Coal proximate analyses correlation with airborne respirable dust

✍ Scribed by S.J. Page; J.A. Organiscak; J. Quattro

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 786 KB
• Volume: 72
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0016-2361
• DOI: 10.1016/0016-2361(93)90293-b

✦ Synopsis

Laboratory tests have been performed on ten coal channel samples from Eastern, Midwestern and Western United States coal provinces to investigate the relationship of coal proximate analysis characteristics with the quantity of airborne respirable dust (ARD) generated. In general, strong correlations were obtained with fixed carbon, inherent moisture and volatile content. In particular, the singular composite variable (fixed carbon/volatile)/moisture provided a significant negative exponential correlation with ARD. It is shown that this relationship is exponential and not an inverse function. The initial objective of the study was to examine the relationship between coal characteristics and ARD and the subsequent implications for underground coal mining dust control technology to protect the health of coal miners. However, it appears clear that these results may be useful for other purposes such as fundamental investigations of coal strength, environmental issues of fugitive dust from coal preparation and processing, and coal cleaning by pulverization to micrometre-sized particles.