International Journal of Mining Science and Technology 24 (2014) 13–16

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Journal of Mining Science and Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijmst

Application of foam technology for dust control in underground

coal mine
Ren Wanxing a,b,c,⇑, Wang Deming a,b,c, Guo Qing c, Zuo Bingzhao c
a
State Key Laboratory of Coal Resources and Safe Mining, China University of Mining & Technology, Xuzhou 221008, China
b
Key Laboratory of Gas and Fire Control for Coal Mines, China University of Mining & Technology, Ministry of Education, Xuzhou 221008, China
c
School of Safety Engineering, China University of Mining & Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In order to effectively control the dust in the underground coal mine, this study proposes and develops a
Received 23 May 2013 new technology for dust control by foam, and briefly demonstrates the advantage of the foam technology
Received in revised form 22 June 2013 for dust control, such as the good isolation performance, large contact area, high wetting ability, strong
Accepted 26 July 2013
adhesion and so on. Besides, the details of the technology are introduced, including the foam agent, foam
Available online 6 January 2014
generator, and foam production process. Then the paper studies the relationship between the foaming
agent concentration and liquid surface tension, and explains the principle of the foam generator. The
Keywords:
technology is applied in heading face. The application results show that the foam has a remarkable effect
Coal dust
Dust control
on dust control in underground coal mines.
Foaming agent Ó 2014 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of China University of Mining & Technology.
Foam generator

1. Introduction
Dust is one of the main disasters during the coal production
[1,2]. The miners chronically inbreathe the coal dust, especially
the respirable dust, which does serious harm to the miners’ health
and makes them become pneumoconiosis patients. With the pop-
ularization of the mechanized coal mining in recent years, the
amount of the coal dust increasingly grows in the underground
mine, which brings the potential dangers to the safety in mining
production. According to the statistics of Ministry of Health, there
had been more than 310 thousand coal miners who suffer from
pneumoconiosis by the end of 2007, reaching 50% of the whole
pneumoconiosis patients in China. Every year, more than 57
thousand miners suffer from the illness of pneumoconiosis, and
6000 miners died on average per year. The report of China State
Administration of Work Safety in Eleventh Five-Year Plan of Coal
Mine Safety also shows the direct economic loss that reaches 1 bil-
lion yuan because of pneumoconiosis in the coal industry every
year [3–7]. In addition, coal dust is the main dangerous source of
explosive disaster. Statistical data shows that 106 coal dust explo-
sions have taken place in China from 1949 to 2007, resulting in
4613 casualties [8].
⇑ Corresponding author at: State Key Laboratory of Coal Resources and Safe
Mining, China University of Mining & Technology, Xuzhou 221008, China. Tel.: +86
13775883564.
E-mail address: rwxcom@163.com (W. Ren).
To control the coal dust, a number of methods have been widely
used. The most popular technologies are ventilation, water spray,
water infusion, water/wetting agent spray and dust-collecting fan
[9–14]. These technologies had played an important role in dust
prevention, but they have limitations. For instance, the water infu-
sion requires complex equipments and a large amount of water.
When using water spray, the nozzle is easy to be blocked, and it
leads to the reduction of the ratio of dust precipitation. As for using
dust-collecting fan to fall dust, the equipment structure is compli-
cated and the volume is also large. What’s worse, the volume of
wind which can be dealt with is limited.
To overcome these limitations, the authors developed the foam
technology and equipment. Practical application shows that the
dust hazard of working face is efficiently controlled by the foam
technology, so there is great prospect of wide application of this
technology.
2. Features of foam technology for dust control
The foam used for dedusting is composed of air, water and
foaming agent. The surface tension of water reduced when foaming
agent was added. Then abundant small and homogeneous foam is
produced by the foam generator, and then sprayed in the air or on
the surface of dust sources. Compared with traditional technolo-
gies, the foam technology for dust control has the following
remarkable features.
When using water spray, regardless of the fineness of the
droplets, there always exist ‘‘empty spaces’’ between the water

2095-2686/$ - see front matter Ó 2014 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of China University of Mining & Technology.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmst.2013.12.003
14 W. Ren et al. / International Journal of Mining Science and Technology 24 (2014) 13–16
droplets. The respirable dust particles will easily ‘‘escape’’ through
these ‘‘empty paths’’. In addition, the foam can cover the dust
source without ‘‘empty space’’, which can prevent the dust from
spreading outside effectively. When the foam is formed, the whole
volume and area of foam film will become large rapidly. Compared
to water spray, high expansion foam will cover much more space
with the same amount of water. It can greatly increase the proba-
bility of the collision between foam and dust. The film of the foam
contains foaming agent, which can greatly reduce the surface ten-
sion of water. And the dust wettability is improved quickly. As a re-
sult, the dust will be wetted very efficiently. Moreover the
adhesiveness of foam is very strong. Once the foam and dust col-
lide, the dust will adhere to the foam quickly and firmly. Thereby,
it will catch the dust particles much more easily [15–19].
3. Key points of foam technology
The foam is composed of air, water and foaming agent. The key
points of the technology are to develop the foaming agent and
foam generator.
3.1. Foaming agent
In order to meet the demand of foaming and dust removing,
many kinds of surfactants are screened out. The multicomponent
experiments are carried out in laboratory, and a certain amount
of auxiliary agent was added. The mixed system named new foam-
ing agent was formed and has a good effect on reducing the surface
tension of water, and the dust was wetted easily. Meanwhile, the
foaming multiples will become larger obviously. Fig. 1 shows that:
with the change of the concentration of new foaming agent, the
surface tension of the liquid changes respectively. From these
curves, the most adoptable concentration of the foaming agent is
about 0.5%.
The efficiency of dust removing has direct relation with the dust
wetting performance of the foaming agent. In order to investigate
the wetting performance, rock dust, which weights 10 g and 150–
200 mesh, is selected in laboratory. The wettability of the foaming
agent for the dust is evaluated by water film flotation which is by
measuring the time of a certain amount of dust sinking into the
water or solution. The dust was sprayed on the surface of water
(or solution). The experimental procedures are as follows: first,
prepare 5 kinds of 200 mL solutions in 500 mL cylinder, and they
are clear water, solution A, solution B, solution C and solution of
new foaming agent. The concentration of every kind of solution ex-
cept clear water is 0.5%. Second, take 9 mL every kind of solution
with transfer pipette into 5 measuring cups. When the liquid level
in the measuring cups keeps stable, 0.2 g rock dust is weighted on
the electronic balance with an accuracy of 0.01 g, and then sprin-
kled them to the measuring cups. Then, the time is measured,
80
Surface tension (mN/m)
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
Additive concentration of foaming agent (%)
Fig. 1. Relationship between concentration of foaming agent and surface tension.
when the dust all is immersed in the clear water or solution. Last,
the above steps are repeated three times to take the average.
Fig. 2 displays the comparison of surface wettability among
clear water, the new foaming agent and the other three surfactants
for rock dust. As shown in Fig. 2, it is obvious that the new foaming
agent has the best surface wettability for rock dust under the same
conditions.
3.2. Foam generator
The foam for dust control is produced by the foam generator. So
the foam generator is one of the main components of the foam
technology for dust control.
The structure of foam generator usually used contains net and
filler form. But their working conditions are not suitable to coal
mine. Although there are reports about other types foam generator
at home and abroad, the foaming multiple is low, and cannot meet
the need of dust control [20–22].
In the design process of the foam generator the following four
factors should be taken into consideration: first, make the gas–li-
quid two-phase fluid form turbulent stream as far as possible; sec-
ond, make the liquid scatter increase the contact superficies with
the gas; third, increase stirring intensity of the gas–liquid properly
and let them collide with each other to form bubbles; fourth, make
sure that there are no internal moving units and keep the pipe
unobstructed.
According to the four key points mentioned above, new foam
generator was developed based on the theory of turbulent jet.
The principles of the foam generator are used to make full use of
the high pressure of water and compressed air in underground
mines, as well as the characteristics of high-speed and low-pres-
sure of venturi tube at its throat. The static pressure of water can
be transformed into velocity pressure when the foam solution
flows through the foam generator. Because of the entraining effect
of the jet, the compressed air was pulled in the jet core. In order to
increase the contact surface between gas and liquid, several air
holes and the disturber at the diffusion section of venturi tube
were set. Then the two-phase gas–liquid jet flow impacted the dis-
turber with high-speed, and the turbulence was formed behind the
jet disturber in foam generator, therefore the gas and liquid can be
mixed fully. Besides, some barrier boards were set behind the vor-
tex generator to raise the intensity of the gas–liquid mixture. Then
the flow run through the baffle area which was the posterior struc-
ture of the foam generator. It can make the air and liquid mix fur-
ther, and then stable and high-quality foams are formed.
3.3. Producing flow of foam
Fig. 3 shows the producing flow of the foam for dust control. First,
the water was pulled in the pipeline through pump or gravity from
the ground surface. The foaming agent was added proportionately
25
20
Wetting time (min)
15
10
5
0
2.5 Clear water B New agent A C
Fig. 2. Comparison of surface wettability of clear water, three surfactant and new
foaming agent for the rock dust.
 W. Ren et al. / International Journal of Mining Science and Technology 24 (2014) 13–16 15

Water Water pipe Foam generator Dust-control foam

Foaming agent Proportioner Pressed air

Fig. 3. Producing processes of foam for dust-control.

according to water flow in the pipeline by proportioner. Water con-

taining foaming agent flows into the foam generator, while the com- 90
Efficiency of water
pressed air is drawn into the foam generator, and then the foam is 80 spraying

Removal efficiency of
formed in the generator. 70
Efficiency of foam

total dust (%)

60 technology
50
4. Application 40
30
The Xin’an Coal Mine lies in Zhao Yang Lake district in the west 20
of Tengzhou, Shandong province, China. The recoverable reserves 10
are 35.6071 million tons. Xin’an Coal Mine is newly built, and it 0
can produce 5 million tons per year at present. It is a low gas mine,
and its mainly natural disaster is coal dust. The application of the Fig. 5. Comparison of removal efficiency between foam technology and water
foam technology was conducted at mechanized heading face spraying for total dust.
named 12211 underground Xin’an Coal Mine.
nozzles connect to the distributor. Finally, the foam was sprayed
4.1. Main technical parameters on the dust source to prevent the spread of coal dust by nozzles.

According to the technological process of controlling dust by

foam, the following are the main parameters of this project. 4.3. Analysis of applied result

(1) The quantity of water consumption is 1 m3/h; At the heading face, three measuring points were set near the
(2) The quantity of compressed air supply is 40 m3/h; fully-mechanized digging machine. The light scattering digital con-
(3) The production of the foam is 40 m3/h; imeter was used to measure the concentration of dust in air when
(4) The foaming multiple is 40; using the foam and spray technology. After measuring, the average
(5) The quantity of foaming agent supply is 5 kg/h.

80
4.2. Installation of equipment Efficiency of water spraying
70
Removal efficiency of
respirable dust (%)

Efficiency of foam
60 technology
Fig. 4 presents the installation of foaming dust control system in
50
underground. The water and air pipelines of the system were con-
40
nected to the branches of the main water and air pipe respectively.
30
The two branches were joined to the foam generator. And the pro-
20
portioner was installed in the water branch. The pipeline was high-
pressure hose whose diameter was 25 mm. The foam generator 10
was fixed on the surface of fully-mechanized digging machine. 0
The foam was produced in the generator and transported to the Fig. 6. Comparison of removal efficiency between foam technology and water
foam distributor by hose whose diameter was 42 mm. The foam spraying for respirable dust.

Control valve

Air
Foam distributor

Foaming agent

Water

Nozzle
Filter Proportioner
Foaming generaor

Fig. 4. Installed sketch map of foaming dust-control system.

16 W. Ren et al. / International Journal of Mining Science and Technology 24 (2014) 13–16
value was obtained and curves were drawn. Figs. 5 and 6 are the
contrastive histogram for the removal efficiency of total and respi-
rable coal dust after the application of foam and spray technology.
From Figs. 5 and 6, we can see that the removal efficiency of foam
technology for total dust is 2.11 times of that with water spraying,
while the removal efficiency of foam technology for respirable dust
is 1.72 times of that with water spraying. The application of foam
technology for dust control has a great effect on reducing the dust
concentration at the heading face. The dust control’s effect is obvi-
ous and it can ensure the miners’ health and the safety during min-
ing production.
5. Conclusions
This paper presents the key features, principles and application
of the foam technology for dust control. The main conclusions
reached in this study are as follows:
(1) The foam technology, which can control the dust efficiently
in the coal mines, has the following advantages: good cover-
age performance, large surface area, high wetting speed,
strong adhesion and so on.
(2) Key points of producing high-performance foam are to
develop foaming agent and foam generator. After the exper-
iment and application of the foaming agent and foam gener-
ator developed in this study, these characteristics are
obvious, such as high-efficiency of dust-control, simple
operation, good stability and reliability as well as broad
application prospect.
(3) The foam technology has been applied at the heading face in
underground coal mine successfully. From the results, we
can conclude that it has a great effect on reducing dust
and improving the working environment in coal mine
observably.
Acknowledgments
The financial support by the National Natural Science Founda-
tion of China (No. 51104153) and the Fundamental Research Funds
for the Central Universities (No. 2011QNB11) is deeply
appreciated.
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