Dust Control at a Belt Conveyor Transfer Point Using Water Sprays and a Wetting Agent

Details

• Personal Author:
  Beck, Timothy W. ; Klima SS ; Seaman CE
• Description:
  Coal conveying and transfer can release significant amounts of dust into the mining environment, causing a health and safety risk to mine workers. Efforts to control emissions during coal transport could reduce exposures to both airborne respirable dust and accumulations of combustible float dust. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) evaluated the ability of a water spray system at an underground belt-to-belt transfer point to reduce concentrations of airborne coal mine dust. Experiments conducted by NIOSH researchers compared the base condition of no water application to treatments with plain water and a plain water solution with a 0.2% wetting agent concentration. Airborne measurements showed that applying plain water reduced float dust levels by 32%. Plain water reduced the observed respirable dust concentrations by 28%. The addition of an anionic wetting agent reduced float dust levels around the transfer point by 49% and respirable dust by 46%. These results suggest that while plain water applications may alleviate some float dust liberation, the use of wetting agents can provide much more effective dust control during material transfer. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Air Pollutants, Occupational Dust Mining Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Airborne Dusts Belt Conveyors Coal Dust Coal Mines Coal Processing Dust Control Equipment Dust Suppression Mine Safety Respirable Dust Water Sprays
• Series:
  Mining Publications
• Publisher:
  Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Proceedings
• Place as Subject:
  Arizona ; Colorado ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 8 ; OSHA Region 9 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  PMRD - Pittsburgh Mining Research Division
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-7
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20059736
• Citation:
  MineXchange: 2020 SME Annual Conference & Expo, February 23-26, 2020, Phoenix, Arizona, preprint 20-110. Englewood, CO: Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration, 2020 Feb; :1-7
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2020
• NORA Priority Area:
  Mining
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  MineXchange: 2020 SME Annual Conference & Expo, February 23-26, 2020, Phoenix, Arizona, preprint 20-110
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:c091d22c4e83bfebc688bd4d57dc36dda3dad42199c7dbdd16c8bf482d2e0273873100aa5329d92da0af5617e1e42298ebd711a6fe025490dc33586e64e94952
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/215286/cdc_215286_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 548.59 KB ]