Prediction and innovative control strategies for oxygen and hazardous gases from diesel emission in underground mines

Diesel engine is widely used in underground mining machines due to its efficiency, ease of maintenance, reliability and durability. However, it possesses significant danger to the miners and mining operations as it releases hazardous gases (CO, NO, CO2) and fine particles which can be easily inhaled by the miners. Moreover, the diesel engine consumes significant amount of oxygen which can lead to insufficient oxygen supply for miners. It is therefore critical to maintain sufficient oxygen supply while keeping hazardous gas concentrations from diesel emission below the maximum allowable level. The objective of this study is to propose and to examine various innovative ventilation strategies to control oxygen and hazardous gas concentrations in underground mine to ensure safety, productivity and cost related to energy consumption. Airflow distribution, oxygen and hazardous gas dispersion as well as ambient temperature within the mining area are evaluated by utilizing the well-established computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach. The results suggest that our newly proposed ventilation design performs better as compared to the conventional design to handle hazardous gases from diesel emission.