Abstract
A variety of dust control methods are often applied in coal mines, among which the application of wet scrubbers has proven to be an efficient technology for the removal of dust in airstreams, rather than diluting or confining the dust. In this paper, a wet scrubber design was developed. Based on a self-designed experimental test platform, the total dust concentration, respirable dust concentration, air volume, and average pressure drops of wet scrubbers with 12, 16, 20, and 24 blades were measured under different water intake conditions. The results show that the different water intake levels have only minimal effects on the air volume of the wet scrubbers. However, increased water intake had improved the dust removal efficiency of the wet scrubbers with the same number of blades. The wet scrubber with 16 blades was found to have the best dust removal efficiency at a water intake level of 1.35 m3/h. Its total dust and respirable dust removal efficiency reached 96.81% and 95.59%, respectively. The air volume was 200.4 m3/min, and the average pressure drop was determined to be 169.4 Pa. In addition, when the wet scrubber with 16 blades was applied in a coal preparation plant in China’s Shanxi Province, it was observed that the total dust concentration had fallen below 8.1 mg/m3, and the respirable dust concentration had fallen below 5.9 mg/m3. Therefore, the results obtained in this research investigation provide important references for the use of wet scrubbers to improve coal production environmental conditions.
Highlights
In recent years, with the gradual improvements of mechanization and automation of the coal mine production in China, the dust-caused potential safety hazard and occupational health problems have become even more serious (Xu et al 2017; Reed et al 2019; Yao et al 2020)
A variety of dust control methods are often applied in coal mines, among which the application of wet scrubbers has proven to be an efficient technology for the removal of dust in airstreams, rather than diluting or confining the dust
The results show that the different water intake levels have only minimal effects on the air volume of the wet scrubbers
Summary
With the gradual improvements of mechanization and automation of the coal mine production in China, the dust-caused potential safety hazard and occupational health problems have become even more serious (Xu et al 2017; Reed et al 2019; Yao et al 2020). It was considered in this study that introducing improvements to the dust-removal performances of wet scrubbers in order to more effectively reduce dust concentrations during the production processes in the coal mines would be beneficial for protecting the occupational health of the miners and ensuring safe production activities. There have been few studies conducted regarding the simultaneous adjustments of the water intake levels and the number of wet scrubber blades, which could potentially improve the dust removal performances of the wet scrubbers. This study considered it to be of major significance to improve the dust-removal performances of the currently applied wet scrubbers in order to reduce coal dust concentrations and protect the health of coal miners. A wet scrubber was developed, and the dust-removal performances of various wet scrubber were optimized based on a self-designed experimental platform. This study successfully provided new ideas for improving the dustremoval performances of wet scrubbers in coal mines
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