Module 2: Underground Mine Environment

Week 4_1: 2.1 Mine Gases and Gas Laws

Guang Xu
Email: Guang.Xu@curtin.edu.au
Outline
Mine gases
Exposure to toxic gases
Flammable and explosive gases
Gas calculations
Gas laws
Gas monitoring

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Mine Gases

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Mine Gases Sources
Combustion processes
• Diesel equipment Nox, CO, SO2, Aldehydes
• Explosives: CO, CO2, NOx, NH3, SO2
• Oxidation of sulphide ores: SO2
• Mine fires: CO, and various cocktails depending on
burning material
• Reduce oxygen content

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Mine Gases Sources
Strata gases
• Metalliferous
• CH4, H2, Ethane
• Coal
• CH4, CO2, H2, H2S + Ethane
• Radon is strata contains uranium

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Mine Gases Sources
Other sources
• Battery charging
• H2, Cl2
• Workshops
• Oxy acetylene gases and welding fumes
• Refrigeration plants
• NH3

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Diesel Equipment
Components of diesel fuel
• Carbon
• Hydrogen
• Sulphur
Exhaust emissions
• CO, NOx, NO2
• Diesel particulate matter
• Caused by incomplete combustion
• Respirable
• Carcinogenic

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Diesel Equipment
General limits for diesel exhaust gases
• CO: 50 ppm
• NO: 25 ppm
• NO2: 3 ppm
• SO2: 2 ppm
• DPM: 0.2 mg/m3 ??????

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Diesel Equipment
Controls
• Adequate ventilation
• 0.06 m3/s per rated kW
• Exhaust conditioner
• Wet scrubbers, catalytic converters
• Low sulphur fuels
• Good diesel equipment maintenance
• Limiting number of units operating in one area

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Explosives
Gases produced by explosives
• CO
• Emission is significantly higher than NOx
• NOx
• 25%~35% are NO2
• NO
• Oxidises to NO2 in 2~5 hours
• Some NH3 and SO2

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Strata Gases
Coal mines
• CH4
• CO
• Coal oxidation can reduce O2 content
• Out burst
Metalliferous mines
• CH4
• If carbonaceous material is present in strata
• Hydrogen, hydrogen sulphide, carbon dioxide
• Radon

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Mine Fires
Variety of gases produced depending on
material being burnt
• Diesel fires
• SO2, NOx, H2S
• Coal fires
• CH4, H2, C2H4
• Electrical or PVC fires
• Hydrogen cyanide and hydrochloric acid
Main hazards arise from CO and poor visibility

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Exposure To Toxic Gases
CO

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Exposure To Toxic Gases
Threshold Limit Values
• Time Weighted Average (TWA)
• Short Term exposure Limit (STEL)
• Ceiling (C)

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Exposure To Toxic Gases
TLV-TWA
• Time Weighted Average
• The concentration to which most workers can be
repeatedly exposed for a normal 8 hours shift per day
(40 hours per week) without adverse effects.
• ∑
• :
• :

• Equivalent TWA:

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 Example
In a 12 hour shift, a worker spends 1 hour in areas
with negligible CO concentrations, 6 hours in areas
with 35 ppm CO and 5 hours with 25 ppm CO. Is this
acceptable if the TLV-TWA for CO is 30 ppm
• ∑
• :
0 1 35 6 25 5 335 ∙ • :

• Equivalent TWA:
1 6 5 12

335
41.9 30
8 8
Not acceptable!

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Exposure To Toxic Gases
TLV-STEL
• Short Term Exposure Limit
• The maximum concentration that workers can be
exposed to for a period of up to 15 minutes without
adverse effect
• No more than 4 exposures per shift with at least 60 min.
between exposures
• For example the TLV-STEL for CO is 3.0%

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Exposure To Toxic Gases
TLV-C
• Ceiling
• The maximum exposure concentration that should not
be exceeded at any time.
• For example, the TLV-C for NO2 is 5 ppm.

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Exposure To Toxic Gases
TLV for gas mixtures
•
• C: measured concentration
• TLV: Threshold limit value for that gas
• Example: The TLV-C for CO is 30 ppm, for N2O is 25 ppm,
and for NO2 is 5 ppm. In a mining area the gases
concentrations are: CO 15 ppm; N2O 8 ppm; NO2 1.5 ppm. Is
it permitted for miners to work in this area?

.
• 1.12 1.0
• Not permitted!

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 Flammable and Explosive Gases
Flammable gases
• CH4
• 1.25% power off
• 2.0 % withdrawal of workers
• H2, CO, H2S
Lower explosive limit (LEL) and Upper explosive limit
(UEL)
• The volumetric concentration in air required for the gas mixture
to be able to explode.
CH4 H2 CO H2S
LEL 5.0 4.0 12.5 4.3
UEL 14.0 74.2 74.2 45.5 20
Flammable and Explosive Gases
Source of Ignition
• Open flame
• Oxy cutting or welding
• Flame safety lamps
• Smoking materials
• Mine fire
• Spontaneous combustion of coal
• Hot surface
• Diesel engines
• Mechanical equipment
• A fault is required to reach gas ignition temp.

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Flammable and Explosive Gases
Source of Ignition
• Frictional sparks
• Cutting picks
• Grinding
• Electrical sparks
• Explosives
• Permitted explosives with lower ignition potential are
available for use in coal mines

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Flammable and Explosive Gases
• Electrical spark energies as low as 0.3 millijoules can
ignite methane.
• Coal mines have strict rules for the use of electrical
and diesel equipment.
• Incendive sparking is the most common source of
ignition in coal mines
• In metal mines, the risk is that non flame proof or non
intrinsically safe equipment may be used prior to risk
being identified.

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Flammable and Explosive Gases
Coward’s Triangle

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 Example
Characterise the explosive risk of the following methane concentrations in air.

Methane % Oxygen %
1 2 20
2 7 18
3 30 5
4 6 8

1. Not explosive unless more methane added_fuel lean

2. Explosive
3. Not explosive unless air added-fuel rich
4. Not explosive if air or methane added
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Gas Calculations
Concentration by volume (C)
• Percent
• Parts per million
• 1 ppm = 1 part of certain gas in 1 million part of total
gas (by volume)

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Gas Calculations
Volumetric flow rate(q)
• 1 m3/s = 1000 l/s
• Gas flow rate: Qgas = Qmix× Cgas

• Example: 35 m3/s air leaves the section of a mine

with gas concentrations of 1.2% CO2 and 9 ppm CO.
What is the flow rate of gas from the section?
• QCO2 = 35 × 1.2 /100 = 0.42 m3/s
• QCO = 35 × (9/1,000,000) = 0.000315 m3/s

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Gas Calculations
Mass flow rate
• Kg/s
• Qmass = Qvol. × ρ

• Example: The density of a gas A is 0.9 kg/m3 and is at

a concentration of 3% in an air flow rate of 40 m3/s.

Qvol. = 40 × 3% = 1.2 m3/s

Qmass = 1.2 × 0.9 = 1.08 kg/s

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Gas Calculation
Gas Make
• The rate at which gas is being produced in an area of the
mine
Qin, Cin Qout, Cout

• G=
• all in standard units
• G

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 Example
35 m3/s air enters the section of a mine with gas concentrations of CO2 =
0.09%. What is the gas make in the section if the return concentrations
are 1.2% CO2?

Qin, Cin Qout, Cout

35 m3/s, 0.09% G 35 m3/s+G, 1.2%

QinCin + G = (Qin + G)Cout solve G: /

. % . %
0.3932 / = 393.2 l/s
. %

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Example
A section of a mine produces 300 l/s CH4, how much air is
required to dilute the methane to 1.25% if it enters the panel
at 0.1 % CH4.
QinCin + G = (Qin + G)Cout; Solve Qin:
0.3 1 1.25%
25.8 /
1.25% 0.1%

Qin, Cin Qout, Cout

Qin, 0.1% G=300 l/s Qin+G, 1.2%

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Gas Calculations
Mixing of air streams
• For gas mixture:
• For one specific gas:
Q1, C1
• Example:
• If 35 m3/s air CO2 = 1.0% mixes with 10
m3/s of air CO2 = 0.2%, what is the Q2, C2 Q3, C3
concentration in the mixture?
• 35+10-Q1=0  Q1=45 m3/s
• 35×1%+10×0.2%-45×C1=0C1=0.822%

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Gas Laws
Idea Gas Law
• PV = nRT
• P: absolute pressure in pascals
• V: volume in m3
• n: number of moles
• n= mass / molecular weight
• R: universal gas constant = 8.3145 J/mol K
• T absolute temperature in Kelvin
• K = 273+°C
∙
• ρ
• m: mass
• M molecular weight

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Gas Laws
Density of a gas mixture
• If individual gas density is known:
• ∑
• If individual gas density is unknown, use molecular
mass of the gas mixture:
• ∑
∙
•

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Example
• Example: 40% CO2 mixes with 60% CH4 at STP.
What is the gas mixture density?(Mc=12, MO=16,
MH=1)

• MCO2=12+16×2=44, MCH4=12+4×1=16
• Mmix = 44×40% + 16×60% = 27.2 g = 0.027 kg
∙ .
• 1.21 /
.

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Example
Compressed air is being reticulated at a pressure of 700 kPa
(abs), 25°C and a rate of 1.5 kg/s.
If the density of air is 1.2 kg/m3 at 101.3 kPa and 20°C. What is
the volumetric flow rate in the pipe (m3/s)?

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Gas Monitoring
Gas indicator tubes

Source: http://shop.sensidyne.com/

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Gas Monitoring
Portable gas monitor

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Gas Monitoring
Tube bundle systems

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Gas Monitoring
Gas Chromatography (GC)

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Gas Monitoring
Sampling techniques
• SPME (Solid Phase Microextraction)

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 Gas Monitoring
SPME (Solid Phase Microextraction)
• Selective sampling
• Increase sensitivity
• Direct injection to GC
• Eliminate intermediate error

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