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Energy Markets’ Risks
Published in Anco S. Blazev, Global Energy Market Trends, 2021
Mining and burning coal in coal-fired power plants release a number of toxic pollutants, some of which rise in the air, and remain behind as liquid or solid waste materials and chemicals. These pollutants are responsible for a large number of illnesses and premature deaths, both to people directly involved in the industry, people who live nearby, and people worldwide. Coal dust in mines and near storage and transport facilities contributes to serious respiratory illnesses such as asthma and Pneumoconiosis (black lung). Solid combustion wastes such as fly ash pollute groundwater near storage facilities, contaminating individual and community water supplies.
Applied Chemistry and Physics
Published in Robert A. Burke, Applied Chemistry and Physics, 2020
There are other materials that may become flammable solids because of their physical state. These materials are considered flammable dusts, which are very finely, divided particles of some other ordinary Class A combustible materials. Some of these materials may include such ordinary materials as sawdust, grain dusts, flour and coal dust. These materials may not be considered hazardous materials by the DOT. They may sometimes be shipped in dry bulk transportation containers. The combustible dusts become a problem when they are suspended in air in an indoor environment, such as a grain elevator or flourmill, and an ignition source is present and an explosion occurs. These materials may also be suspended in air in a transportation accident and in the presence of an ignition source could create an explosion. Even though combustible dusts are not considered in any of the DOT hazard classes, they present a significant fire and explosion hazard under certain conditions and responders should be aware of this hazard.
Basics of Mine Safety Engineering
Published in Debi Prasad Tripathy, Mine Safety Science and Engineering, 2019
The concentration of gases may also lead to either methane or coal dust explosion. The source of the explosion in mines can be from many sources like sparks from different machinery, frictional heat, live electrical wires, and cutting and welding. Water sprinkling in coal mines can help to keep dust levels down: by spraying the machine with water and filtering the dust-laden water with a scrubber fan, miners can successfully trap the dust. Gases in mines can poison the miners or displace the oxygen in the mine, causing asphyxiation. Continuous gas-monitoring systems (telemonitoring system) must be installed in large coal mines to get round-the-clock information on gas, temperature, etc., so that timely prevention/control measures can be implemented to minimize the risk of gas explosion in mines. Further effective measures should be taken against coal dust generation, and the suppression of coal dust and the sources of ignition must be controlled/contained to minimize risk of coal dust explosion.
Investigation on pH influence for the effective transportation of coal water slurry using experimental design
Published in International Journal of Coal Preparation and Utilization, 2022
Purushottam Karthik J, Raguraman C. M., Tara Sasanka C
Coal is an important fossil fuel for generating energy in thermal power plants. From survey reports of various countries, in India, more than 50% of thermal power plants’ coal is used (Lee et al. 1996). Despite its economic importance, there are serious environmental concerns about coal dust at mine sites and coal industries, as well as environmental pollution caused by coal fine particles. In most cases, the dust comes out in the particulate form of coal and mixes with the air as fuel gas, resulting in air pollution. These facilities’ emissions contribute to local pollution issues such as acid rain, rising ground levels, ozone levels, and smog (Tsui and Wu 2003). In an integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC), coal water slurry is replaced with coal. It refers to the coal slurry’s uniformity. Coal water slurry is a solid-liquid mixture prepared by physical processing that contains coal particles in a water dispersion system. Therefore, for uniform suspension of coal particles in water, external force is required for the coal particles to suspend uniformly in water to exchange characteristics between coal and water, which comes under solid-liquid phases (Karthik, Sasanka, and Raghuraman 2020). The agitation process refers to the mixing of solid-liquid phases in order to improve the mixing process for CWS. For mechanically mixed agitated vessels, such as stirred tanks, the vessel should be heated up using an external jacket or by using coils that are arranged in the vessel. Heat transport, fluid temperature, stirrer speed, and apparent viscosity all have an impact on element temperature change (Debab et al. 2011).
Using categorical data analyses in determination of dust-related occupational diseases in mining
Published in International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics, 2021
Mustafa Onder, Burcu Demir Iroz, Seyhan Onder
Inhaled coal dust can deposit in the lungs and can lead to the development of several diseases in exposed workers. CWP, a disease defined in terms of coal dust deposition in the lungs, is observed to be highly common in coal miners and is caused by inhalation and retention of coal mine dust [8,9]. A number of studies showed that up to 30 g of total dust may be found in the lungs of coal mine workers, with an accumulation rate of 0.4–1.7 g of dust retained each year [10]. The concentration of respirable coal dust, the period of exposure and the free silica content are important factors associated with pneumoconiosis risks [11]. Diagnosis of CWP is generally based on chest X-ray findings and a history of working in coal mines (usually for 10 years or more) [12]. The incidence of CWP is affected by coal rank. CWP is five times more prevalent in anthracite miners than for miners of lower rank coal. Data indicate a direct relationship between the mass of respirable coal mine dust inhaled and the incidence and severity of CWP [13]. Different categories of workers are exposed to different dust levels depending on many factors like the type of work, activity, period of exposure, etc. [14]. Coal mine workers have high exposure to respirable dust and quartz, especially the development team that creates mining paths for the miners to extract the coal [15].
Combined effect of coal dust exposure and smoking on the prevalence of respiratory impairment among coal miners of West Bengal, India
Published in Archives of Environmental & Occupational Health, 2019
Shilpi Kumari Prasad, Siddhartha Singh, Ananya Bose, Bimlesh Prasad, Oly Banerjee, Ankita Bhattacharjee, Bithin Kumar Maji, Amalendu Samanta, Sandip Mukherjee
Smoking of cigarette has deleterious effects on pulmonary function but it can be restrained by the withdrawal of smoking addiction.23 It has been reported that the cumulative exposure to mining dust coupled with cigarette smoking deteriorates the pulmonary function.24 In this study, 65% abnormality in lung function was found in the exposed workers associated with smoking but only 38.6% was found in nonexposed smokers group. On the other hand, in exposed group without smoking addiction 32.67% abnormality was found in lung function but in nonexposed nonsmokers group the abnormality was only 9.59%. So, this is very clear from this result that inhalation of coal dust associated with cigarette smoking tremendously hamper lung function because exposure of coal dust for a long time can cause the appearance of lung nodules and interstitial fibrosis, thereby disturbing the normal exchange of air and the function of lung ventilation.25,26 Similar result was found in the study by Qian et al., 2016 who reported that there was a significant difference in the lung function indices between smoker and nonsmoker group of coal dust exposed workers.12