Publisher's Synopsis
Coal is a combustible, carbonaceous, sedimentary rock composed mostly of carbon and hydrocarbons. It is a fossil fuel used in processes such as the production of energy and iron, cement manufacturing, and other industrial processes. Based on the characteristics of carbon content, percentage of noncombustible minerals, moisture, and calorific power, the varieties of coal are classified into four different types or ranking levels of coal, each with differences in energy output as a result of increased pressurization, heat, and time. Underground mines need to be equipped to accurate, real-time, and intrinsically safe monitoring systems to be able to continuously assess the condition of a mine ventilation system. Underground mine workforce safety and workplace productivity rely significantly on the performance of mine ventilation and monitoring systems. Over the past century coal miner safety and health has seen tremendous improvements, the fatality and injury rates continue to decrease while productivity continues to increase. Many of the hazards that plagued miners in the past, such as coal bumps, methane and coal dust explosions, ground fall accidents and health issues have been significantly reduced. Improvement of productivity has become an important goal for today's coal industry in the race to increase price competitiveness. The challenge now lying ahead for the coal industry is to identify areas of waste, meet the market price and maintain a healthy profit. The only way to achieve this is to reduce production costs by improving productivity, efficiency and the effectiveness of the equipment. Comparative Underground Coal Mining Methods is intended to focus on cutting-edge research, recent innovations, and advanced technologies in mine ventilation and monitoring systems with respect to enhanced performance and reliability, health and safety improvements, energy and cost savings, and mine productivity. It also identifies the various factors and problems affecting the productivity of underground coal mines adopting the bord-and-pillar method of mining and to propose suitable measures for improving them. The various key factors affecting productivity, namely the cycle of operations, manpower deployment, machine efficiency, material handling and management of manpower are discussed.
