Prediction and analysis of the contribution of PM10 from coal piles in an open pit mining

RESUMEN: Se determinaron las contribuciones de PM10 en al medio ambiente en una zona industrial minera en el norte de Colombia por actividades implicadas en el almacenamiento de 3.2 Mton carbón. Se utilizó como principal herramienta el software CALPUFF para determinar el aporte de PM10 durante 10 días de modelado durante un mes. Se midieron las concentraciones ambientales de PM10 en 5 receptores. Aunque las mayores emisiones se producen en horas diurnas, caracterizada por altos valores en la velocidad del viento y mayor insolación, la mayor receptividad de PM10 en las estaciones de mediciones se produce en horas nocturnas por la disminución de la altura de mezcla. Los resultados de la modelación muestran que las actividades implicadas en el almacenamiento de carbón pueden aportar un 14.5% de las concentraciones ambientales diarias en receptores ubicados a 16.2 km viento abajo de la fuente.ABSTRACT: The contributions of PM10 to the environment were determined in a mining industrial zone in northern Colombia for activities involved in storing 3.2 Mton of coal. As the main modeling tool the software CALPUFF was used to determine the contribution of PM10 for 10 days modeling during a month period. Ambient concentrations of PM10 in five receivers were measured. Although higher emissions occur during daytime, characterized by high values of wind speed and higher solar radiation, the greater receptivity of PM10 measurements stations occurred during night hours due to the decreasing the mixing height. The modeling results show that the activities involved in carbon storage can provide 14.5% of daily ambient concentrations at receptors located 16.2 km downwind from the source

Modelling the Dispersion of Dust Generated From Open Pit Mining

Dust particles are a source of air pollution generated by mining activities. It has a property to remain suspended in air for a long tenure on account of their small size. Moreover, particulates with size less than 10 microns have the potential of creating respiratory and chronic health problems. Mining industries generate large amount of dust particles on day to day basis. The high concentration of dust can be very harmful to people involve in mining operation as well as the population living around. Here dust modeling becomes an important as the concentration of dust in and around the mine area can be identified. This will ensure the safety of people by marking the areas of high dust concentrations. A dust generated from a hypothetical mine has been modeled in this project with seven emission sources. AERMOD air dispersion modeling package was used for this purpose and 24-hr average concentration plots were generated. These plots were further analyzed to identify the potential areas with high dust concentration

Modeling the Dispersion of Dust Generated From Open Pit Mining Activities

Mining industry is a major source of fugitive dust mostly due to activities which involve handling of large volume of fragmented earth by the HEMMs. The repairable fraction of this dust (size less than 10 microns) is a health hazard, as they have the potential of causing chronic health disorders. Due to this high concentration of repairable dust generated from mining activities, the population directly involved in mining as well as the living in close proximity suffers from a wide variety of respiratory disorders. If the dust concentration at different location in and around the mining area can be measured then the places with the potential of high concentration build-up can be identified and appropriate protective measures can be taken. This project is a step in that direction. In this project, the concentrations PM10 particles generated from a hypothetical opencast mine having seven dust generation sources has been modeled within an area having a radius of 10 kilometers. The 24-h average concentrations of the PM10 particles within the area has been modeled using the AERMOD modeling package and the corresponding concentration plots of the area is plotted. Further analysis of the plots has been done to find the point having maximum concentration of dus

Assessment and Characterization of Airborne Dust in Coal Surface Mine

Now a day’s dust pollution is the major environmental issue inside an opencast mine, which has various effects on human life. There are a number of fugitive sources, and activities which cause dust pollution inside an opencast mine eg. Drilling, transportation, blasting, crushing, conveying, overburden face, haul road etc. Among these dust, there are some toxic and carcinogenic dust which are when exposed to the workers that lead to different serious health effects like silicosis and lungs cancer. So measurement of these dust concentration is necessary to know the impact of various mining activity on the surrounding environment. From the above view, this current project mainly focuses on the dust sampling by using high volume dust sampler i.e. Envirotech APM 460 NL and Envirotech APM 550, measuring the personal dust exposure of different workmen at different mining sites by using Personal Dust Sampler (Model Arelco Ineris CIP 10), and characterization of the dust collected from the filter paper by using FTIR (Fourier Transform Infra-Red spectroscopy). For this purpose Lajkura Opencast Project was chosen which produces 30 MT of coal per year for convenience, because as it is a large opencast mine so better knowledge can be gained from this mine regarding the concentration and effects of the dust. The dust sampling and monitoring was conducted during the month of March 2016 to get a good assess of dust. From the measurement through Envirotech APM 460NL the dust concentration was found out to be 1074µg/m3 and 984 µg/m3, and through Envirotech APM 550 dust concentration is found out to be 196 µg/m3. Personal dust exposure is also measured and the measured concentration was found to vary between 0.8mg/m3 to 1.3 mg/m3. From the characterization of the dust sample the compound that we found are Silica, Sulfates, Sulfoxide, and Carboxylates etc

Ambient air quality assessment in opencast metal mines

The term ‘mining’ is more or less synonymous to environmental pollution. The growing emphasis on open cast mining operation in recent years to achieve ever increasing production targets has further aggravated the problem of air pollution. Great amount of respirable dust concentration are added into the environment by the mining activities due to mechanization, escalating production, large scale blasting etc. Major sources of air pollution in open cast mines are drilling, blasting, overburden loading and unloading, material handling and workshops. The National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) are the basis for India’s Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to regulate air pollutants including particulate matter and five other criteria pollutants. PM2.5 and PM10 particles are currently accepted indicators for respirable pollutants. Several methods normally exist to measure the amount the dust

Assessment of Air and Water Quality in Opencast Mines

Mining Industry is one of the most important and revenue-generating industries of our country. It’s pivotal for the industry to thrive and grow to ensure that the manufacturing sector also develops at the required pace. But the detrimental effects of mining are far more dangerous than we can perceive and must be kept under check to reduce the polluting consequences on environment. Mining of any ore leads to befoulment of water bodies and also air contamination. The sources of air pollution in open cast mines are drilling and blasting of ore bodies, loading and haulage of blasted ore, handling of material and maintenance. The standards for air pollution have been set by National Ambient Air Quality Standards(NAAQS) and it’s based on criteria like PM2.5, PM10, SPM etc. PM2.5 and PM10 are the standards acceptable for respirable dust and pollutants. The water that runs off the mines can have detrimental effect on the water bodies that are in and around the mining areas. The seepage from ore bodies, mining waste rocks and treatment of effluents pose a great threat to the water bodies and the aquatic life associated with them. This project will assess the various parameters of water that decide the pollution level of the water body and will also focus on the dependency of ore type on the pollution level of the water bodies

Assessing the Effectiveness of Eco-friendly Dust Suppressants Used to Abate Dust Emission from Mine Haul Roads

This thesis consists of two parts, literature review and experimental investigation. The first part is a literature review of eco-friendly dust suppressant. Firstly, this part gives an introduction of haul road dust. Secondly, the mechanisms and influencing factors of dust generation are investigated. Lastly, several representative dust suppressants and evaluation methods are presented and discussed. The second part is a laboratory-based study of xanthan gum and lignosulfonate in haul road dust control

Modeling of dust emission in dimension stone quarry

Dust dispersion is a subject that has a large amount of research activity. Most of these researches are focusing on the regions outside the mine or quarry. The dust dispersion model in this research is constructed for industrial purposes, specific for the dust drilling source with closely located receptor points in the quarry. The report has a focus on mining operations in a dimension stone quarry. This research consists of a literature study about dust behavior, an introduction to the dust dispersion models, regulations and air quality. The research goes more detailed into the mathematical concept of the Gaussian model for the dispersion modeling. Which is widely applied in dust dispersion models, for example AERMOD Breeze and ADMS. The research about the modeling the dust concentrations in a certain quarry. The quarry Taivassalo is located in the South-West of Finland. The main dust source is from a drilling machine. The observed data from the receptor points are used to compare the modelled results with the measured concentrations and to evaluate the performance of the chosen modeling program. The receptor points were located in the quarry with a distance of 5 m to 60 m from the main dust source. The research is to indicate the hourly average concentration of PM10 (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 10 microns). The different case studies are chosen to provide scenarios with site specific emission rates. The impact of the different case studies is calculated at the receptor points in the quarry. The behavior of the predicted data is analyzed by performance modeling, sensitivity analyses and validation curves. This is done to assess the accuracy of the model with the observed data. The drilling emission factor was considered to investigate the observed and predicted PM10 concentration. The results showed that the case studies overpredicted the PM10 concentration for all the receptor points. A lower emission factor of the drilling source in the sensitivity analyses gives a better fit compared to the observed data. The sensitivity analyses and decay curve show a stabilization of dust concentration from receptor point of 20 meter onwards

Dust Monitoring, Characterization and Prediction in an Opencast Coal Mining Project

Dust pollution is the most important environmental issue associated with any opencast mining activity. Drilling, blasting, loading, transportation, crushing, conveying, haul road and the exposed overburden face generate large quantities of fugitive dust. Silica is a potential carcinogen and its exposure to the workers may be detrimental to their health which may result in progress of silicosis and lung cancer. Prediction of dust concentration in and around the mine is essential to have an impact assessment of the mining activity over the surrounding environment. In the view of this, current project work focuses on the real time monitoring of dust level at different sources of the mine using DustTrak II, personal exposure of dust to different workers using personal dust sampler, characterization of dust collected from different locations using FT-IR and finally prediction of dust concentration at different locations of the mine and nearby areas using AERMOD view software. Lakhanpur opencast project, the largest opencast mine of MCL in the Ib valley area producing more than 15MT of coal per annum, was chosen for study to have a better knowledge about the impact assessment due to dust from large opencast mines. The monitoring was conducted during December 2013 to assess scenario of dust pollution. The dust concentration was found to vary between 0.474mg/m3 to 150.0mg/m3 in PM10. Drilling and Surface Miner operations were found to be the major sources of dust generation. The dust exposure of worker was found to vary between 4.55mg/m3 to 29.41mg/m3. Minimum quartz content was found at coal transport road at 0.23% and maximum quartz content was found at wet haul road of LOCP at 0.49%. The predicted value of dust concentration (PM10) at most of the places was found to be below NAAQS-2009 limit for annual average of 60µg/m3