CO emission in the air return corner of the working face in shallow burial mining areas

Abstract

In shallow burial mining areas, abnormal CO emission and the spontaneous combustion of coal are great threats to safety production at a fully-mechanised working face. In order to prevent the CO concentration in the air return corner from exceeding the critical limit, the paper studied the CO emission regularity and characteristics through theoretical analysis, experimental research and field observation. The results show that the main sources of CO emission were the spontaneous combustion of coal in the goaf and the exhaust emissions coming from underground motorised vehicles. The effect factors of CO emission were also investigated, such as seasonal climate changes, the advancing distance and advancing speed of the working face, the number of underground motorised vehicles and some other factors. In addition to these basic analyses, the influence mechanism of each influence factor was also summarised theoretically. Finally, this study researched the distribution and change law of CO concentration in the fully-mechanised working face in two aspects: controlling the change of monitoring points and time respectively. The research results provide a theoretical basis for preventing the CO concentration from exceeding the critical limit in the air return corner and reducing the possibility of spontaneous combustion of coal. Additionally, the results also provide important theoretical and practical guidelines for protecting miners’ health in modern mines featuring high production and high efficiency all over the world.