basic Research on Air Purification and occupational Health in Coal mines in Northern Shaanxi Province and Key technical equipment and Demonstration" was held simultaneously in Shenmu, Shaanxi Province, Huainan, Anhui Province, Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, Wuhan, Hubei Province and Beijing. The project takes Shaanxi Coal Group Shenmu Hongliulin Mining Co., LTD. (hereinafter referred to as "Hongliulin Mining Company") as the research object. After two years of research and development, a series of industry initiatives have been achieved in the research and development and application of key technologies and equipment such as air quality monitoring, dust removal, dust control, exhaust gas purification, and personal protection. The safety, economic, environmental and social benefits are significant after field verification. After evaluation, the expert group unanimously agreed that the research results of the project series have reached the international leading level.

■■ Dust restricts the sustainable development of coal mines

Statistics show that by the end of 2021, China has reported a total of 1,025 million cases of occupational diseases, of which occupational pneumoconiosis is as high as 915,000 cases, and nearly half of occupational pneumoconiosis is coal workers' pneumoconiosis, which is not only irreversible, but is developing towards a younger age. In 2020, there will be 6,668 deaths due to pneumoconiosis in China, of which coal workers' pneumoconiosis may reach about 60%. It can be said that after gas, dust has become the number one constraint on the current safe production and sustainable development of coal mines.

"Dust is produced to varying degrees in the main production links of coal mining, excavation, transportation and hoisting, among which the dust produced by the mining face accounts for more than 85% of the whole mine." Yuan Liang told reporters that especially in the modern large mining operation environment, the local space PM2.5 concentration exceeds 260 times the maximum limit of PM2.5 in the ground air.

High concentration dust in coal mines will not only cause lung function decline, pneumoconiosis and COPD and other occupational diseases, but also affect the efficiency of coal mining work, and even cause coal dust explosion, coal dust and gas explosion and other safety accidents.

"In the coal industry, dust control and occupational disease prevention, prevention is the key. In the past, we have adopted various solutions to dust control, but none has fundamentally solved the problem of mine air pollution." Hongliulin mining company chairman Zhang Hong told reporters frankly.

In Yuan Liang's view, the current coal mine dust control and pneumoconiosis prevention and control work is still in the initial and medium-low speed development stage, facing many challenges such as insufficient cross-integration of science and technology and medicine, weak basic research, low level of occupational health security, lack of key technology and equipment, insufficient supervision and service capacity, and urgent updating of policy standards.

"The prevention and control of coal mine dust from the source is actually a major interdisciplinary problem, so the task of scientific research and innovation is arduous, and the training of high-end talents needs to be broken through, and multi-subject collaboration has become an inevitable requirement to promote the construction of coal mine dust prevention and control system and high-quality coal development." Mr Yuan said.

■■ Series of innovative achievements to fill the gaps in the industry

Based on the above understanding, in 2020, under the leadership of Yuan Liang and Zhang Hong, Hongliulin Mining Company and Anhui University of Science and Technology jointly set up 9 industry authority institutions, a total of more than 150 people to participate in the R & D team, the first time in the industry to adopt the industry-university-research, science and technology medical integration collaborative innovation model, with Hongliulin Mining as the research object. Basic research and key technical research on occupational hazards and health protection in coal mines have been systematically carried out.