Review on Dust Control Technologies in Coal Mines of China

Abstract

China faces a challenge in the sustainable development of the coal industry due to pneumoconiosis problems. Dust control technologies are crucial for safe production and miners’ health, ensuring the industry’s longevity. This article reviews the development process of dust prevention and control in underground coal mines in China, summarizes various technologies, and divides them into dust suppression, open-space dust reduction, and mine dust collectors according to different stages and environments of use. In dust suppression technologies, coal-seam water injection can reduce total dust generation by 60%, wet rock drilling can reduce drilling dust in the presence of stable water sources and high-pressure bearing equipment, and water-seal blasting can reduce blasting dust by 50–70%. In open-space dust reduction technologies, spray dust suppression can remove total dust by 50–95% and the removal efficiencies of foam dedusting for total and respirable dust are reported to reach 95% and 85% under the right conditions, respectively. In dust collector technologies, dry collectors can remove 80–95% of total dust. Wet collectors achieve up to 90% efficiency, dependent on water supply and waste processing. This article also discusses vapor heterogeneous condensation technology as a promising method for improving respirable dust removal in humid mine environments.