Application and Research of Swirling Curtain Dust Collection Technology in Mines

Abstract

During the production process in mines, large amounts of dusts are produced. The dusts pose a potential hazard to the health and safety of miners. Traditional dust removal methods, such as ventilation, water sprays and foam technology, cannot completely solve the problem of dust pollution, due to low efficiency or high consumption of water or large resistance (>2000 Pa). Therefore, a swirling curtain dust collector (SCDC) was proposed to collect the dust in mines. The device was combined swirling atomization with spray curtain for dust removal. The performance of SCDC was investigated. According to the results, the optimum working condition of the device was: air pressure: 0.35 MPa, water volume: 30 L/h; liquid–gas ratio: 0.15 L/m3; air speed: 14–16 m/s. Under these operation parameters, the suppression efficiency of total dust and respirable dust were over 99.8% and 97%. The proposed device was applied at transfer stations of Luohe Metal Mine in Anhui, China. The application results showed that the dust concentration at the outlet of SCDC in the transfer station is lower than 20 mg/m3, which is stipulated by Chinese standard GB 28661-2012. The proposed device is expected to replace the traditional Venturi wet scrubber in mines.